Last week I wrote of the concept of national collaborative practice teams. While it is clear to me that the lawyers representing the clients should be in the state of the divorce, I still believe that both the facilitator and the financial neutral can serve outside their state of licensing.

Obviously, the decision to serve on a national team must be made by each practitioner. As a result of my blog, we heard from AJ Skogerson and Katie Zuverink who work together across state lines. Katie joined us on our Happy Hour call on Friday. AJ recruited Katie to serve as the facilitator on an Iowa case because of the lack of facilitators in Iowa. Katie subscribes to the same belief that we heard from Woody Mosten and that I suggested last week. 

When serving as a facilitator you are utilizing your learned skills and applying them to an out of court dispute resolution process. You are not diagnosing or providing counseling. You utilize your skills to help the clients focus on the goals at hand. As part of your role in the Collaborative Process you make sure that you don’t serve in a dual role, avoiding any activities for which you are licensed. Much the same as the financial neutral using their accounting skills to help the clients understand what they need to achieve their goals. 

We had a very spirited discussion on our Happy Hour call. Many of our mental health professionals were skeptical. I would love to hear from more of our mental health professionals on this concept.

If you are part of a national team we really want to hear from you. Send me an email response or join us on our virtual Happy Hour every Friday afternoon at 4:30pm EST.