For many professionals reading these blogs, the amount of schooling that was needed to obtain the credentials and certifications you practice with took more than the traditional four-years of college level education. For many of you there were years of focused study and intense learning. To be a trained Collaborative Professional, you must complete at least 16-hours of an Introductory Interdisciplinary Collaborative Training. For many of our readers, it took years of formal education to even be able to legally provide the current services you are providing, but only 2-days to become a Collaborative Professional. Is that truly enough time and education?
Last week we had the great fortune of having Woody Mosten join us for our Collaborative Introductory Learning Program. For those who may not know Woody, he is one of the most respected peacemakers in our community and has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to share with peacemakers across the world. One of the key themes that Woody had to share was that no matter the years of experience you may have providing dispute resolution services, becoming a Collaboratively trained peacemaker is nearly impossible.
To be a true peacemaker in your community, you must be committed to providing your services in a peaceful manner. Continuing your education and learning new process and skills on how to provide your services in a peaceful manner must extend past the rather short Introductory Interdisciplinary Collaborative Training. Getting trained is rather easy and just the beginning. Getting committed and growing your confidence to provide a more peaceful approach to the services you offer is the hard part that takes time.
This is what My Collaborative Team is here for. We help our members stay committed to being the best peacemakers possible. We provide outlets for members to continue their educational journey down the peacemaking path. If you are looking for someone or something to get or keep you motivated to becoming the peacemaker your community deserves, consider joining My Collaborative Team. For more information on My Collaborative Team visit our website www.mycollaborativeteam.com or email us info@mycollaborativeteam.com
Ed, I whole-heartedly agree with what you have written here!
The mantra of my community’s original trainers and with whom I became a trainer after taking two additional introductory trainings and their two Train the Trainer programs to become a trainer was “Train, train, train!” I am glad I trusted them! Since 2003, I have continued to learn at the IACP Forums, our California statewide annual conferences, and with myriad other trainers like Woody Mosten, Joryn Jenkins, Jacinta Gallant, and many MCT members, to name a few. When I train professionals wanting to become collaborative professionals, I joke that I easily have enough training hours to have another doctoral degree in the collaborative divorce process, if such a degree existed. 🙂