The main intention in this edition of the SCm home page is to prepare the investigation of the following issue: 

Can participants in a four day course accomplish what the participants of a 4 week course did -- if they prepare the course by e-mail correspondence with the lecturer and read about the previous courses on the present home page?

The main pedagogical principle is to follow Dewey's old doctrine of "learning by doing" based on the students' own experiences and parsimoniously given guidelines of the lecturer.

The seven pedagogical phases:

1. Building upon  the students' own ideas
All courses in therapeutic mediation using the Shared Concern method (SCm) start by asking the students to write an essay outlining their own ideas about mediation. That means that we from the beginning are preparing for their own mediation practice by building  a synthesis of their past experience, their good intentions and the know-how provided in  the course.

This opening is popular amongst students because it gives them the opportunity to make an altruistic contribution instead of just writing one of the many dissertations being a merit for an academic career but with a questionable value in making the world a better place to live in.

The participants are also asked to write a conflict story from their own experience preferably saying something about their own attempts to mediate.

2. Presenting the guiding idea of "liberating the archetype of the facilitating/ therapeutic mediator."
Experience shows that all participants demonstrate in their essays the same kind of mediator ideals. Regardless of their cultural background they write that a good mediator needs the capacity to listen to the conflicting parties while being a fair, constructive, unprejudiced and reliable authority who has respect for the parties and an ability to come up with good suggestions.

The question is arisen: how can we implement the common ideals? Or: "What makes it tick in mediation?"

We discover two different clusters of the ideals of a mediator. Each of these represents a different archetype. 

The first one is the clear-cut archetype of judge-king,  in our times represented by arbitrator. The attitude of the participants implies the idea that says: "Well, if the parties cannot solve the conflict themselves, somebody with authority has to do it". 

The second archetype is the "shared-solution-facilitator" This is described in varying terms aiming at the principle that a "shared-solution-finder"  is a mediator who is capable of deriving a conflict solution  from the constructive elements inherent in the parties themselves. It has something more than just "making the parties talk to each other". It has a constructive will that is not imposed on the parties from the outside but revealed to exist in them and now brought forward.

Understanding of the two archetypes has always went amazingly fast; it is evident that they are triggered by collective experiences or collective consciousness. My interest is to help the course participants to identify their ideal archetype "shared-solution-facilitator". We see it quickly but how to come "from sounds to things"?

The answer accepted by all is that let us make the liberation of the archetype "shared-solution-facilitator" the goal for role-play training. We also agree that a therapeutic approach  is needed order to maximize the intimacy of communication in that training.

3. Demonstration of points that must be especially trained.
Before the role-plays  I will show a  videotape from role-plays of previous courses stopping it at crucial places where the mediator bring about constructive effects. ("What makes it tick?")  The beginners usually fail to notice the tiny signs of shared concern and shared solution from the parties and to give it well balanced reinforcement.  I also comment on details in which the psychological driving forces are facilitated.  For example in Step 1 the mediator soon achieves a familiarity just by attentive listening while in Steps 2 and 3 he or she is a kind of group leader taknig initiative by   inviting the participants to suitable beverages and snacks in the beginning of the group session.

4. The three steps of therapeutic mediation that will be performed in role plays.

  (1) Separate individual talks. The goal of the training of the mediator is to bring forward the tiniest concerns and the tiniest solution the parties can share with the other party and to give them  balanced reinforcement. If one or both of the parties consists of a group, individual meetings are held with each of the group members. 
(2) Shuttle diplomacy preparing the joint meeting.  The mediator brings the shared concerns and shared solutions from one party to the other, preparing for a positive outcome at a summit meeting.  If one or both of the parties is a group, (like in group bullying), this step is replaced by a group meeting preparing the summit meeting with the other party (which in the case of group bullying is the victim).
(3) A joint meeting (the "summit meeting") is not decided before a shared solution is likely. The mediator who is a chairperson begins by encouraging the participants to repeat the positive proposals that they think the other party would like to hear.  The meeting is not closed before the parties have stated what should be done if any of them would transgress the peace agreement.

 5. Playing first the trainers' prepared story and then one or more stories of the course participants. The first mediation task is taken from my own mediator experiences . The reason is that the participants of the course cannot avoid looking for prototypes; quite naturally they need to test the credibility of their lecturer who gives them the steps they should use.

But in order to be independent of an authority in their future mediator work and to train their own capacity to manage unexpected situations the second round of the training is based of one or more stories that are taken from the essays written by the participants.

6. Training of previously discussed three steps of mediation in role-plays.  The performances are video filmed and discussed. The players of the mediator's role can judge by themselves to what extent they are able to fulfill their own intentions. The participants discover that they behave differently from their own ideals. Experience shows that practically all became more and more skilled during the training to fulfill them.

7. A feedback from the trainees to the trainer.  In the philosophy of the Shared Concern a shared development of the method is included. After the discussion of the role-plays I examine the participants: "What have you learned from the course?" -- "If you come into a position of a mediator what would you do?"

I try to keep e-mail contact with course participants and to learn whether they have tested their mediation principles and skills conveyed  at the course.  If any of them would like to give courses in therapeutic mediation built on the Shared Concern method, I am willing to support them with my advise but on the condition that , before they start training others, they have accomplished at least two cases of mediation.