Forum PFI and Workshop Descriptions

Becoming the change you wish to see in the future, requires that you start within. When we experience conflict, make mistakes, or feel inadequate it’s hard to be aware of what’s occurring internally. We may resist, deny, or blame others because our brains say things like: “I don’t like/ want this feeling”, or “What is wrong with me for having this feeling?” This PFI is an adventure in self-discovery and personal insight so you can show up and show out, authentically at the Collaborative table. We will explore concepts like the quiet ego, and the value of self-compassion, especially during complex conversations. This PFI is a safe-to-fail exploration/experiment in meeting yourself as you are now while fine-tuning or developing the skills you need to be the changemaker for the future.

Enhance your skills and your client’s capacity to participate in the collaborative process by expanding your understanding of how power imbalances show up in individual and team dynamics and how to address them effectively. Learn how to use the IPV and Power Imbalance Screening Process and a reflexive practice to develop equitable and inclusive practices and work with clients who are struggling with divorce trauma, IPV, mental health, high conflict personalities and alignment. Learn how attunement is used to broaden the window of tolerance, and how to work the PACT Protocol (Prepare, Anticipate, Coach, Team) as a team when dealing with challenging dynamics and power imbalances.

Most of us choose our life partner with the promise that our beloved will meet our most profound longings. Our hopes reflect compelling, often unconscious hungers deep in our souls. Consider Imago theory’s “ghost partner,” the “lock and key” from Navigating the Emotional Dynamics of Divorce, or Jerry Maguire’s “you complete me”. Two people choose each other with wishes that often lead to struggle, disappointment, and anger as the very same characteristics that pulled the couple together now push them apart. This program teaches us to embrace the dissonance – to explore each marriage’s disappointing patterns so we can understand both clients deeply, and compassionately. We will practice the art of holding both partners’ clashing narratives—the magical tool that encourages clients to venture forward on a pathway that once again promises hope. 

Essential to collaborative practice is a well functioning professional team. So how do we get there? This interactive workshop draws on research into group dynamics from Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, Kurt Lewin’s work on groups systems, contemporary neuroscience, Karpman’s Drama Triangles and Murray Bowens concept of triangulation in family systems.

Increased discriminatory legislation against the LGBTQIA community means informed allies are needed. This requires we 1) examine our biases; 2) create safe and welcoming spaces; and 3) learn from the community. Because none of us wants to live in a world where hatred is tolerated, much less legislated, we all benefit from being allies.

Did you build a program, but “they” didn’t come? Have you thought about how you reach clients? We examine challenges that may exist in your program, keeping you stuck in a field of dreams. Exploring 6 elements of inclusion– format, input, newness, bias, perception, and inclusion - to strengthen programs.

This presentation will highlight the Collaborative Justice Project, a low bono community programme commenced in SIngappore. Why such a Project is important, understanding the needs of the community, starting such a programme and promoting the Project to the community will be the focus of this workshop. The aim of this workshop is to facilitate sharing and learning from communities who run such programmes.

Difficult conversations don't just happen on separation and divorce. Sometimes couples need to work through issues as they live together and/or marry. These issues might be related to second marriages, family wealth transfers, financial differences and other circumstances that arise during a relationship. The workshop will be a dynamic discussion sharing ideas, experiences and exploring opportunities to use the Collaborative Process to
help families plan their future.

Culture is an important aspect in international collaborative processes. Understanding, appreciating and working with the cultural lens in the collaborative team across the world will help to create successful collaborative divorces. This workshop will focus on how the collaborative process can be adapted to meet a family's different cultural needs in order to work towards a collaborative divorce.

Infidelity occurs in many divorces regardless of which divorce process is used. Only Collaborative Process offers a supportive approach when dealing with the emotions, financial and legal issues that accompany infidelity. Learn about the five different types of infidelity and the effects on the Collaborative Process, the professionals and the couple.

We will discuss what the IACP Uniform Collaborative Law Act Task Force has been doing this year and what can be done to help states adopt the Uniform Collaborative Law Act and Rules and help other countries adopt similar laws in their jurisdiction.

Participants will learn about the complex issues confronting divorcing/separating parents of children and adults with disabilities and how to help these families navigate them more effectively through the Collaborative Process.

This workshop prepares all professionals for working with clients that identify as transgender or on the gender spectrum, including 1) teaching best practices; 2) work in teams on financial issues related to transitioning and parenting issues in a divorce setting; and 3) discussion of gender identity discrimination and the law.

Incentives. They influence our everyday decisions from how we save for retirement, to which stores we frequent, to how often we go to the gym. In this townhall-style workshop, we will explore, and participants will be encouraged to share, economic and non-economic incentives to help clients choose Collaborative Practice.

If you are a collaborative professional fulfilling a neutral role, you understand the unique and meaningful dynamics that neutrality can bring to our work. In this workshop, our interdisciplinary team of neutrals will invite you to join in dialogue and learn together:
1. What neutrality means in our process
2. How our role is influenced by our sense of what conflict is?
3. How to be “the one” to ask the “dumb questions”
4. How to manage resistance from clients and colleagues?
5. How, and when, to give and receive feedback?
6. How to bring specialized knowledge while fulfilling the neutral role
We will close with a nourishing discussion about how we can support one another around the world to carry out
this vital role.

Effective Collaborative Advocacy goes beyond generalities about our “paradigm shift” to concrete examples of how that change shows up in our work. Taught by two attorneys who have worked on more than 800 Collaborative cases, this workshop focuses on specific behaviors that makes Collaborative lawyering different than traditional advocacy.

Launching a collaborative community is challenging, especially in communities where collaborative practice is unfamiliar to virtually all professionals working in the local area. This program will provide a detailed road map for introducing and cultivating a collaborative community from the ground up through urban partnerships, professional education, and marketing.

Fourth-dimensional space implies ‘out-of-the-box’ or ‘beyond-three-dimensional’ thinking. As with current science and diversity theory, a focus on multiple variables and perspectives, complex systems and interactive contexts is meant to track all that is happening and then derive a strategy to optimize flex points to free up space for viable solutions.