Forum PFI and Workshop Descriptions

Have you ever been stumped, and discouraged, by the continuing and sometimes
escalating couple conflict at the Collaborative table – despite the sincere efforts of the professional team? Do
you sometimes feel like your “case” is drowning and you're desperate for an oxygen tank? 
Asking about the parties’ hopes and diving deeply into their perceived threats can bring fresh
air to a Collaborative case. This workshop will teach you how and when to ask questions to
unearth the threats that escalate and sustain conflict, without provoking it. 
Working with the “Insight Approach” to conflict, we will learn to notice and respond
to conflict behaviors rather than what the conflict is about. Finally, we'll learn how to apply
what is learned to promote an authentic shift from conflict to collaboration, without forcing or faking it.

Modern families present with a range of diversity, from multi-ethnicity, sexual orientation, blood/legal relatedness, religious diversity, and much more. Such multicultural contexts can inform the divorce process, including how families interact with professionals and the professionals (as cultural beings themselves) with families. This workshop is intended to engage attendees in the application of the tenets of multiculturalism (self-awareness, increased knowledge, and skill acquisition) within the collaborative divorce model. In addition to didactic material from a strengths-based and interdisciplinary approach, this interactive workshop will employ demonstrations, videos, vignettes, group experientials, and critical discourse toward the identification of co-created best practices, as well as fostering cultural allies and cultural accountability. Ultimately, the purpose of this workshop is to contribute to the critical discourse of how the collaborative divorce model can be responsive to and inclusive of the unique needs of multicultural families and/or diverse populations served.

This PFI presents a systematic process for finalizing Collaborative cases (including complex cases) in an average of two negotiation meetings. After almost a decade, MELCA has developed a sophisticated 5 step-process based on: engaging both clients from the beginning, integrating an interdisciplinary team from the first moment of client engagement, a comprehensive interdisciplinary intake to assess the supports, personnel and resources needed for success,
foundation work of goal-setting, communication coaching, processing end of relationship work, and building the financial picture, all occurring before the first negotiation meeting. The process involves carefully planned joint meetings and case management. In parallel with the UN’s 5 steps for disaster response, the MELCA steps start with the critical first 20 hours after the tsunami of a breakup is brought to a Collaborative professional, when we launch
into preparation, identify the team, understand context, assess response capacity and plan.

Collaborative Law professionals want to offer clients a safe and respectful process. We intend to do no harm, and yet, sometimes we do. This workshop highlights personal and professional danger zones that may negatively impact clients, professionals and the process. Learn how we can change to create positive impact.

During this workshop we'll discuss forming partnerships and programs with courts to expand Collaborative Practice. We'll present an overview of Maryland's successful strategies and programs with a particular focus on the newly-developed "Expedited Collaborative Process," where self-represented litigants are referred by the court, and Collaborative meetings begin immediately on-site, in the courthouse.

Your involvement with Collaborative Practice is a continuing journey. Asking the right questions can help shape your journey and lead you to the type of practice you desire. Our intention is to walk with you as you answer questions for yourself. The goal of this workshop is to leave with an outline and an action plan for the role CP will play in your practice.

How can using a child specialist help engage your clients in collaboration? Kristine Little and Toni Evans will present the Child Specialist role, highlighting its efficient, yet valuable impact on the client’s Collaborative process. They'll discuss how CS’s integrate successfully with the professional team, and what they have learned so far in their Collaborative journey.

In July 2016, an innovative law for regulating legal proceedings in family conflicts was applied in Israel. While drafted to deal with local religious issues, the legislation sparked an intense debate regarding the “Prohibition of the right to litigation” family disputes without first exploring options to litigation. A year after the implementation of this new law the number of claims filed to the family courts in Israel were reduced by more than 50%. In the workshop, Michal Fein (who co-authored this new law) will share her point of view on how it became a reality and how it was inspired by the Collaborative Divorce process.

This workshop will provide participants with the information they need to build and sustain a Collaborative Practice including the importance of education, training, skill-building, and interdisciplinary relationships. The workshop will help participants learn how to set business goals and accomplish them through networking, initial client contacts, community connections and website development.

Divorce grief causes feelings of emotional vulnerability. The intense swings of emotions in grief can contribute to further misunderstandings and conflict. Through an understanding of how the cycles of grief impact our clients’ functioning and our process, we can prevent grief from holding the process hostage and create a compassionate space for clients and their children's losses.

Collaborative Practitioners can benefit from establishing presence and awareness in their lives and Collaborative Practice. During the workshop and optional pre-forum video conference calls, the presenters and participants will draw on specific readings and videocasts related to this topic for presentations, experiential activities, small and large group discussions.

In our collaborative work, but also in our work in general, we have to deal with emotions. How can we be creative? In the process of supporting our clients, but also in our teamwork, we constantly have to manage emotions. We have found a way by using the EFT-theory in our work which we would like to introduce! By using EFT-skills we manage to regulate better the emotions and attachment needs of our clients, but also of our selves as professionals working in a team.

The emotional case beneath the legal case is often the cause of failed negotiations. This workshop will show attorneys how to transcend their familiar legal paradigm, and learn to practice some of the techniques familiar to therapists. Without any formal psychological training, attorneys will be able to confidently and skillfully work with the parties’ emotions, cut through the impasse and reach deeper levels of resolution that are possible through conventional negotiation approaches.

Collaborative process is about creating a new experience of empowerment and safety for clients. On the legal front, the aligned nature of the lawyer/client relationship in Collaborative Practice naturally gives lawyers leverage to assist their clients to move from positional bargaining to interest-based negotiations. The aligned nature of the two-coach model gives mental health professionals more scope to support individual clients’ stories and help them move forward without needing to unify the pace or emotional experience of separation.

In this highly interactive training, an experienced lawyer and a mental health professional will tackle the ‘what, why and how’ of the two-coach model. Participants will learn assessment factors indicating suitability for the two-coach model, process differences when lawyers and coaches are working in a four-way mode, the basic skills necessary for divorce coaches, how to do this work without aligning too closely with the clients, and the benefits and challenges of team communication.
 

The rich and comprehensive data from the second IACP Client Experience Study invites us to reflect deeply, challenge our assumptions, and expand our repertoire of practices for enhancing client experiences and post-divorce perceptions about the divorce process. Participants can expect to be surprised, challenged, and inspired by what the data seems to tell us. While we will spend some time reviewing the data, the majority of the workshop will be an exploration of intriguing ideas for taking Collaborative Practice into the future. This workshop will require active, creative participation by attendees.

This workshop is a theoretical and a manual activity that reflects on the phases of the separation of the couple and the way to build a new parental relationship. This is done through the metaphor of Kintsugi, a Japanese method for fixing broken precious objects, making them better by rebuilding them with mastic, lacquer and gold. How can a professional (or a professional team) focus more on real needs and strengths instead of difficulties and wrongs? In this workshop, we'll show you how enlightened strengths, time, care and patience are needed to work with families. We'll also discuss how beauty, even a melancholy beauty, can help clients accept and rebuild a different life through the power of peace and forgiveness.

Explore instances in Collaborative cases where implicit bias may impact the professionals’ ability to effectively guide clients. Using specific case examples and fishbowl role-play, we will address how to recognize when the implicit biases of the professionals are affecting a case, and what to do about it.

The Uniform Collaborative Law Act (UCLA) and Rules (UCLR) have now been adopted in an increasing number of jurisdictions, and plans are afoot in many more jurisdictions. Come and share your ideas and strategies to get the UCLA passed countrywide, and how to make the most of its passage.

This workshop will explore how the Collaborative process can be an effective method in reducing the impact of separation and divorce on family-run businesses. This process seeks to ensure that the business remains viable for both spouses, as well as future generations.

In this workshop, we'll discuss how mapping from one domain to another can provide fresh perspectives, insights, and illuminations. Learning to understand and listen to dissonance through the lens of music can help us creatively and skillfully navigate the deep waters of discord that fill all aspects of our work as Collaborative professionals.

This interactive workshop focuses on techniques to generate Collaborative cases using blogging, social media, and video content. Bring your laptop or tablet and information to log into your social media accounts. We will learn how to create content efficiently, using tools like WordPress and explore different techniques for content creation.

Two extremes often derail a case: The client who already knows the outcome and the client who feels unable to reach one. During this workshop, experienced professionals will share specific stories and techniques, including words that work, when and how to delay a case, trusting an aligned expert, and what clients may need to hear from each other.

Designing Work Spaces: We "declare ourselves to the world through a register other than words, through the language of objects, colors and bricks; an ambition to let others know who we are -- and, in the process, to remind ourselves.” This is a workshop about creating Collaborative practice offices based on neuroscience & design.