Mediation Training. Why Counselling is Crucial
If you’re considering a career as a mediator, one of the most important skills you need to be successful is counselling.
Many careers, from nursing to teaching, benefit from counselling skills, but if you work as a mediator, your counselling skills can make or break your career.
That’s why counselling ability in combination with mediation training and conflict resolution techniques are essential to the role of mediator.
What is Mediation?
The Australian Mediation Association defines mediation as: ‘A process by which a neutral third party called a mediator helps people in conflict negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement. The parties to the mediation control the outcome.’
What’s it Like to Work as a Mediator?
Bearing witness to people amicably resolving conflict is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a professional mediator, according to Ms Priest.
“I love to observe the progress of the conflict resolution from the emotional perspective when people in conflict move from a negative attitude towards each other to the positive and constructive discussion.”
Mediation is often successful, but dealing with difficult people can mean that resolutions aren’t always reached, which is a downside of the job.
“What I find challenging is dealing with a situation when one party become too inflexible and stubborn while another party is trying to do their best to find a resolution,” said Ms Priest.
So, what type of counselling skills are most important in a career as a mediator?
Mediation training and conflict resolution techniques are at the heart of this rewarding career, but so is the ability to put specific counselling skills into practice.
Professional mediator, Amelia Priest, assists companies and individuals using conflict resolution techniques to find mutually agreeable solutions that allow people to move forward.
To be able to assist her clients effectively, Ms Priest says she consistently uses the following counselling skills.
- Effective Listening
Active listening is a significant skill of every mediator. Effective listening is more than just listening and paying attention. It involves understanding the meaning of the message and emotion behind it.
- Reflective Skills
Reflective skills are when we give feedback to each party to make sure we have heard them, so we use words like:
“What you are saying is…”
“It seems that…”
“It sounds like…,”
“The main concern for you is…”
- Reframing
Reframing skills are like effective listening, but the difference is that we “reframe” what has been said so that parties can see things differently. It can also be called a “translation” or “re-wording.”
For example:
In a business dispute, one partner blamed the other that she did not put as many hours as he did. So, we would reframe it by saying, “Let’s discuss the distribution of a workload, as you believe it wasn’t equally distributed.”
Changing the language but keeping the same meaning made both parties focus on workload instead of blaming each other.
And, their answer emerged, they did not discuss the time each of them was going to put in but agreed on the distribution of responsibilities.
One partner was looking after manufacturing and the other sales and marketing. But as they were only dealing with distributors and an external marketing company, there wasn’t enough work for one of the partners.
- Summarising
During mediation, each party has an equal opportunity to vent their emotions and freely say what they want to say in a controlled environment.
So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of negative emotions, blame and repetition in the room. By summarising, we extract the “net” information and repeat back to the parties.
Whether you want to be a professional mediator or want to incorporate mediation training and conflict resolution techniques in the workplace, consider an online professional development course.
An online course can provide mediation training and conflict resolution techniques to help you to hone your skills at work.
Online, professional development courses in counselling and mediation training are ideal ‘career-tasters’ if you’re considering becoming a professional mediator. These online courses also provide a solid foundation to study further.
Counselling and Mediation Training
Are you wondering whether you’re a good fit for a career in mediation or counselling?
It’s vital to develop mediation training and conflict resolution techniques. But you’ll need to make significant time and financial commitment to study at a higher education level for many professions in these industries.
So, before you commit, why not enrol in an online professional development course? These introductory courses will help you to decide which counselling or mediation jobs are most appealing to you.
Australian Online Courses offer many online counselling and mediation training courses. These courses, including the Certificate of Mediation and the Certificate of Counselling, provide a solid foundation to study further
The Certificate of Mediation is an online professional development program that will provide you with mediation training and conflict resolution techniques. These techniques will help you to develop, implement and review guidelines and procedures for mediation within an organisation, or on behalf of an organisation.
The Certificate of Counselling will provide you with the skills and knowledge to work in the helping professions working within a structured counselling framework.
In this online counselling course, you will learn how to support clients in decision-making processes. You’ll also discover specialist interpersonal and counselling interview skills. In addition, you’ll learn to research and apply personality, development and counselling theories into your counselling practice.
Australian Online Courses
If you’re looking for an online training provider that offers quality content, reasonable course fees and superior student support, choose Australian Online Courses for your professional development.
Simply visit us online to discover hundreds of flexible, online, professional development courses covering almost every industry sector. Or contact one of our friendly Learning Consultants on 1300 762 221 or via Live Chat.
