Collaborative Practice Training

Beginning with an idea implemented by Stu Webb, the Collaborative Practice model, as it has been embraced by different associations of collaborative professionals, has been a blend of shared philosophical concepts built on interest-based negotiating and practical applications of a facilitative process to the substantive issues of family law cases.

 With a decade-plus of development in this field, there are a wide variety of training programs and there is a wide variety of topics on which participants need to be educated.  This workshop focuses on an area of group development that is critical to the success of the collaborative model.  That is, the fundamental need for a unifying structure and framework from which all collaborative practitioners work.  Practice groups will not assist clients in achieving their highest levels of success if their is not a well developed framework for the process that is a direct response to client need. 

The purpose of this workshop is to provide a structure for the common core principles of the collaborative model and identify the need for agreed-upon protocols the collaborative professionals will respond to client needs and concerns.  Safety is the core characteristic that is the sine qua non of a successful process.  This work shop will look at how safety manifests itself from the initial interview to the signing of a successful agreement.

Basic Training--A Two-Day Program:  

The initial training is important in establishing the basic conceptual framework of the collaborative model. The first step is to contrast the competitive approach of the traditional adversarial-adjudicatory model with the cooperative approach of the collaborative family law case. This two-day workshop begins with an examination of the sources of conflict in interpersonal relationships and identifies the process approaches which respond to the conflict issues in ways that encourage the clients to think and act more constructively to solve their problems. The first application of the theoretical to the practical is a demonstration role play Initial Consultation in which the clients concerns are addressed as the collaborative option is explained. The next phase addresses the roles of the counsel in this new paradigm identifying those skills that serve the clients well and those which hinder the success of the process. Exercises include the preparation of the client for the first four-way meeting and the new dynamics of attorney to attorney communications in the development of a successful process. The second day of training tests the skills learned the first day by a role play that can be characterized as a "hot issue" first four-way session. Applying collaborative approaches to crisis cases in which threats and demands are being made by the clients will demonstrate the power of the process when it is done well and the areas that need more significant development by the attorneys when it does not succeed.

Related Workshop Topics:  

Individual one-day workshops will be created based on need and request.  Past  workshops topics include the following titles:

•  What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do;
• Beginnings and Endings: How the end informs as to the beginning and how the beginning shapes the success at the end;
• Don't Tell Me, Show Me: Demonstrating successful process approaches through dialogue and role play;
• Collaborative Approaches to Substantive Issues: How to maximize the clients' success with property division, support and parenting;
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place:  Strategic approaches to avoiding impasse issues;
• The Initial Consultation:  The art of overcoming client fear and communicating the benefits of a client-centered process approach.