Conflict Dynamics and Mediation training

This is a 60-hour Foundation Training Course in CONFLICT DYNAMICS AND MEDIATION accredited by the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland.

Delivery: A hybrid course of 5 days of in-person sessions and 5 online sessions 

Course presenters: Geoffrey Corry and Mary Lou O’Kennedy 

Course fee: 1,500 euro.

Enquiries: info@bclc.ie  Tel: +353 (0) 1 8625805 

This basic skills course is an intensive 60-hour training and run as three separate modules over a period of two months. It is designed for volunteers, frontline workers and professionals who want to obtain a foundation in conflict resolution and mediation skills for use in their own organisation or work situation or to become an accredited mediator particularly in community, family, and workplace disputes.

Further Information: 

Lunch will be provided on site for participants on classroom days. 

Assistance with travel to Glencree in Co. Wicklow for the final day can be arranged if required. 

See www.bclc.ie for further information on Ballymun Community Law Centre. 

See www.themii.ie for further information on mediation, accreditation, and the Mediator’s Institute of Ireland.

Video Assessment and Qualification

For those who wish to go further than this 60 hour training and become an accredited Certified Member of the Mediators Institute of Ireland [the professional association for mediators in Ireland www.theMII.ie], and thereby become a practitioner mediator, we will support participants to join role-play groups to practice their mediation skills and to prepare for the video assessment of skills competence. This independent assessment involves each trainee mediating a case in a one-hour role play to demonstrate their skills as a mediator. A date will be arranged with intending participants for an additional fee of 250 euro paid directly to the MII assessor. 

Topics covered during the course

Module 1: Conflict Resolution skills

1.  MANAGING AND RESOLVING CONFLICT       

• General introductions
• Our perceptions of "conflict": positive and negative
• Neuroscience of conflict

2.  DYNAMICS OF CONFLICT       

• Mapping a conflict: your experience of a conflict situation
• Self-awareness and self-management in conflict          
• Constructive and destructive behaviours
• Conflict triggers and ‘Hot Buttons’

3.  STYLES OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT           

• The five styles of handling conflict
• Finding your conflict comfort zone 
• Managing your style and avoiding going into excess

4.  CONFLICT ANALYSIS 

• The conflict spiral: how unmanaged conflict escalates.
• PIN model: Positions, Interests and Needs 
• Feedback on the Conflict Dynamics Profile (optional)

5.  REFLECTIVE LISTENING SKILLS                           

• Picking up clues from body language
• Working with perceived reality: being heard, understood, and acknowledged.
• Reflective listening: the discipline of not adding anything. 
• Connecting with hurt and the emotional impact of conflict 

Module 2: Mediation skills

6.  THE PLACE OF MEDIATION IN DISPUTE RESOLUTION SYSTEMS            

• Process continuum for alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
• The growth of different mediation sectors in Ireland: community, family, workplace, and commercial mediation
• The different models of mediation for each sector      

7. GETTING PARTIES TO ‘THE TABLE’                                   

• The pre-mediation phase: role and tasks of interveners
• Role play 1: community mediation - neighbour dispute.

8. THE BASICS OF THE MEDIATION PROCESS

• A five-stage mediation process for interpersonal disputes
• Video demonstration of the process (neighbour dispute)

9. MEDIATION PROCESS SKILLS PRACTICE THROUGH ROLE PLAY                                      

• Rehearsing the introduction and storytelling stages
• Framing the issues and problem-solving stages
• Writing up the agreement

10.  PROCESS ISSUES IN MEDIATION                                                          

• Empowerment of disputants
• Handling anger and processing hurt through storytelling skills.
• Power balancing and when to caucus/shuttle
• Reframing, problem solving and generating options. 

11. LEGISLATION AND ETHICAL PRACTICE

• Introduction to the Mediation Act 2017
• Codes of Ethics

Benefits of the training course

By the end of the 60-hour course, you will:

• have developed an awareness of the positive value of conflict and your own style of responding to conflict.
• appreciate the essential features and principles of the mediation process and how to adapt it for working through different interpersonal disputes.
• have participated in at least five simulated role play mediations, using scenarios developed from different interpersonal dispute areas within the Irish context.
• understand each stage of the mediation process and possess the basic skills to resolve conflicts informally sufficient to start practicing mediation (under supervision) 

Course Team

Geoffrey Corry BA (Mod) MSc (Mgmt) HDipEd is a self-employed consultant specializing in conflict resolution, facilitation and mediation in a number of settings - workplace disputes, restorative justice and the community. He worked for 22 years as a family mediator with the state-run Family Mediation Service for marital separation and divorce. He was a Board member of the Family Support Agency and a former chair of the Mediators Institute of Ireland as well as Facing Forward. At the MII Annual Conference 2023 in Cork, Geoffrey received the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Mediation.

He was the founder of the Mediation Bureau in Tallaght, the first neighbour dispute resolution scheme in the Republic. He has taught mediation skills for over 20 years at UCD adult education, Maynooth and Trinity. He was the Facilitator for over 50 political dialogue workshops held at the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation between 1994 and 2006 as part of the peace process in Ireland. These workshops brought together party activists at a sub-leadership level from all the political parties in these islands to discuss key issues in the peace process. 

Mary Lou Kennedy BA (Soc Sc), MSW (Social Work) is an independent professional mediator and conflict management specialist and coach. She mediates disputes in the workplace, in business, in families and the community. Mary Lou also delivers conflict management training to businesses and organisations in the public and private sector along with conflict management coaching and consultancy to build more collaborative workplaces. 

She is a founder member of OAK Conflict Dynamics Ltd, a leading provider of mediation and conflict management services in Ireland. Mary Lou is a master trainer in the CINERGY Model of Conflict Management Coaching, the Conflict Dynamics Profile and 3rd Party Resolution (TPR) model of managerial mediation with the Mediation Training Institute, Eckerd College Florida. She also lectures on the Certificate in Mediation with The Law School, in Griffith College. She has trained the Ballymun Law Centre panel of Conflict Management Coaches and provides ongoing supervisory support. 

Ballymun Community Law Centre: 

Ballymun Community Law Centre is an independent law centre and a charity. We provide free legal advice, representation, legal education and mediation for individuals and groups within the community. We are committed to ensuring that access to justice is available to the people of Ballymun and we work towards an inclusive community based around equal human rights and social justice. Mediation is provided free of charge through a team of volunteer mediators and is coordinated by our Development Officer, Sandra Mpanyira. www.bclc.ie

Background Reading 

Geoffrey Corry. A 24 page Manual of the 5 stages of the interpersonal ‘diamond’ mediation process will be available for each participant together with handouts on the various topics covered. Some online chapters of the publications below are available on request.

Mary Lou O’Kennedy. A 53 page printed booklet, “Workbook on Effective Conflict Management in the Workplace”, Oak Conflict Dynamics, will be used in Module 

Books on which the course is based

Robert A. Baruch Bush & Joseph P. Folger, The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict Through Empowerment and Recognition, Jossey-Bass (1994). 

Robert Bolton, People Skills: How to assert yourself, listen to others and resolve conflicts, Touchstone / Simon Schuster (1979). 

Kenneth Cloke, The Crossroads of Conflict: A Journey into the heart of dispute resolution, Janis Publications (2006)

Helena Cornelius & Shana Faire, Everyone can win: How to Resolve conflict, Simon Schuster (1989). 

Daniel Dana, Managing Differences: How to build better relationships at work and at home, MTI publications (1989) 

Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving in, Business Books (Second edition 1992). 

Christopher W. Moore, The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict, Jossey Bass (third edition 2002).

Cinnie Noble, Conflict Management Coaching: The CINERGY™Model,, CINERGY™ Coaching, 2012

Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How you and your organisation can manage conflict effectively, Jossey-Bass (2007)

William Ury, Getting past No: Negotiating with difficult people, Business Books (1991)

William Ury, Getting to Yes with Yourself: And Other Worthy Opponents, Harper Collins Publishers (2015)