Diane Levin recently blogged about five mediation career myths worth debunking. It’s a terrific post and her list is on-target:
1. Twenty-four (or 30 or 40) hours of training is all you need to become a mediator.
2. Lawyers are already qualified to mediate by virtue of their profession and need little if any mediation training.
3. Lawyers always make the best mediators (or, alternatively, only lawyers can be mediators).
4. Online training in mediation is a great way to get certified as a mediator.
5. I can make big money as a mediator – right after I finish my 30-hour training.
Good, good list. So I think it deserves one more:
6. I’m a certified mediator.
You are, are you? Are you sure? Says who?
Here’s the speech I deliver at the end of the occasional Basic Mediation course I teach: “Ok, so you’re all about to complete this course. You’re about to receive a certificate, a pretty little thing, that proves you put in your time. The certificate does not mean you’re certified. It means you’re certificated. Let me repeat: It does not mean you’re certified. This is not a certifying agency or body. And if I find you’re out there telling people you’re a certified mediator after taking this workshop, I will track you down with bloodhounds.”
There’s a huge difference between putting in the seat time and getting a certificate of completion and being a truly certified mediator, still a bit of a rare animal in the U.S. Though if you open your local yellow pages, you’d be tempted to conclude otherwise.
Certified vs. certificated
Certification in the U.S. is a slippery little sucker. There are some certifying programs, but not nearly as many as there are mediation trainers claiming to certify you. Or who conveniently look the other way when you misunderstand and start calling yourself a certified mediator without legitimate certification.
Who certifies? Depends on where you are and how fast and loose you are with the definition. Me, I’m a stickler on this stuff because I don’t think it’s ok to put one over on an ill-informed public. They see “certified” and they make some assumptions that are less accurate than they ever dream in far too many circumstances for my comfort. And as long as we’re a fast and loose profession on this, we’ll continue to have a hard time building legitimate credibility as a profession.
Beware of false prophets
So, who’s a legitimate certifier? In my mind these kinds of places belong on the list:
What about everyone else? If they’re not on the above list, do I think they’re taking advantage of new professionals desperate to create a modicum of credibility? No…and yes.
No, because I don’t pretend to have enough knowledge of all those out there who offer “certification,” nor of how thoughtful, thorough and right-minded they’ve been about it.
Yes, because I’m always troubled by self-proclaimed prophets. And certifiers.
There are so many training programs out there, some superb, some far less so, and a lot of these claim certification as part of their marketing. And it begs this question: Who says someone should be able to “certify” other mediators simply because they decide to do so? Because there’s a market willing to fork over the bucks for the title, not knowing any better?
It remains as true as the first time it was ever uttered: Caveat emptor.
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