You may notice that I am now referring to myself as a Certified Professional Mediator. What does that mean?
It doesn’t mean that I’ve received a certificate of completion for taking a mediation training course. I have, several of them. Everyone who completes a mediation training course gets a certificate at the end that confirms they completed the training. It's a kind of participation trophy, but it doesn't you are a "certified mediator." There's more to certification than that.
That golden scroll in the upper right corner of my WMA profile mean's I'm a certified mediator. Finally!
To become a certified mediator (or accredited mediator depending on which country you are in), you have to meet the requirements of a certifying or accrediting agency or association, that may include completing a certain level of training and a certain number of hours of supervised mediation, providing professional references, and passing a practicum or test to establish that you have the required level of training, experience, and, most of all, competence to capably serve as a mediator.
In my case, calling myself a certified mediator means I’ve met the extensive educational and experience requirements set by Washington Mediation Association (including in my case more than 200 hours of mediation and over 100 hours of training in the past three years), have submitted references from a mediation agency and experienced co-mediator, and have pledged to abide by their Standards of Practice (linked here: https://washingtonmediation.org/standards-of-practice/).
I submitted my application for certification in January, and waited nearly six months while my application was reviewed. I just got the news. I'm pretty excited. It's kind of a big deal.
Becoming certified was a lot of work that included a lot of hours serving as a volunteer mediator and taking every training course I could. It was worth it to achieve this goal, but it’s just one step on my continuing journey to become a full-time professional mediator. There’s still work to be done. Wish me luck!
For more information or to schedule a mediation, contact Jeff at (206) 397-0020 or jeff@westpacificlaw.com. I look forward to working with you!
Copyright © by Jeffrey L. Smoot.
Comments