Space is limited to 24 participants.
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Trainer:
Sequoia Stalder, Esq.
Location:
ILR Conference Center @ Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10016
This course is approved for 5 Continuing Education (CE) Credit Hours for Psychologists, New York State Board of Education Social Workers, Psychoanalysts, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists and Creative Arts Therapists.
For more information about or to purchase CE credits for this program, click here.
Program Overview
Conflict is an inevitable part of life. While conflict presents many challenges, when navigated effectively, it can also present opportunities for understanding and growth. This workshop will provide mental health professionals with mediation, negotiation and cooperative conflict management skills to support them in their work. Whether navigating a difficult conversation in a professional or personal context, helping others to communicate and problem-solve more effectively, or determining the appropriateness of a referral for formal mediation services, this program will provide helpful frameworks and straightforward techniques that can be learned quickly and implemented the next day.
Topics of focus include: listening techniques for gaining information and building trust; understanding conflict styles and how to navigate them; moving from positions to needs and interests; and a five-stage process for collaborative problem-solving.
Through large and small group discussion, and role play work that brings the techniques to life, participants will learn how to:
- Utilize the “Loop of Understanding” to listen to and engage with parties in conflict.
- Differentiate decision-making processes from facilitative processes, and more effectively choose which process to utilize in a given situation.
- Identify and manage challenging conflict styles, de-escalate problematic dynamics, shift parties from positional stances to more collaborative orientations, and develop an awareness of how their own conflict style might contribute to challenging dynamics.
- Distinguish between power-based, rights-based and interest-based approaches to resolving conflicts and determine which approach is appropriate for a given situation.
- Identify the differences between positions (demands) and needs and interests, and shift conversations toward an interest-based framework.
- Apply a five-stage process for moving through conflict and problem-solving.
Who should take this training?
This workshop is open to all, though particularly relevant and recommended for mental health professionals who work with individuals and/or couples in conflict.
About the Trainer:
Sequoia Stalder, Esq.
Sequoia Stalder is a mediator and attorney with over a decade of experience mediating complex and high-conflict cases. Having mediated over a thousand cases, he has dedicated his career to the non-adversarial resolution of conflict and is a recognized expert in the mediation and conflict management field. Sequoia’s approach focuses on the interpersonal dimensions of conflict and the key role that communication dynamics and ongoing relationships play in mitigating and resolving disputes. Central to Sequoia’s work is the use of increased understanding and improved communication as the core of the mediation and facilitation processes. His approach emphasizes party empowerment and support rather than coercion or threat as the primary drivers of conflict resolution.
With this approach as his backdrop, Sequoia has a private mediation practice specializing in family & divorce and workplace mediation. He also provides mediation and conflict resolution trainings as well as group facilitation services throughout the tri-state area. Sequoia is one of the most sought after mediation trainers in New York State, and his introductory and advanced mediation trainings are certified by the New York Courts to qualify therapists, judges, lawyers and other professionals to serve as court-referred mediators. Sequoia has trained and counseled thousands of professionals in mediation and conflict management techniques.
Additionally, Sequoia is an Adjunct Professor of negotiation and mediation at both Columbia University’s International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) and Columbia’s Masters Program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR). He also holds the positions of Senior Director of Conflict Resolution Services and Senior Director of the Mediation Training Institute at New York Center for Interpersonal Development, a New York State Court-designated Mediation Center. In these roles, Sequoia guides over 50 full-time staff and volunteer mediators and oversees all mediation programs and trainings, with an annual caseload of approximately 850 cases and 2500 case screenings. Sequoia created and implemented the Richmond County Supreme Court Matrimonial Part Divorce Mediation Program, and continues to oversee this program as part of his work with New York Center. Sequoia also served as a member of the Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee for the New York State Courts.
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