Forum PFI and Workshop Descriptions

2022 IACP Forum

Thu - 9:00am to 3:00pm
Description Forum Session CEUs Presenters
PFI #1 Adapting Ourselves, and Our Process to Meet Each Family's Needs

The future growth of Collaborative Practice will depend on our ability to adapt our process to meet the needs of each family as well as the evolving needs of the next generation. The focus of this workshop will be on discovering ways to assess the unique dynamics of each family, and by utilizing flexibility and adaptability, developing the most efficient and effective team composition, meeting structure, professional roles and responsibilities, and overall strategy for the process, in an effort to arrive at successful outcomes for the families we serve. We will also look at our own potential for adaptability and address some of the barriers that we may have that can, at times make us resistant to change.

Ron Ousky
Randy Heller
PFI #2 Time, Trauma, Grief: Invisible Collaborative Team Members on Every Case

The Pandemic has showed that Time can be experienced subjectively: Time both crawls and races by. Events seem to have occurred both yesterday and months ago. For divorcing couples, this dialectic is also true, making Time both friend and adversary to professionals navigating any couple's divorce, as well as an essential player in every Collaborative case. Like Grief and healing after Trauma, Time has its own pace - we can’t control it, but we can recognize its currents and plan a way to stay afloat and move efficiently on its path. This program reveals the concrete and abstract ways in which Time influences our clients (and us) and shapes our emotional capacities, reactions, even perceptions of reality. We will draw upon lessons from Grief and Trauma work to explore techniques that address the convoluted nature of Time and better help clients move toward successful resolutions with the least possible pain.

Barbara Burr
Lisa Herrick
PFI #3 Listening to Understand: Clearing Blocks and Opening Pathways

How can listening clear the blocks that get in the way of deeper engagement and open pathways to deeper dialogue? In a world that seems to value “show and tell” more than “sit and listen”, how can genuine and curious listening make a difference? When Jacinta Gallant noticed that her well-developed “telling” muscles needed some balance - an occupational hazard for lawyers - she began to explore listening, which led to a journey with curiosity, which led to exhilarating and transformative learning. And when she discovered how listening transforms conflict in the moment, she was curious enough to wonder why?
Join us for an exploration of how curiosity and listening can transform conflict and learn practical tools you can apply to your work and your life. Together, we will listen for the change we want to see in our world. No magic wand required.

Jacinta Gallant
PFI#4 The Container is Cracking! Best Practices to Repair

Collaborative cases appear to be presenting us with more twists and turns, higher conflict and complexities then ever before. Social pressures and COVID life are heavily impacting all of us. Practitioners are stretched then, anxiety is high and our learning curves feel as if they are mazed out. Shake it together and our Collaborative containers are not holding up. We will show you where the breaches are occuring, and offer solutions to repair, replace and rejunivate the team and client experience.

Kevin Scudder
Courtney Story
Maryann Nelson
Anne Lucas
Fri - 9:00am to 3:00pm
Description Forum Session CEUs Presenters
PFI #5 Negative Capacity: The Missing Piece to Managing High Conflict Individuals and Couples

Most approaches to managing high conflict individuals and couples focus on managing them. While important, it’s equally if not more important to manage ourselves, in which case managing them will not be as challenging. The key to managing ourselves is to develop negative capacity—the ability to endure the unendurable. It is our capability to stay present to our own disturbing and frightening feelings and sensations and not run away from them in our habitual ways that allows us to stay present with the high conflict persons who we feel triggered by. From this place of centeredness and groundedness we can then act with skill—grace under pressure—rather than react. This highly experiential Institute will introduce attendees to the concept of negative capacity and provide an opportunity to practice and develop this skill.

Stephen Sulmeyer
PFI #6 The Art of Asking Questions in Collaborative Cases

We Collaborative professionals sometimes forget how powerful and effective it can be to ask the right question at the right time. Well-chosen questions can open people’s hearts and minds. In this interactive workshop, David Hoffman will offer a framework for thinking about what types of questions we should consider asking at different stages of the Collaborative process. We will also do several exercises that explore our goals in asking questions and the impact those questions have on the recipients. In a stop-action role play setting, we will also brainstorm the questions that each workshop participant would recommend in challenging moments in a Collaborative negotiation. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of how mediators can get in touch with their intuitions, in the moment, about what types of questions are needed.
There are no handouts for this presentation.

David Hoffman
PFI #7 The secret ingredients to conjuring up successful collaborative cases

The world over, trained collaborative practitioners experience frustration about low client numbers, lack of success in engaging both spouses, cases running off the rails, impasse and issues arising from dysfunctional teams. MELCA has been managing these challenges for over a decade. MELCA is an interdisciplinary collaborative divorce business designed from start to finish with the clients’ experience at its heart. After twelve years and many hundreds of cases, we know that the hallmarks of success are: purposeful marketing, a designed 5-step process, case management, value-pricing, team training and protocols, and engagement with the collaborative community.
MELCA will share its secrets of how it has turned many clients into raving fans of collaboration and the business.
Hear from the MELCA team as they re-live ‘days of our lives’ with clients Donna and Danny, as they go from search for a negotiation process to signing their legal documents.

Tricia Peters
Marguerite Picard
Anne Gifford
PFI #8 Beyond the Paradigm Shift: Ethical AND Effective Colllaborative Advocacy

How can we be effective advocates while remaining true to the goals and values of the Collaborative Process? The IACP Ethical Standards address advocacy including: our obligation to support client self-determination, set reasonable expectations, be mindful of the impact of our personal values and beliefs and avoid contributing to interpersonal conflict. This course will explore Collaborative Advocacy in light of s. 3.2 of the Standards. How do we use an interest-based model where there is little trust or goodwill and what is the role of the law? What does it really mean to set realistic expectations? How do we support client self-determination when clients are bullies, can't decide or we don't agree with the outcome? How do we avoid working from our own personal values and experience? How do we avoid contributing to interpersonal conflict without sacrificing outcome? This PFI will deepen participants' capacity to be more effective non-adversarial advocates.

Nancy Cameron
Victoria Smith
Sat - 9:00am to 10:30am
Description Forum Session CEUs Presenters
Workshop #1 The Big Reveal: Tricks & Illusions of Thriving Practice Groups

The 2021 Practice Group Leaders’ Survey reveals insights into the tips and strategies that work well for Practice Groups and the challenges they face. In this workshop, the Practice Group Development Committee will reveal the survey results and attendees will workshop common challenges faced by Practice Groups.

Robert Arthur
Selina Trigg
Rajan Chettiar
Workshop #2 Follow the Science: Proven Strategies for Reducing Unconscious Bias

Social psychology has provided abundant research findings on the prevalence of unconscious bias and tools for reducing biases, such as counter-stereotypical imaging, perspective-taking, individuation, and increasing opportunities for connection. This workshop summarizes the research and suggests techniques for applying it in the setting of Collaborative cases and professional practice generally.

David Hoffman
Workshop #3 Active Silence: The Art of Intervention in Collaborative Practice

Shhhhhhh! Explore the difference between passive silence, active silence, and choosing when to intervene in collaborative negotiation. Active Silence, like active listening, is a skill collaborative practitioners must develop to avoid defaulting to adversarial advocacy. We will explore the potential and power of that skill while also practicing it.

Justin Kelsey
Workshop #4 So you want to be published? Writing for the Collaborative Review

This workshop welcomes anyone who would like to submit an article to the IACP journal, the Collaborative Review. The workshop will cover submission details, including the style sheet, the type of articles and areas of interest. This is your opportunity to get involved with the continued growth of the Collaborative Review.

Nancy Cameron
Workshop #5 A Light or Heavy Hand on the Wheel

Some clients capably guide the process where they want it to go. Others need strong direction, firm boundaries, and pre-formulated options. Others unwisely seize control and drive the case off a cliff. This workshop explores gradations of light vs. firm support, adjusted according to the needs of the particular case.

John Sobraske
Workshop #6 Factors Affecting Minor and Adult Children's Adjustment to Parental Separation and Divorce

Divorce is not a neutral event for minor and adult children. Legal, financial, and mental health professionals must understand the factors affecting children's adjustment to parental separation and divorce, to educate parents how to ensure their children's optimum adjustment. Children's drawings, videos, research, handouts, and interactive exercises provide multi-modal learning experiences.

Carol Hughes
Workshop #7 Maximizing the Magic of the Financial Neutral On the Collaborative Team

This workshop is focused on approaches in assisting the clients through financial uncertainty and impasse towards decision making and resolution. We will present concepts and techniques regarding division of assets, process costs, risk aversion, volatility, disruption and change in finances, and tools to help evaluate options and understand possible solutions.

Jane Ochsman Rowny
Jamie Blum
Jordan Egert
Workshop #8 Collaborative Practice in Hague Convention Cases: A New Paradigm?

The IACP Hague Convention Task Force presents the research it has conducted and its deliberations considered in the past months on the challenges and opportunities of using CP in international children abduction cases under the Hague Convention.

Francesca King
Roman Kern
Jeff Wasserman
irene King
Amrit Malhotra
Deborah Clemmensen
Yap Teong Liang
Keiko Imazato
Robert Merlin
Workshop #9 So I have this case....Case Consultation & Discussion for Practitioners

Come join your colleagues to hear about cases around the globe or perhaps talk about a few of your own. This is an opportunity for practitioners new and not so new to present challenging cases and dip into the collective collaborative knowledge for help, feedback, shared experience or other assistance on those cases that keep you guessing. This presentation is more of a round table to offer the participants options to bring back home to implement in your own cases.

Erinn Hannigan
Ms. Julia McAninch
Cheryl Panther
Workshop-#10 Abracadabra! The Magic to Growing Your Collaborative World

Thriving individual practices and a robust collaborative community depend upon professional relationships. Learn how to engage the collective wisdom of your collaborative community to make connections, stabilize the ebb and flow of collaborative groups, and sustain growth. Join us to learn the powerful magical formula to expand your collaborative world!

Wendy Aikin
Brenda London
Teresa Parnell
Sat - 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Description Forum Session CEUs Presenters
Workshop #11 Essentials to Jumpstart or Revive an Access to Collaborative Program

Want to jump start or revive an Access Program? Through identification of your WHY, this workshop expands upon general introduction to Access to Collaboration. We will cover the most important elements as they pertain to program development. We will break the process down into five phases (1) Finding Your Why, (2) Building Infrastructure, (3) Pathway for Clients, (4) Program Evaluation, (5) Maintaining your Program. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will develop a relationship with an Access Committee mentor who has expertise starting and maintaining an Access program for ongoing support, troubleshooting, and program management. The most successful programs consider the unique characteristics of its community and its professionals, and the goals your practice group sets for its Access program. The workshop is based on programs throughout the IACP Community with varying models. Participants leave with tools they can use and modify based on their unique programming needs.

Brian Galbraith
Elizabeth Thayer
Workshop #12 The Voice of the Child: Eliciting, Understanding, and Integration

Children’s voices can be powerful in the divorce process. This workshop explores various ways in which child specialists work with children in a productive and protective manner. Content will focus on specific techniques to examine the most effective ways to integrate the voice of the child into the process.

Deborah Gilman
Workshop #13 The Magic of Transformational Interventions - Learning by Doing

Transformation from partners to ex-partners into collaborating parents requires shifts in conflict behaviour and communication patterns.
Feedback resulting from earlier workshops shows that practicing effective interventions is required. In this workshop we will demonstrate the
participants learning by doing in roleplays to get familiar with these interventions and experience the effects on themselves and their clients.

Ingeborg Sandig
Annelies Verhoeff
rené de haas
Workshop #14 Practical Tools from Collaborative Neutrals to get Your Clients Unstuck

This workshop teaches practical tools that participants can use throughout the collaborative process. As Collaborative neutrals with 1000’s of hours in collaborative work experience, participants will learn new skills to assist their clients working through being stuck or rigid, and be more regulated emotionally and definitive in their decision-making skills.

Brandyn Roark Caires
Jen Schimbeno
Workshop #15 A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words, but a Book Beats All.....in Marketing!

Are you everyone’s collaborative “expert,” the one with the answers? Publishing a book establishes your credibility. It is crucial to marketing your services.  Once in your office, do consults understand the process? 65% of us learn visually. Use graphics, first to market and then to facilitate collaborating clients communicate respectfully, brainstorm uninhibitedly, and problemsolve transparently. Explore writing your book AND then creating and using graphics in collaborative marketing and practice.

Joryn Jenkins
Carol Hughes
Susan Buniva
Holly Haggerty
Austin Sasser
Workshop #16 Integration of the Compassion-Empathy-Sympathy Spectrum in Collaborative Work

This workshop will explore some of the core difficulties, as collaborative professionals, of working with couples in conflict. A discussion related to empirical findings related to team burn out and what is means to shift from an sympathetic/empathetic mindset to one of compassion. This will be an interactive workshop with discussions requiring the need to explore self-awareness as a professional and exploring learning how to rebalance our mindset with compassion in order to re-energize and take problem solving to resolution.

Gaylene Stingl
Armando Cecatiello
Barbara Hummel
Workshop #17 Not Feeling the Magic? Moral Injury & Collaborative Practice

Our wellbeing as professionals is being challenged more than ever. What if something beyond individual strategies or ‘burnout’ was at play? ‘Moral injury’ has been used recently to explain psychological distress among healthcare workers. Together, let’s explore how this concept may apply to Collaborative Professionals and strategies to address it.

Ms. Julia McAninch
Selina Trigg
Workshop #18 Transform Your Collaborative Practice with Conscious Contracts®

The paradigm shift away from scarcity, mistrust, and fear and towards trust, integrity and self-determination requires a conscious engagement with conflict. The integration of Conscious Contracts® with collaborative practice creates unique tools to apply this paradigm shift to our work with our clients, our teams and our practice group communities.

Kristen Boldt
Jacinta Gallant
Carmen Aja
Workshop #19 What Does The Research Say About Divorce, Custody and Children?

Social science research speaks to questions about custody arrangements, overnights for infants, risk and protective factors, father involvement and the impact of relocation on children. We will synthesize recent data from hundreds of studies from around the world that inform us about the impact of divorce on children, and how to mitigate long term, negative effects.

Lisa Herrick
Adele D'Ari
Workshop #20 Managing A Full Collaborative Caseload

This workshop will explore a different learning edge, one that goes past aspiring for more Collaborative work into a realm of doing all the Collaborative work you can possibly do and (hopefully) still do it well. A full Collaborative Caseload provides new opportunities for understanding our work at a deeper level.

Kevin Scudder
Sun - 9:00am to 10:30am
Description Forum Session CEUs Presenters
Workshop #21 Wills, Trusts, Guardianship, and Probate: Collaborative Magic Across the Lifespan

Estate planning processes that prevent family conflict and provide peaceful resolution of contested probate matters are needed in many countries. Collaborative can help! We will discuss this practice, work through case examples together and develop your action plan to expand your Collaborative practice using this process specialty.

Teresa Parnell
Aubrey Ducker
Workshop #22 Strategies for Streamlining the Collaborative Process

There are some cases where no matter how experienced and cohesive a team may be, strictly adhering to all elements of the Collaborative Process just doesn’t work for the clients. This program will examine when it is appropriate to consider deviating from the traditional Collaborative protocols, differentiate between protocols that can and cannot be streamlined, identify potential costs and benefits of streamlining, and share creative ways to approach option-generation and evaluation that were developed in cases where the parties were having a difficult time participating effectively in the traditional Collaborative Process, and/or had limited financial resources to expend on the Process. We will also share easy ways to adjust your Collaborative practice so that every case is as streamlined as possible.

Jennifer Bradley
Natalie Goldberg
Jane Ochsman Rowny
Workshop #23 Nunchi - Using a Korean Emotional Agility Tool in Collaborative Practice

Nunchi is a Korean concept for 'reading the room' and responding appropriately, often described as the subtle art of gauging other people's thoughts and feelings to build harmony trust and connection. We will explore the principles of Nunchi, breaking it down into skills that can be learned and practiced.

Deborah Graham
Christine Kim
Workshop #24 Hardwired for Conflict: Solution Focused Tips & Tools for the Brain in Conflict

What is going on in the brain when clients are deeply emotional and stuck in conflict? What are some practical tools and techniques that lawyers and financial professioinals can use to help their clients move forward towards positive resolution? This workshop will provide an education on the neuro-science of the brain when it is in deep emotion and conflict. You will also learn and gain hands on experience on how to use some powerful tools and questioning techniques that will assist your client to access the highest functioning aspects of their brain. The result is that your client gains clairty on how they can move foward and become more capable of creating a positive resolution for themselves and their family.

Beryl McNeill
Workshop #25 Collaborative Divorce for Parents of Children and Adults with Special Needs

Participants will learn about the complex issues confronting divorcing parents of children and adults with special needs and how to help these families navigate them using the Collaborative process.

Zanita Zacks-Gabriel
Josh Kershenbaum
Rebecca Fischer
Workshop #26 Preparing to Collaborate: The Importance of Intake Meetings

Participants will be exposed to a variety of ideas related to intakes from three collaborative professionals. The participants will learn the reasons why intakes are important, method and format options to complete the intakes, and what to do with the information collected during the intakes. Specifically, interpersonal violence screening and system mapping will be taught.

Dominique Panko
Charmaine Panko
Demi Peters
Workshop #27 Sharing Collaborative With Public Relations & Events

In this interactive skills-building workshop, presenters use 2022’s World Creativity & Innovation Week as a case study and offer hands-on exercises to teach attendees how to leverage public relations and outreach to create visibility. You’ll develop skills and resources to host future events, utilize media relations, and conduct engaging outreach.

Holly Haggerty
Joryn Jenkins
Arianna Diaz
Workshop #28 Child Specialist: The Rabbit in Your Hat

The role of the child specialist in the one coach model will be explored in depth by an interdisciplinary team of professionals. How the child specialist interviews children, interacts with the team and provides feedback will be discussed and demonstrated. Reasons for including a child specialist will be highlighted.

Jennifer Leister
Chris Farish
Honey Sheff
Workshop #29 There's no "I" in Team

The presentation goal is to guide participants in a deeper dive into Team theory and analysis, and to arrive at an understanding as to why a team approach to collaborative divorce is effective and desirable.

Jennifer Davis
Lana Stern
Elizabeth Thayer
Marta Alfonso
Workshop #30 IACP Minimum Ethical Standards: The Foundation of Collaborative Practice

The IACP Ethical Standards were revised and restated in June 2017 and created new standards and obligations for team communication, advocacy and responsibility for case management. This lively, interactive workshop will help you apply the new standards to your interdisciplinary teamwork whatever your discipline.

Diane Diel
Craig Fabrikant
Edward Sachs
Jeffrey Wasserman