Divorce Mediation Certificate Program: Changing the System One Family at a Time
Sandra Crawford, J.D., is one of three instructors for the Northwestern University Divorce Mediation certificate program, an intensive five-day divorce mediation training course on the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively mediate separation, divorce, and post-divorce issues.
Teaching and coaching in the Divorce Mediation training course
Crawford has been practicing law for 28 years and mediation for 24 years. Although new to her role as an instructor, Crawford is not new to Northwestern SPS. She has served as a coach in Divorce Mediation training courses for the last ten years.
It was in law school and going through a divorce of her own when Crawford was first introduced to divorce mediation. Her experience working with a mediator was so positive that it influenced her to pursue divorce mediation training just a few years after obtaining her law degree.
About the Divorce Mediation certificate program
The Divorce Mediation certificate program at Northwestern SPS teaches students how to hone their communication skills so that they can be effective mediators. “Mediation is training in how to communicate in a different way. You’re communicating from the place of the neutral, and you’re helping people communicate better by getting less polarized, not talking about positions, but instead talking about needs and interest,” said Crawford. And, these communication skills translate to all facets of professional and personal life.
The five-day Northwestern SPS Divorce Mediation certificate program attracts a host of seasoned professionals, including attorneys, mental health specialists, and financial professionals. From the course, “students should expect a lot of theory and a lot of practical knowledge, hands-on skills, experiential based training, and insight from established professionals,” Crawford shared. The course is structured so that students interact with two instructors and at least three coaches, all of who are practicing mediators. According to Crawford, that kind of practical insight is invaluable. In her 10 years as a coach for the Divorce Mediation training course, she would often finish a mediation at her office and then head straight to the classroom, where she would share with students what methods worked for her just hours or moments ago.
Making a difference as a Divorce Mediator
The best part of working as a mediator? For Crawford, it is seeing her clients understand that “they can take control of their legal, financial, emotional lives and actually become self-determinative and problem solvers themselves.” Divorce Mediation is helping individuals who are in distress and who have not been communicating well or at all, and guiding them through conversation to come to resolutions that work for both parties.
“Divorce mediation is changing the system one family at a time,” Crawford shared. If you are looking to effect meaningful change, the Northwestern SPS Divorce Mediation certificate program is for you.
Northwestern University School of Professional Studies offers many degree and certificate programs, with evening and online options available. To learn more about how Northwestern University Divorce Mediation Certificate Program prepares professionals to advance their careers in divorce mediation, fill out the form below and we will be in touch with you soon.