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June 26 – 28, 2025

Milanville, PA

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Join the Center for Understanding in Conflict for a comprehensive 16-hour Advanced Matrimonial Mediation Training.

Our trainers have designed this program to benefit those who wish to apply to become mediators on matrimonial mediation rosters in New York courts. However, it is appropriate and applicable for professionals of all disciplines, including jurists, lawyers, collaborative professionals, business consultants, executive coaches, managers and supervisors, human resources professionals, ombuds-people, non-profit staff, and other people whose work will be enhanced by increased skills in conflict resolution.

Core Concepts

This highly engaging program will:

• Teach participants relevant New York State matrimonial and family law.
• Teach advanced skills helpful to mediate divorces and family cases effectively rooted in the understanding-based model.
• Qualifies as an advanced mediation course approved under Part 146.4(b)(2) of the Rules of the Chief Administrative Judge of New York State.
• Provide 16 hours of NYS CLE credits.
• Can be combined with the 24-hour Basic Mediation Training Course to receive a 40-hour completion certificate.

What is the Format of this Training?

Participants will learn matrimonial law through discussions and advanced mediation skills through role-plays and interactive exercises.  This hands-on, in-person training also trains the core skills of the Understanding Based Approach, through lively demonstrations and role-plays, all of which immerse participants in the learning. Realistic simulations, in which participants work through mediations with coaching from our teachers, offer participants the chance to hone their skills and experience the emotional challenges faced by parties in dispute. Participants describe these different modes of learning and their interplay as engaging and rewarding.

Logistics

The training begins on the afternoon of Thursday, June 26, 2025, at 3:00 pm through 8:00 pm. On Friday, the sessions run 9:00 am through 8:00 pm, with ample breaks for meals and rest. The program ends on Saturday, June 28, 2025, with a session from 9:00am – 1:00pm. All participants will enjoy delicious meals during the sessions from Thursday through Saturday.

Which topics will be covered?

• Harnessing the power of understanding to assist the parties in reaching fuller and more satisfying agreements.
• Practicing advanced mediation techniques to address challenging family dynamics.
• Teaching the laws on child support, maintenance, equitable distribution of marital assets/debts, and parenting (custody/visitation, decision-making authority).
• Learning to navigate the role of law and lawyers in divorce mediation.

Who Can Participate? 

This advanced training is open to those who have completed prior mediation training. If you are still determining whether your training meets this requirement, please get in touch with [email protected]

Venue

Highlights Foundation Retreat Center, 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA 18443, (570) 253-1192

The Highlights Foundation Retreat Center is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania, on the traditional lands of the Lenape Nation. The property is tucked in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains, situated a couple of hours away from both NYC and Philadelphia.  It is rich in family and Highlights history, and it’s a wonderful place that feeds the mind, body, and creative souls of those who visit.

The Highlights Foundation still calls the Barn & Retreat Center at Boyds Mills home, but has expanded use of the grounds in order to support the organization’s goals. 

Cost

The program training fee is $900 plus a fee for the facility, lodging, and meals as follows. Note that all rooms contain a private bathroom.

Private room: $545 for a total of $1,445.

Shared double room: $345 for a total of $1,245.

Commuter for those not staying at Highlights:  $295, for a total of $1,195.

*Those who have taken the 24-hour Basic Mediation course in June 2024 are also eligible to receive a 10% training fee discount. Please contact [email protected] if this applies to you.

** The maximum discount available from all sources is 10% of the training fee.

***Financial aid may be available for training fees.  Please contact us at [email protected] for details or for any questions regarding logistics.

Who Are the Trainers?

Antoinette Delruelle has been a mediator since 2009 and an attorney since 1994. Before starting the Mediation Project at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) in 2013, she represented survivors of domestic violence in divorces and family cases for eighteen years and has taught mediation to legal services attorneys and NYS court staff and mediates divorces, parenting, and child permanency cases for New York City’s five borough courts. Antoinette was president of the Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York from 2014 to2016 and is on the Center for Understanding in Conflict board. She is a member of the statewide ADR Advisory Committee formed by former Chief Judge DiFiore in April 2018 to give recommendations on how to increase the use of ADR in the NYS court system.

Michelle Exline Minovi is a highly skilled divorce and family mediator with 12+ years family law experience.  As Managing Attorney at the legal services non-profit Ayuda in Washington, D.C., Michelle represented low-income and Spanish-speaking immigrant clients in complex matrimonial cases in the context of domestic violence. After moving to Brooklyn, Michelle litigated and won sole custody on behalf of a mother of two children who was forced to leave the ultra-orthodox community because she identified as queer. After three years of intense litigation, Michelle wondered if there was an alternative way to divorce. Michelle knew she had to pivot from litigation to mediation when she took her first mediation training at the Center for Understanding Conflict.

Is there Continuing Education Credit? Is the training Part 146 approved?

New York

In New York, the Advanced Matrimonial Mediation Training will fulfill 16 NY CLE credit hours.  For continuing legal education purposes, the Advanced Matrimonial Mediation Training is appropriate for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys. 15 CLE credits are in skills and areas of professional practice and 1 CLE credit is in ethics.

This in-person training has been approved as a 16H Advanced Matrimonial Mediation Training under Part 146 of the New York State Unified Court System’s Office of ADR Programs. (Please note that final placement on any court roster is at the discretion of the local Administrative Judge and participation in a course that is either approved or pending approval does not guarantee placement on a local court roster.)

Cancellation Policy

Please note our cancellation policy: If you cancel 4 weeks or more prior to the program, we return your deposit minus a $250.00 administration fee. Between 4 and 2 weeks prior to the program, we retain 50% of the total cost of the program unless we are able to find a replacement for your seat, in which case we will refund the fee minus the $250.00 administration fee. There are no refunds for cancellations less than two weeks prior to the program unless we can find a replacement.

For additional information, please email us at [email protected] or call us at (844) 242-3428.

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^[1] Final placement on any court roster is at the discretion of the local Administrative Judge and participation in a course that is approved does not guarantee placement on a local court roster.  Pursuant to Part 146, court-based mediation rosters require both a combination of mediation training and experience mediating.  Acceptance on court rosters depends on a court’s need for mediators at any given time and may include a court’s need for mediators with specific case-type training or experience and mediation experience.

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