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I just wanted to thank you for the Mediation course – thank you! Although I found it extremely challenging, I thoroughly enjoyed the course and I am grateful for the skills that you introduced to us. .... with this course I remained engaged throughout and wished that we could have continued this week too.
Regards
Dr Nayna Patel - Lecturer/Personal Tutoring Team
Department of Information Systems and Computing -
Brunel University
I approached Mediation training with ambivalent feelings – I have often found staff development training at the university to be of limited use, however I hoped that this time things would be different. It was; this six day course was a revelation. On the first day I came to appreciate how far-reaching a mediator’s approach to dealing with conflict could be.
The trainers were extremely well organised and each day there was a careful balance of activities which progressively built on the previous session’s work. The sessions varied, but they were characterised by intensity, warmth and at times, a good deal of laughter. This was not an easy course; the challenges involved in working outside one’s usual mode of operation were considerable, but the upbeat attitude of the trainers and the calm and supportive atmosphere they created meant that I was free to work outside my comfort zone in developing an approach to assisting others deal with their own situations.
In addition, I was also able to make discoveries about my own attitude to conflict. While my primary goal in undertaking this training was to gain the credentials to be a university mediator, the impact this training has had on other aspects of my professional and personal life have been huge. Conflict is inevitable, it is something we encounter regularly, if not every day. I have often wished I had better strategies for dealing with situations of conflict even when this conflict might be considered relatively minor.
In a university setting there are rarely objective and constructive opportunities to reflect on how to manage challenging situations, I see this course as the first step in developing a much more productive and generative approach to dealing with conflict.
I highly recommend mediation training to anyone who wishes to gain an insight into conflict and ways of enabling individuals in situations of conflict find meaningful resolution for themselves. In the process, you might just find your own approaches to dealing with personal and professional conflict are re-evaluated and consequently enhanced.
Dr Mary Richards - Subject Leader for Drama, Brunel University
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