Safety Planning For Interpersonal Violence During Mediation

A 90-minute live session for mediators on screening for interpersonal violence before a session, adjusting the process when coercive control shows up, and referring well. Designed to meet 1.5 hours of continuing mediator education in the interpersonal violence category, which includes domestic violence.

Most of what mediators hear about domestic and interpersonal violence stops at "watch for red flags." That leaves you improvising at the worst possible moment: a party who goes quiet whenever the other one speaks, a spouse who answers every question, an attorney who mentions a protective order in passing during the joint session.

Among separating parents whom courts send to mediation, more than half report a history of intimate partner violence once someone asks them privately, using questions about specific behaviors. Most of those files contain nothing. No protective order, no charge, no note from counsel. Whatever you are going to learn, you have to go and find.

This session covers the three things a mediator can and should do about that: screen before the session, adjust the process, and refer well.

What You Will Be Able to Do Afterward

• Run a private pre-session screening call that surfaces what a general intake form misses, using behaviorally specific questions rather than labels.
• Recognize coercive control in the room and on camera, including the checks that only apply to video sessions.
• Choose a format deliberately — joint, caucus-only, shuttle, or decline — instead of answering a disclosure with a yes or no.
• Put safeguards in place that work: breakout rooms built in advance, staggered arrival and departure, support persons, ground rules you can enforce.
• Plan for your own room: exits, what can come into the building, and what to do, in order, if a session turns physical.
• Say the hard sentence out loud — pausing, declining, or ending a session in language that protects the party who disclosed and blames neither side.
• Refer without losing neutrality, by giving identical information to every party before anyone has answered a single question.
• Know where your role ends and a trained advocate's begins.

What the Session Covers

• Screening at intake. The questions to ask on a private pre-session call, what the recognized screening tools look for, and how to screen without putting a party at greater risk.
• Coercive control, in person and on screen. One party speaking for the other, agreement arriving too fast, fear that reads as deference, and the checks you run when parties join by video.
• Process safeguards you can use the same week. Caucus-only and shuttle mediation, breakout rooms and waiting rooms, staggered arrival, support persons, and ground rules that hold.
• Your room, your exits, your plan. Walking a venue before the first session, asking what can come into the building, and an escalation ladder for when a session gets heated, including in civil and insurance cases where nobody screened.
• Where the mediator's role ends. Safety planning for the parties belongs to trained advocates. You learn how to connect a party with one without taking sides, giving advice, or losing your neutrality.
• Reporting and confidentiality, plainly. How to explain the limits of privacy before you ask your first question, and why that order matters.
• Pausing, declining, or ending a mediation. Language for terminating that protects the vulnerable party and does not blame either side.

Six Handouts You Keep

Two Free Resources, Yours Right Now

You do not have to register to download these. No email, no form. They are the same standard as the material inside the session, and they are useful whether or not you ever join us.

Who This Is For

Mediators and attorney-mediators in family, parenting, dependency, probate, civil, insurance, and general practice, anywhere in the country. Court program staff and roster mediators who need a consistent screening approach across a panel. Community and volunteer mediators who take referrals without a case file. And newer mediators who would rather have this settled before it comes up in a case than after.

The skill travels. Screening privately, asking about behaviors, adjusting the format, referring well, and knowing how to stop are the same in every state. What differs is the local procedure, and the session is built so you can drop your own court's rules into the framework.

Format

Live on Zoom, 90 minutes. Roughly 75 minutes of instruction built around a worked case study, then questions. The next date is shown with the registration option above. Everyone registered receives the handouts and the recording afterward, so the hours still count if you cannot attend live.

Continuing Mediator Education

The session is designed to meet 1.5 hours of continuing mediator education in the interpersonal violence category, which includes domestic violence, and a certificate showing the program title, date, and hours is emailed afterward.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know this is more than "watch for red flags"?

Read the long version first and decide for yourself. The full guide to screening for interpersonal violence in mediation lays out the intake questions, what coercive control looks like in the room and on camera, the safeguards worth using, and how to pause or end a session. The session is where you practice it against a real case and ask about your own files.

Does this count toward my continuing mediator education?

It is designed to meet 1.5 hours in the interpersonal violence category, which includes domestic violence. Florida, for example, records interpersonal violence as its own category and does not pre-approve courses; mediators self-report at renewal. Many other states count it as general continuing education. Confirm the rules with your own credentialing body before reporting.

I mediate outside family court. Is this relevant?

Yes, and that is one of the reasons the session exists. Business partners who were once a couple, siblings in an estate fight, neighbors, co-workers, two adjusters on a high-dollar claim: the paperwork says property and the dynamic in the room says something else. Civil cases are also the ones least likely to be screened, which is why the session includes planning for your own room.

Is it live or on demand?

Live on Zoom, with the next date shown above. Everyone registered receives the recording and the handouts afterward, so you can still complete it if you miss the live session.

Do I get a certificate?

Yes. A certificate showing the program title, date, and 1.5 hours is emailed after the session.

Do I need the free resources before the session?

No. They stand on their own and they are yours either way. Several people download the party guide, start sending it with their invitations, and come to the session later.

Can you run this for our whole panel?

Yes. Corporate and group training adapts the screening protocol, safeguards, and scripts to your own intake forms and court rules. Questions: support@conflictmanagementinstitute.org.