LEAD TRAINERS: MARK UMBREIT AND SHERYL WILSON
This Advanced Training Seminar is offered in response to a growing number of victims and survivors of severely violent crime, including homicide, who have requested to meet the offender/inmate. These encounters have been found to play an important role in the grieving process of victims and the larger healing process of the victim and offender, and their families, as they confront the full emotional impact of the crime on those most directly affected by it.
Participants will learn about trauma and victimization, several different program approaches and procedures, and what has been learned from research. Additionaly, participants will gain a thorough understanding of humanistic mediation and the dynamics involved in providing a victim sensitive mediation/dialogue intervention in crimes of severe violence, as well as the intense amount of case preparation required in applying the VSOD model (Victim Sensitive Offender Dialogue). This part of the Advanced Training Seminar is an intensely experiential event, as participants enter into a dialogue with a panel of parents of murdered children, visit a medium security prison, and meet with a panel of inmates convicted of murder or other violent crimes, review very emotion laden video tapes of actual cases involving murder or other violent crimes, and explore the connections between Restorative Justice, spirituality and the experience of all those who are part of such an intense healing journey, including the mediator. Issues of intense pain, trauma, grief, vulnerability, the search for meaning, strength, resiliency, healing, joy, and the importance of honoring the sacred nature of such a healing journey, will all be experienced and discussed at different levels.
Although role-plays are not included, this Training Seminar is highly emotional and intensely experiential in nature. Potential applicants who are currently experiencing intense issues related to trauma, grief, or loss in their lives should consult with appropriate support persons before submitting their application materials. *
For those with experience in victim offender mediation in property crimes and minor assaults, this training will provide the knowledge and framework for beginning to work with a limited number of severely violent crimes. For those without victim offender mediation experience, but with other related experience in mediation, counseling, victim services or offender services, gaining actual mediation experience in property crimes or minor assaults is required before beginning to work with a limited number of severely violent crimes. Some participants may plan on specializing in the provision of mediation and dialogue in crimes of severe violence or in initiating an entirely new program. For these individuals’ additional training and case mentorship is required.
*A special application is required for this training.
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