I attended this man's collaborative training in NY. I paid $595 for this, and $700 to stay at this…read moreestate hotel in Tarrytown, Tarrytown House Estate. With dinners and sundries, it was $1500.00. I missed the NJAPM - New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators meeting on Friday for this. We drove one hour to get there.
I have attended many, many trainings. Over 300 hours of multi-day trainings. This was the worst experience of my 37-year career- a truly terrible experience. The trainers were from Tampa, Florida, one financial professional, one mental-health professional, and one Florida Lawyer experienced in collaborative practice. In my opinion, he was arrogant, impatient, and rude. Two solid days of boring, rambling roleplays by them, and members of the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals, and a group of unfriendly cliquish people who had lunch with those they knew. One attorney was on her phone in the front row for 2 days. I brought my wife. She was bored, nothing for spouses. The accomodations were meager- a dark hotel room, with a window shade that would not go up and down. The classroom had no outlets for laptops, so I had to keep the battery well-charged and bring a portable charger. They kept questions to a minimum except from their members who got to ask whatever they wanted. I wanted to know about opportunities to make some money in CP, and they only spent the last 15 minutes of the 2-day training (16 hours) on the topic. They had wasted time on a presentation by the sponsor, stupid jokes, and with their own members and a representative of a parent group. They recommended we join the Tampa Bay Association of Collaborative Professions, (https://lnkd.in/ereUiRNe) who require you to have 3 collaborative mediations as a team member (which of course none of us had), and when I raised my hand to point that out, the attorney trainer very rudely and harshly shut me up in front of the entire class, while allowing others to ask questions. It was humiliating, so I put on my hat and jacket and left the training room a few minutes early. His colleague followed me out, attempting to justify his colleague's rash conduct. I left my certificate and went back to the dingy room and met my wife there to discuss the incident. She was horrified to hear what was done to me, a paying member of the training.
I had my doubts about collaborative divorce practice. For one thing, it is only for the wealthy, because you have a team of professionals billing you for their time concurrently. They get paid up front from the clients' savings account, if they end the process, they have been paid. It sounded like a bill of goods to me, not something most people who need a divorce can afford to do. But I went to see for myself. A truly awful experience.
