Light horse 1969 but 27 am campers play apr basic to practice. As a lawyer who had left practice to raise two children as a single mother, I came into Woody's course uncertain whether mediation would be the right fit for me. I left confident that I could build a successful mediation practice. Woody is simply the best and I feel fortunate that I started mediation career with him. All I can say about Monday following Woody's 40 Hr. Divorce Training is that I never worked hard on getting agreement. I was at Mosk Courthouse at 7 a.m. meeting with client and all of her close family members, who came as support group We were there on a permanent restraining order, temporary custody, visitation, financial issues, and some separate issues on the other party's RFO. Very high conflict, years of abuse, very heavy substance abuse, break from visits for one parent, high assets. Emotions were sky high and positions very firm. Opposing counsel lawyered as usual and the rhetoric went... UNTIL...the mediator opened it up first to discussion with counsel followed by discussions with everyone. AND I jumped on the opportunity Everything was different about own approach, language questions, tone, strategy. Woody, you created such a great space for mediation training to happen. I decided to create space to help these two people come to agreement. the mediator asked me to informally co-mediate the issues. After about 7 hours, the matter was fully resolved as to temporary custody and visitation with lots of therapeutic orders for rehab, AA, individual therapy, alcohol monitoring etc. The restraining order was also stipulated as a result of mediation. The parties agreed to mediate their financial issues No judge except to get a trail date to keep on target with the money issues. Opc visibly upset about no litigation... First hug 5 years for the parties! I had awesome opportunity to use some of the techniques we went over during the 5 day training. The questions of why and what if... and imagine your family x time what would you like to The concept of being a restructured family going forward was a very novel idea to them btw) helped the parties immensely understanding their needs and uncovering some of their internal blocks excuses. The parties reached agreement they both could live with and it was truly the best interests of the child I actually could not believe how much these two people agreed on. The only thing was I was exhausted after the 7 hours of mediating the issues between them. I bought a book on spiritual daily practice for peace makers that hopefully provide some concrete things to help with that. You have no idea what transformation has begun me Woody's training literally left me speechless and overcome with emotion. I still need to process and read the binder and all the books I bought but it is a darn good start. The final thing I did on Monday was I made up mind that the path of a peace maker is it for me It has been absolute privilege to participate Woody Mosten's transformative course. From the first hour of training, Woody disarms, supports and offers a learning environment that invites meaningful participation and learning. I to use the tools that Woody gave me to move forward baby steps toward own practice. I have been thinking about time as Woody's intern trainer for the mediation course, and I learned a heck of a lot of peacemaking techniques. There is one particular technique that he taught, and I recently used it a mediation case where I was representing a client. Woody calls it Opening Statement, though I think of it simply as client trying to make a connection with the other party. I had been involved a paternity case for about 8 months, and we have gone through direct negotiations and one mediation that lead only to narrow, partial, temporary agreements. Well, we had another mediation scheduled for this past week. I met with client, and I asked him what were the positive qualities about his child's mother. He thought this was odd question, and I asked him to humor me. He started by saying that it was crazy that she would freak out whenever she saw the smallest bump on the child, but at least he knew that meant that she