The Academy of Professional Family Mediators

Hi everybody, this is Scott Levin, Chief Peacekeeper, and I am here today with my good friend Kristen Carmichael. How are you?

I'm doing well. How are you?

Good, thank you. Kristen is based in Arizona. As many of you know, I'm in the— in Southern California, and we know each other through an incredible organization called the Academy of Professional Family Mediators. So it's APFM, apfmmet.org is their website, apfmmet.org. And Kristen and I are both on the membership committee for APFM, and our role is to try to attract other people involved in the, in the family mediation industry. to join what is a pretty incredible organization. So, Kristen, can you kind of give us— can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Kristen Carmichael. I work at the ORIT Center for Divorce Mediation in Arizona. We're in Maricopa County, right in the middle of the state, and we focus on family, particularly divorce mediation. And so my role with APFM specifically is on the board as the secretary and then also as the membership chair. And so our big goal is to bring in people who are involved in kind of the family sector. That doesn't just have to be mediators. That could also be therapists or CDFAs, Certified Divorce Financial Analysts, to help kind of create an environment in the community where we can continue our education and also build up networks of mediators to really expand the mediation field across the country and internationally as well.

Yeah, and so tell us, tell our viewers a little bit about some of the programs that APFM offers. I can tell you, like, I've been a member for about 2 years, so not that long, but in terms of what I benefit, how I benefit from it, and Kristen and I are both mediators, family, mainly divorce and family mediation. So we have the same day job, just in different states and with different clients. But how I've benefited from APFM— they do some really cool, powerful videos, recordings, and lectures from mediators throughout the country. So people like myself, they are speaking my language and trying to improve my skills as, as a practitioner, and it's really cool to see you know, people around my age, um, uh, you know, excelling and thriving and trying to help, you know, other people in the industry improve our skills. So that's one of the big ways I benefit. And of course, um, meeting people like Kristen and, and all the other folks that I've met through the organization, um, at their annual meetings, which hopefully, uh, in the future will be again in person, and in addition to the ones That we're doing on Zoom. So, Kristin, how do you, how do you benefit from the organization in your practice?

Yeah, absolutely. So, as you mentioned, we do webinars. So we do have webinars, and also last year we did an entire town hall series specifically related to how mediators can continue their practice during COVID The webinars, typically we have between 9 and 12 every single year, and it's a benefit because it's free as a member. And depending on what state you're in, you can actually get credit for attending them for continued education. Beyond that, we also have case consult groups. So I actually started APFM a few years ago and joined Michael Lang's case consult group. So we meet once a month. It's mediators from all over the country and also internationally. One of our members is from South Africa, and we work out different cases and really try and have a reflective practice on what we have been working through. Some other benefits are we do have a directory, so every person that's a member of APFM has a directory on our website that can be used to connect with other mediators in your area, but it can also be used as a marketing item for your customers or clients. We have certification programs where you can be certified with APFM. That allows you to actually put a certification on your website. Again, another marketing tool if you're in the mediation field. And some other items like our conference. We do an annual conference. This year was our first conference completely online, but in the future, hopefully we'll be back together. We typically are all over the country. We've had Nashville. We've been in Boston, in San Diego, and supposedly the next one will be in my neck of the woods in Phoenix if we ever get to come back together again. But it's really a great opportunity to meet other people that have different perspectives or maybe different practices that all fall under the mediation umbrella. And we also have other people that are different specialists. So for example, we typically always have a webinar or an event at a conference of CDFAs to help you understand what's the financial implication of the agreements that you're reaching during that time. So it's really just bringing everybody together to help learn, grow, and network overall.

And it's so cool because, you know, family mediation can be a pretty solitary practice for a lot of us out there. A lot of people are sole practitioners. I know some people have done great and have bigger, you know, more like law firm sort of practices. But being able to connect and workshop your cases, I mean, it's just really cool, really unique organization. I love it. And I want to make sure that all my mediation friends, mediator friends know, of course, that they can join. But like Kristen said, Certified Divorce Financial Analysts, CDFAs, this is a great organization for you. a lot of your business comes from mediators. The mediators that are in APFM are the top-of-the-line mediators throughout the country. And then therapists and mental health professionals, you also can join and benefit and learn and grow your practices as well. And finally, there is an associate membership level for law students and other folks that are are not yet, you know, matured their practice to join fully, but you can join as an associate level and, and, you know, save the money and also, you know, start learning and workshopping and benefiting. So really just want to encourage people to take a look at APFM. Again, apfmnet.org is the website. I'm a big fan, a big fan of you, Kristen. So thanks for taking the time to talk.

Well, I'm so glad that we got to talk. And honestly, it'll be really exciting to see new people and fresh faces coming into APFM and adding new value and new kind of perspectives. We are starting a verified training program this year, so hopefully we'll see a lot of new members that haven't even started in mediation We actually have a staff member who came to us because she was interested in mediation, and we suggested that she join even as a student member for APFM. It's such a small fee, and you get to experience all of the webinars and everything that's involved before you even do a 40-hour training. So it's even like an introduction to the field. So just excited to see what comes up this year and hopefully bringing in lots of new members to enjoy the benefits that we have.

Yeah, and let Kristen or myself know. We're on the member— she's the chair of the membership committee. I'm just a membership schmo, but let either of us know. Happy to talk to anyone about joining or the benefits and hop on a quick Zoom. So thanks everyone, and we'll talk to you all soon.

Thank you.