Message from the President

Happy New Year! Now that the holidays are over and a fresh year has settled in, you may have pondered where your practice is going to take you. The question really is, where are you going to take your practice? If your New Year's resolution is to grow your professional practice and increase your Collaborative cases, opportunities abound. Tired of drafting interrogatories? Daydreaming of producing documents other than spreadsheets or parenting plans? Get your creative juices flowing again and write an article, short story, poem…hmmm….maybe even a screenplay or novel. Does another mind-numbing CLE on the child support statute make your stomach churn? Well, check out the CLI trainings. You will not only learn new skills and be inspired, but you will be entertained as well! Mentor a new member, host a round table discussion, sponsor a member reception, or join a committee (the list goes on). If you are interested in committee work, choices are plentiful. The committee names, chairpersons, and goals are:

Bridging (Colleen Harris-Pearson): To bridge with other groups and increase understanding/credibility of Collaborative Practice among other professionals.

Membership (Brad Frago): To increase and support the number of highly engaged members.

Training (Tonda Mattie and Ben Gisselman): To engage Collaborative Law Members and other professionals in a life-long learning process that promotes a shift of mind set and equips all professionals with special skills so that settlement occurs and healing begins.

Public Education (Louise Livesay and Stephanie Tschida): To double the number of Collaborative cases annually through a process of education of the public and professional communities.

Quality Assurance and Protocols (Linda Wray and Jim Gurovitsch): To provide a roadmap for consistency in the Collaborative process.

Expanding Collaborative Practice (Deb Clemmensen and Kemi Rampi): To expand collaborative Practice to populations and areas of law where it has not yet had a significant impact.

COMMUNITY AND COMMUNICATION

Communication. John Dewey once said, "There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community and communication.... Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing."

Our professional community on occasion has had the common problem of communication. Some things that get said inartfully impinge on the comfort of others. This, of course, is inevitable in a family. Even times in which things are not necessarily said inartfully, they may accomplish the same result.

In case you are wondering, I quote others in order to better express myself. (Those aren't really my words - Michel de Montaigne actually said that.)

Shrink Rap:

Last year a good friend gave me the gift of a little volume called The Four Agreements, which she hoped I would find useful in my work with collaborative clients. She had read a lot about conflict and divorce since the break up of her 28-year marriage, and told me this was the first book that truly helped her understand how to resolve her feelings about the past so she could move on. When she told me the author, Don Miguel Ruiz, was a physician turned Toltec shaman, I was intrigued but a bit dubious. But after reading The Four Agreements I have been recommending it to clients and colleagues ever since.

Like most powerful guiding principles, the four agreements appear simple but are profound. Ruiz describes the agreements as a distillation of ancient Toltec wisdom about living in harmony with oneself and with others. The agreements provide a framework for both preventing and resolving conflict, and for achieving inner peace. When used in the context of collaborative process, each agreement is relevant to our process of problem solving and healing. I explain them to clients, and we use them as a framework for our work together developing parenting plans.

Letter to Mom and Dad, From your Kids

From Billy, Sara, & Jake

This is a letter from us, your kids, who you say you love. Billy is writing this because he is the oldest and knows how to write really well and we have had a meeting and he agreed to speak for us. We are unhappy and cry, especially at night. You yell and scream at each other and talk about us like we aren't even there and that we don't have any feelings.

We know you don't love each other anymore-we get it, so maybe you don't love us either. Sara is afraid to come home from school and wants to stay overtime and be with her teacher and not with either of you. Jake is getting bullied because he cries a lot and I am very, very angry and don't know what to do with my feelings, but I want to hurt someone; maybe both of you. Why did you have us if you were just going to yell and say mean things about the people we love. You ask us to be polite and say please and thank you---why---so you could lie to us?

Client Whispering

For the last several years I have enjoyed watching the popular television show Dog Whisperer, on the National Geographic Channel. Each week I sit transfixed in front of my television listening to Cesar Millan's wisdom in working with his canine clients. At the end of each episode I ask myself, "Why do I feel like I just absorbed something of value for my own collaborative practice?" Then in one episode Cesar took on the challenge of helping an ex-corporate executive (read: litigator) to develop his own dog grooming business (read: collaborative practice). This eager, well-intentioned young man was getting stuck in his practice with the time and energy it took to deliver service to his least stable canine clients. These were the clients who would not sit still to have their nails clipped, snapped and charged at other clients, and took valuable time away from service to other clients.

Renew Your CLI MN Membership Now!

If you have not renewed your membership for 2009, take some time and do it now.

Click here for the CLI Policy on Membership

Click here for the 2009 Member Renewal

Welcome New CLI Members 2009

David Dustrud – Attorney

Jan Hoistad – Psychological Professional

Kalli Matsuhashi – Psychological Professional

Colleen McCann - Psychological Professional

Scott Rodman – Attorney

Dawn Marie Van House – Supporting Partner

Elizabeth Wrobel - Attorney

We look forward to getting to know each one of you. Your contributions and abilities are much welcomed and appreciated.

New Member Spotlight

Valerie Arnold - When Valerie Arnold isn't practicing family law, she spends time with her family, including her two boys who are 6 and 8 years old. They enjoy biking, swimming and going to the zoo. She joined CLI because she is interested in meeting other attorneys who resolve cases outside of litigation and to learn collaborative techniques. Valerie practices exclusively in family law with an emphasis on interstate and international dissolution and child custody, third-party custody, and appellate law. She is a shareholder with Tuft & Arnold, PLLC, 2109 County Road D East, Maplewood, MN 55109. Her phone number is 651-771-0012 and her email is val@tuftarnoldlaw.com.

Joan Lally - Joan Lally is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Minnetonka. She works with both individuals and couples and specializes in working with clients who have gambling or sexual addictions. She wants to be a coach in the Collaborative Process and sees it as a natural transition from the work she does with couples in her therapy practice. "I've noticed that even when a marriage can't continue, it's so helpful when the parents are able to work together for the sake of their kids. I find the coaching piece to be an exciting opportunity to help couples do that." Joan completed the Erickson Mediation training last May and has already attended several CLI trainings. Joan can be reached at: (952) 270-4040 or jlallymsw@yahoo.com.

Member Support and Development Initiative

Regional Groups – Not just for Activity credits

This time of year many of us think about Regional Groups as we fill out the Renewal Affidavit because of the activity credits we receive for attending Regional Group meetings. But Regional Groups offer much more than activity credits. Many of the groups offer educational programs with a specific topic or speaker. Other meetings may be more social in nature. Many groups post notices of upcoming meetings on the CLI listserve. Meetings will soon be listed on the CLI website as well.

Regional Group meetings offer you a chance to discuss difficult cases and get feedback from colleagues in an informal setting. The meetings also offer good networking opportunities and the chance to increase your collaborative referrals.

You are free to attend any regional group, or sample them all! Remember to check the listserve and the website for information about upcoming meetings.

Here is a list of the Regional Groups and the facilitators:

Downtown Mpls.: Rachel McDonough

Edina 1: Lee Eddison

Edina 2: Steve Yasgur

North Metro: Leslie Kimes

East Metro: Louise Livesay & Tom Alf

SW Metro: Nicole Zapzalka

South of the River: Brad Frago & Joyce Franchette

West Metro: Colleen Harris-Pearson

Submitted by Brad Frago

QUALITY ASSURANCE COMMITTEE PROTOCOLS

Preamble. The purpose of this committee is to provide Collaborative Professionals and their clients with various tools to assure the quality of collaborative practice.

In keeping with the principals of collaborative practice, the Collaborative Law Institute has problem solvers and individual mentors available to assist Collaborative Professionals in their practices and to help Collaborative Professionals resolve disputes while maintaining the integrity of a collaborative case and the goodwill among the professionals involved. Collaborative Professionals and their clients are encouraged to use these experienced professionals to improve their collaborative practices, to resolve disputes in an active case as well as to address issues of concern after the conclusion of the collaborative process.

Submitted by Linda Wray

Click here to read the complete article

CLI Outreach Committee

Louise Livesay, Stephanie Tschida, Audra Holbeck, and Brian Burns.

The CLI Outreach Committee (also know as the Eastenders) participated in the Fall Conference for the Minnesota Association For Marriage and Family Therapy. Their break out session: Collaborative Practice: A Trauma-Reduction Approach to Divorce received positive feedback and was well attended by Minnesota family therapists.

CLI Calendar of Events! SAVE THE DATE!

Collaborative Conference Australia 2009 - The Collaborate "DownUnder" conference will be held in Sydney Australia, March 26 – 29th 2009. Go to www.collaboratingdownunder.com for complete conference details and to register.

IACP Annual Forum Coming To Minnesota in 2009 - October 22nd – 25th, 2009 collaborative practitioners from around the world will be gathering downtown Minneapolis, at the Marriott Hotel, to celebrate 20 years of the collaborative movement and 10 years of IACP. You wont want to miss this Collaborative Anniversary. Mark your calendars and watch registration details.

News Flash from the CLI training Committee

Calendar of Events:

March 30 -31 – Family Law Institute, RiverCentre St. Paul, MN

CHECK THE CLI WEBSITE, www.collaborativelaw.org, FOR DETAILED INFORMATION, LOCATIONS, AND PRICE!!! Also, watch for registration information, locations, and price on the CLI listserv prior to each training.

(Click here to see website event calendar for more details)

February 2009 Newsletter