New Ways for Mediation® Training
Enhance your mediation skills and reduce your stress with a breakthrough approach for mediating high-conflict disputes. Advanced mediator training in a structured, proposal-focused method built specifically for the cases that derail traditional interest-based mediation.
Your instructor
Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq.
Co-founder, High Conflict Institute
Upcoming live sessions
All dates U.S.-based · times in Pacific Time (PT)
- Open
November 17 & 19, 2026
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM PT · two live sessions
500,000+
professionals trained worldwide
Traditional mediation doesn't work on high-conflict cases.
Standard interest-based mediation depends on parties who can self-regulate, hear each other, and let go of the past long enough to problem-solve. High-conflict cases break that model. Parties stay locked in extreme demands, rigid positions, venting, and re-litigation of grievances — and the mediator absorbs the stress of trying to drag them somewhere they can't go. New Ways for Mediation flips the structure: a reverse interest-based, proposal-focused method that keeps parties on problem-solving and off self-defeating behaviors, while letting you let go of feeling responsible for the outcome.
Outcomes you'll bring back from New Ways for Mediation® Training.
- Identify the conflict dynamics of five types of high-conflict personalities.
- Apply brain science to managing high-conflict people with empathy, attention, and respect.
- Reduce resistance to positive problem-solving with a 2-step mediator method.
- Provide a structured mediation approach designed for high-conflict personalities.
- Teach parties to make their own agenda with the mediator's assistance, and to change it by agreement as needed.
- Teach parties a 3-step method for making proposals, asking questions respectfully, and giving a thoughtful response.
- Educate high-conflict parties about choices and consequences in making their decisions.
- Assist high-conflict clients and lawyers in addressing ambivalence about final agreements.
Who New Ways for Mediation® Training is built for.
Mediators
Advanced mediator training for family, civil, workplace, and community mediators handling high-conflict cases that drain you most.
Attorneys
Family law, civil litigation, and dispute resolution attorneys moving clients toward settlement.
Judges
Trial judges and judicial officers presiding over high-conflict matters.
Counselors & Therapists
Clinicians supporting clients in mediation and settlement processes.
Tribunal Members
Administrative tribunals, ombuds, and dispute panels in high-conflict environments.
Dispute Resolvers
Anyone helping parties reach agreement in legally or emotionally complex situations.
How New Ways for Mediation® Training is delivered.
Complete the 4-hour on-demand course on your schedule, then join the 8-hour livestream with Bill Eddy and your cohort. Live sessions are held twice per year on Zoom — real role-play, real cases, real Q&A.
- 4 hours on-demand course — Self-directed online lessons covering the foundational method, completed before the live session.
- 8 hours live virtual training — Interactive Zoom training with Bill Eddy and your cohort, including role-play practice with real high-conflict scenarios.
- Provider Network membership — Recurring Q&A sessions with HCI trainers and other Network providers. Listing on the public HCI Provider List.
- Certificate of Completion — 12 hours documented for submission to licensing boards where applicable.
- Email support included — Direct access to HCI for follow-up questions (1–2 business day response).
- Optional consultation group — Ongoing case consultation with peers and HCI faculty.
Methods taught in New Ways for Mediation® Training.
CARS® Method
The four-part HCI framework: Connecting with empathy, Analyzing options including proposals, Responding to misinformation, Setting limits.
EAR Statements™
Three-second verbal moves that calm an upset party — Empathy, Attention, Respect.
BIFF Response®
Written communication that keeps the process moving — Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm.
4 Big Skills™
The core skills parties learn during the mediation: Flexible Thinking, Managed Emotions, Moderate Behaviors, Checking Yourself.
Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq.
Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of the High Conflict Institute and pioneer of the High-Conflict Personality theory. Bill is a licensed clinical social worker, attorney, and Senior Family Mediator at the National Conflict Resolution Center in San Diego, with over 40 years of experience resolving high-conflict disputes.
He has trained mediators, lawyers, judges, and mental health professionals in 35 states and 13 countries, and is a faculty member at both the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University and the University of Newcastle Law School in Australia.
Bill is the author of more than 25 books — including Mediating High-Conflict Disputes (co-authored with Michael Lomax, JD), BIFF Response, It's All Your Fault!, and 5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life. He co-hosts the podcast It's All Your Fault with Megan Hunter and writes a popular Psychology Today blog read by millions.
Trusted by professionals across industries.
New Ways for Mediation made a lasting impression on me. I've found myself reflecting on it frequently since — particularly the underlying tone of delivery of the training and the compassion for high conflict people were things that really inspired me. It makes me want to delve even more deeply into the many resources the High Conflict Institute has available.
I found the New Ways for Mediation training extremely valuable in my work as an external workplace mediator, investigator, coach and conflict trainer. The self-directed portion was a convenient way to receive the foundational material while having time to digest and process information ahead of time. The livestream classes brought the foundational concepts together with the opportunity to practice them through role plays and interacting with Bill Eddy and other course participants.
I have followed HCI's work for quite some time and have attempted to implement the strategies, but the course was a game-changer for me to integrate the strategies and implement them immediately in my day to day work. I am becoming adept in using these tools and am able to coach others on their use as well. Highly recommended.
New Ways for Mediation® Training — frequently asked questions.
Who is this course for?
What is the format?
When are the live sessions?
What is included?
Are there required materials?
Will I get continuing education credits?
Do you offer discounts?
Can you deliver this for our court system or firm specifically?
Ready to enroll?
Enroll an individual seat now, or talk to us about a private cohort designed around your organization's actual cases.
