Depending on where you are in your career, you may take the following steps to become recognised by IMI:
- Untrained? Gain quality training via a Certified Mediator Training Program (CMTP), and thereby become IMI Qualified.
- Trained (including at non-CMTPs) but don’t have sufficient experience to become fully Certified? Join IMI’s Young Mediators’ Initiative, which is associated with the Worldwide Mediation Mentorship Program. Young Mediator applications can be completed online, and are vetted by IMI volunteers.
- Trained and experienced? Approach an organisation with an IMI Qualifying Assessment Program to be assessed and thereby become IMI Certified. Read on below.
How to become IMI Certified
The certification process for most types of IMI Certification and Specialisation is similar. IMI Certification is for experienced mediators who have completed at least 200 hours/20 mediations, have an independently-reviewed feedback digest, and have been assessed as having the required mediation skills and knowledge. For those seeking to learn about training and becoming IMI Qualified, please see here.
What you will need:
- Evidence of your experience
- Feedback from parties, to assist in creating your ‘Feedback Digest’
- A high level of mediation skills and knowledge
1: Review your experience
Do you meet the minimum requirements for your preferred Certification or Specialisation? See the ‘Competency Criteria‘ page.
2: Find a Qualifying Assessment Program
Find a Qualifying Assessment Program to be assessed against IMI standards. For those eligible to become IMI Certified Mediators, this is any QAP; for Mediation Advocates/Advisors, MAQAPs; for Specialisation in Intercultural Competence, ICQAPs, and Specialisation in Online Mediation, ODR-QAPs. Find a program on our website. Once you successfully complete assessment, the organisation delivering your QAP will request that IMI set up a Certified profile for you on our website.
Note that QAPs may have additional requirements for you to fulfill in order to be recognised as IMI Certified Mediator or Advocate. Once you have located a program, make sure you read through the approved QAP and what is required of you.
3: Appoint a Peer Reviewer
Appoint a reviewer to provide a ‘Feedback Digest’ for your Certified profile. You can find information about appointing a reviewer, including sample emails, on our website.
Some organisations with QAPS have independent reviewers as part of their programs, and you may wish to ask about this when you contact the organisation.
The Feedback Digest is an essential part of all IMI Certified Mediator and IMI Certified Mediation Advocate profiles, and must be included on your profile to complete your Certification process.
4: Complete your profile
Ensure you have filled in your profile on the IMI website, including active locations, areas of expertise, languages spoken, and a profile image. The direct link to your profile will take the form www.imimediation.org/member/your-full-name/. You are responsible for completing your own profile, though the organisation that conducted your QAP may be able to provide assistance.
5: Pay your listing contribution
All Certified Mediators and Advocates must pay an annual listing contribution. Full and partial waivers may be requested where there are extenuating circumstances. Read more about IMI’s funding here, or pay your contribution here.
Nomenclature
As nomenclature is largely jurisdiction-specific, your MAQAP will identify which qualification will be accorded to successful candidates—IMI Certified Mediation Advocate or IMI Certified Mediation Advisor.
Nomenclature, generally, takes the form:
IMI [Qualified/Certified] [Specialisations] [Mediator/Mediation Advocate].
This means that:
- somebody who is Qualified, having successfully completed an IMI Certified Mediator Training Program, may refer to themselves as an IMI Qualified Mediator;
- somebody who has Intercultural Competency Specialisation may call themselves an IMI Intercultural Mediator.
- Somebody who is both Certified and Specialised, again using the example of Intercultural Specialisation, would be known as an IMI Certified Intercultural Mediator.
- Somebody with both Intercultural and Online Specialisations, but no Qualification or Certification, would be known as an IMI Online and Intercultural Mediator.
Keeping your Certification up-to-date
To retain your IMI Certification, you should:
- Ensure you pay your annual listing contribution or request a waiver
- Update your Feedback Digest every two years
- Continue your mediation practice
- Abide by the IMI Code of Conduct
Removal of Certification
IMI Certified and/or Specialised profiles are associated with payment of a listing contribution and/or full or partial waiver. Historically, those who did not pay or request a waiver had their profiles ‘expired’, so that they could renew at any time, but were not included in search results. Following a consultation in Q3 2020, IMI Certified Mediators and Advocates decided that those who did not pay a listing contribution, and did not have a waiver associated with their profile, would be removed from the IMI website. As inclusion on the website is the way in which Certification is verified, removal from the website is effectively the removal of IMI Certification. Those who are not included on the IMI website are not entitled to call themselves ‘IMI Certified Mediators’ (etc), may not use IMI logos, or represent themselves as having IMI Certification. A grace period of one year following non-payment applies, following which Certification is stricken.
Certification may also be removed as a result of the Professional Conduct Assessment Process, and breaches of IMI’s Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.
Funding
IMI does not earn income from the provision of any services and is exclusively reliant on grants and contributions. IMI Certified Mediators/Advocates who are in a position to do so are asked to make an annual contribution towards the cost of maintaining and developing the IMI search engine and related infrastructure. The amount that was agreed during an international consultation with mediators in 2008 was US$175/€125/£110. Those who are not in a position to pay the full amount due to extenuating circumstances may request a full or partial waiver for the year. Learn more about our funding.