How to Become an Elder Mediation Specialist in Australia

Australia is ageing, and the conversations that come with it — care, money, the family home, capacity, end of life — are landing on families who have no idea how to have them. Demand for mediators who can hold those conversations is growing faster than the supply of people qualified to do it.

Since August 2025 there has been a formal way to prove you can. AMDRAS recognised Elder Mediation as a specialist discipline, and Mediation Institute is an AMDRAS Recognised Accreditation Provider — one of the organisations AMDRAS authorises to grant national mediator accreditation and the specialisations that sit on top of it. In August 2026 we accredited our first two Elder Mediation Specialists.

This is how you join them.

Mi does not deliver elder mediation training — and that is the point

Let us be straight about who does what. Mi is not the trainer here, and we do not claim to be. Professor Dale Bagshaw is Australia’s most experienced elder mediation trainer — she has been training mediators since the 1980s — and it is her course we point our Members towards.

What Mi does sits at the other end. As an AMDRAS Recognised Accreditation Provider, we are the body you apply to for the specialisation itself. When you have finished the training and the EMIN certification, you send us your evidence — certification, insurance, EMAN and EMIN membership, practice hours — we check it against the national standard, and we grant the accreditation. Train with the best available trainer, get accredited through your professional body. That separation is deliberate, and it is how the standard stays honest.

The training: Elder Mediation — Essential Knowledge, Values and Skills

Professor Dale Bagshaw is running her established 40-hour program again this year. It is delivered in two parts:

• Part 1 — 28 hours, self-paced online via Teachable. Work through it in your own time.
• Part 2 — 12 hours of live, supervised skills training — four three-hour Zoom sessions with Dale, running October and November 2026.

Together the two parts give you 40 hours towards Elder Mediation International Network (EMIN) Elder Mediator Certification and the AMDRAS Elder Mediation Specialisation. The specialisation asks for 30 or more hours with an EMIN-approved trainer, so this covers it with room to spare.

Why applying now actually matters

Part 2 only works if there are enough people in the room to run meaningful role-plays — usually around eight. Dale needs that group confirmed before the October sessions can go ahead. If enough interest comes in she can run a second group; if it does not, the intake waits.

There is a second reason to be in that first group. It does not disband at the end of Part 2 — it keeps meeting and supporting each other through the EMIN certification process afterwards, which is the part most people find hardest to do alone.

Mi Members save $100

Dale has offered Mi Members a $100 discount on Part 2 for accredited mediators who apply now — $1,700 instead of $1,800 for the full program.

Members: the full offer, the application steps and Dale’s contact details are on the Elder Mediation Training member page in the portal. Not a Member yet? Join Mediation Institute — you will need us as your Recognised Accreditation Provider at the end of this pathway anyway.

Who is Professor Dale Bagshaw?

Professor Dale Bagshaw (Dip Soc Stud, M Soc Admin, PhD, Cert.EM Advanced) is an adjunct Professor at Adelaide University, the founder and Chair of the Elder Mediation Australasian Network (EMAN), Chair of Resolution Institute’s Elder Mediation Sub-Committee, and a Board member of the Elder Mediation International Network (EMIN) and its Certification Committee.

She has been training mediators since the 1980s — hundreds of them, across Australia and eleven other countries — and has run elder mediation training in every Australian state and in New Zealand since 2015. When the people who write the certification standards are also the people teaching you, you are learning it from the source.

Am I eligible? Read this bit carefully

The training itself suits mediators and FDR practitioners who already have mediation training and experience behind them, or the equivalent. Dale accepts applications from both.

The specialisation is stricter, and this catches people out. To hold the AMDRAS Elder Mediation Specialisation you must be listed on the AMDRAS National Register as an Accredited, Advanced or Leading Mediator. Accreditation as a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner on its own does not qualify you.

If you are an FDR practitioner who has never gained AMDRAS mediator accreditation, do not assume that rules you out. The AMDRAS Alternative Pathway for FDR Practitioners may get you onto the register without completing a full Certificate of Training. Talk to us before you write off the idea.

You will also need professional indemnity insurance that covers elder mediation, and current membership of both EMAN and EMIN. EMAN membership is free.

The full pathway, step by step

1. Be an AMDRAS Accredited, Advanced or Leading Mediator on the National Register. FDR practitioner accreditation alone is not enough — see the Alternative Pathway above if that is you.
2. Hold professional indemnity insurance that covers elder mediation.
3. Join EMAN (free) and EMIN.
4. Complete 30+ hours of elder mediation training with an EMIN-approved trainer. Dale’s program gives you 40.
5. Complete the remaining EMIN certification requirements at Cert.EM or Cert.EM (Advanced) level.
6. Apply through Mi as your Recognised Accreditation Provider, with evidence of your EMIN certification, insurance and memberships.

Once accredited you use the postnominal AMDRAS Specialist Dispute Resolution Practitioner (Elder Mediation), and you appear on the AMDRAS National Register filtered to Elder Mediation — which is where families and referrers look.

Renewal every two years asks for 20 hours of elder mediation practice (co-mediation counts) and 16 hours of elder-specific CPD. Full detail is in Are you eligible for the AMDRAS Elder Mediation Specialisation?

Is it worth it?

The requirements are genuinely onerous, and that is the value. A family choosing a mediator to help them decide where Dad lives, or who holds the enduring power of attorney, has no way to judge skill from a website. The specialisation is the shortcut — it tells them this practitioner has done certified training, carries the right insurance, is answerable to a national standard, and has been assessed by a Recognised Accreditation Provider.

There are currently very few accredited Elder Mediation Specialists in Australia. That will not stay true for long.

What to do next

• Mi Members — go to the Elder Mediation Training member page for the offer, Dale’s contact details and how to apply. Places are arranged directly with Dale, not through Mi.
• Not yet a Member — join Mi and get the offer, plus the Recognised Accreditation Provider you will need at the end of the pathway.
• Not sure you qualify — get in touch. The Alternative Pathway question is worth two minutes of conversation before you rule yourself out.
• Already accredited elsewhere — apply through your own Recognised Accreditation Provider, or apply through Mi.

See also: Meet Mi’s Elder Mediation Specialists · Mediation Explained

Frequently asked questions