(ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Oct. 27, 2009) The Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) will hold a free telephone conference about “The Power of Apology in Mediation” on Tuesday, Nov. 17, noon-1 p.m.

The speaker is Carl D. Schneider, Ph.D., director of Mediation Matters, a training, consultation and service organization in Bethesda. Schneider is a licensed clinical psychologist and a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist who has trained several thousand mediators over the past 25 years.

“I’ve been intrigued with the power and paradoxes of apology and have been a student of its role in mediation,” Schneider said. He will lead a discussion of the role of apology in mediation, what makes a genuine apology, how to recognize when an opportunity is present, and how to prepare and support clients in offering and hearing an apology. The teleconference is designed for people who lead or take part professionally in mediation or alternative dispute resolution, but is open to the public.

For more information or to arrange to take part in the teleconference, go to MACRO’s Web site, http://www.mdcourts.gov/macro.