One of the latest innovations in family law is called collaborative divorce, which provides an alternative to appearing in court before a trial judge. We are a proponent of a more compassionate, productive, team approach to divorce like this. We work as part of the professional team to change divorce from destroying families to improving individual and family dynamics. One of the key changes in collaborative divorce is bringing in a team of experts to deal with the all of the challenges of ending a marriage.
The divorce coach
One of the team member professionals is a divorce coach. This person is generally a licensed mental health professional such a psychologist or clinical therapist. People going through divorce experience a journey of emotions. The divorce coach is specially trained to help clients get out of the whirlpools of bitterness that keep spinning round and round in their minds.
If clients already have a family therapist, they are encouraged to continue that relationship. The divorce coach focuses only on the issues of divorce and does not seek to offer more in depth therapy.
Divorcing couples may each have their own divorce coach, or in rare cases, they utilize one. They may have separate divorce coaching sessions and joint sessions. Each couple comes with unique needs that coaches seek to fulfill. The coaches also advise the legal professionals on the status of their clients.
Benefits of divorces coaches
• Have someone other than family and friends to vent feelings.
• Eliminate or decrease the adversarial atmosphere of divorce.
• Help sort out confusing emotions and get problems in perspective.
• Focus on children of the marriage and propose positive steps for their emotional development.
• Help manage reactions to stress and give clients tools to manage their messages, both input and output so they can better negotiate for themselves.
• Help clients see a future beyond the divorce.
• Give clients tools to better clients can take with them to the negotiation table or to deal with future issues.
If you would like to speak to us about the possibility of collaborative divorce, call 1 (805) 231-5705 or 866-632-6459 to set up an appointment.