When couples want to have a more amicable divorce process, Divorce Coaching can help turn that hope into reality. We regularly use Divorce Coaches on Collaborative teams, but a Divorce Coach can also be very helpful to couples engaging in mediation or using a kitchen table approach.
Divorce Coaches generally come from marriage and family therapy backgrounds. When a couple finds it difficult to talk to each other in a productive fashion (as is common in divorce), a Divorce Coach helping to guide conversation can make a huge difference in the ability of the couple to move beyond their “stuck” points and find common ground for reaching agreements.
Divorce Coaching can take a variety of forms. It might involve pre-divorce work to help a couple decide whether divorce is the right route for them, or whether they want to find ways to resolve differences so that they can remain together. Much of Divorce Coaching occurs during the divorce process, helping the couple communicate effectively so that settlement agreements can be reached. A specialized form of Divorce Coaching is Co-Parent Coaching, helping separating parents co-parent more effectively so that the children are not negatively impacted by parental conflict. Divorce Coaching, and particularly Co-Parent Coaching, may even take place post-divorce. Parents can run into parenting disagreements years after the divorce is over, and a Coach can be of great help in resolving those issues in a way that emphasizes the well-being of the children.
If you are contemplating divorce and are looking to do so in a more cooperative way, you and your spouse may want to start out by talking to a Divorce Coach for guidance. At Seattle Divorce Services, we would be be happy to give you the names of some Divorce Coaches in our area that we think highly of.