If your marriage cannot survive, then perhaps what you need is a collaborative divorce. Linda Miller-deBerard leads clients to relief from depression and anxiety leading from relationship issues through her practice, Confidential Care Professional Counseling, based in Colleyville, Texas. Here she discusses how this new type of divorce can make the process a whole lot easier.
Unfortunately, there are those situations where couples decide that a marriage cannot survive. The good news is that the legal profession has begun a new movement called collaborative divorce that helps couples work through divorce issues without antagonism or undue conflict and bitterness.
Collaborative divorce is a relatively new concept that was designed to give couples the power to make decisions about their divorce, instead of handing that power over to a judge who has never met them.
Emotionally Better
It is emotionally healthier for the couple and for the family. It allows the couple to enlist the help of neutral parties, what the model looks like is there are two attorneys, a neutral financial planner or adviser and a neutral mental healthcare professional.
Everyone sits at the table together, and they gather information about property and issues with the family. And they then brainstorm options that will work in a divorce settlement until they find the option that meets each person’s needs.
Communication Facilitator
The role of the mental healthcare person is actually called the “communication facilitator,” and that role is to help them have effective communication throughout the divorce process in order to help expedite making decisions and help maintain a co-parenting relationship in the future.
What we know statistically is that children of divorce can do as well as children from intact families. That is, if they have an equal relationship with both parents and if they have minimal conflict through the divorce.
They can begin a collaborative divorce in many ways. They can begin with a trained mental healthcare professional or they can begin with a trained attorney who can connect them with other members of the team. When a person does a collaborative divorce, he’s essentially hiring a whole team, including his spouse’s attorney. They serve as team member for each partner.
