The Marriage May End But your Family Must Still Move Forward

Relationships Change.

Divorce changes a family.

It changes where people live, how decisions are made, how holidays look, how finances are managed, and how parents interact with one another. But when you share children, divorce doesn't completely end the relationship between two people. It changes it. You are no longer being asked to function as partners in a marriage. You're being asked to build an entirely different kind of relationship. One centered around raising your children across two homes.

And that transition can be incredibly difficult.

Our 12-week Pre/Post Divorce & Co-Parenting Program helps parents move out of the patterns of the former relationship and begin creating a healthier co-parenting relationship for the family that remains.

You Can End a Marriage Without Asking Your Children to Carry Your Ending.

Children don't need parents who pretend the divorce isn't difficult. They don't need parents who agree about everything.

And they don't need two homes that operate exactly the same way.

What they need is permission to continue loving both parents without feeling responsible for either one. When hurt, anger, fear, or unresolved conflict remains between parents, children can unintentionally become messengers, mediators, information sources, confidants, or the place where tension between adults gets expressed. Most parents don't intentionally put their children in the middle. It happens because divorce hurts. Our work is about recognizing those moments and creating a different path forward.

You are Changing the Relationship, Not Erasing History.

One of the challenges of co-parenting is that you're trying to build a new relationship with someone that you still carry old experiences with. A text about soccer practice can suddenly feel like an argument from five years ago. A change in the schedule can feel like disrespect. A parenting disagreement can activate old feelings about control, rejection, criticism, or not being heard. The subject may be the children. But the reaction may still belong to the marriage. Part of our work is learning to recognize the difference.

Successful co-parenting isn't measured by whether you take family vacations together or sit beside one another at every school event. For some families, a warm and collaborative relationship is possible. For others, healthy co-parenting may require more structure, clearer boundaries, and less interaction. The goal isn't closeness between former partners. The goal is creating a co-parenting relationship that allows your children to have meaningful relationships with both parents without carrying the emotional weight between them.

Children often understand far more than adults realize.

They notice tone.

They notice facial expressions.

They notice when one parent's name changes the energy in the room.

They may begin editing what they say about one home while they're in the other.

They may avoid talking about having fun with the other parent because they're afraid it will hurt someone's feelings.

They may even begin taking responsibility for a parent's loneliness, sadness, or anger.

One of the greatest gifts parents can give children during and after divorce is this message:

You are allowed to love both of us.

Our work will help you communicate that not only with words, but through the way the adults around them behave.

12 Weeks to a Different Way Forward.

Each week focuses on an important part of moving from a former couple relationship toward a healthier co-parenting relationship. This program is not designed for reconciliation or to focus on marital issues. It's about helping parents create a healthier two-home family and keeping children out of the middle.

The first and last sessions are 2-hours long. The ten sessions in between are 90 minutes long.

The program covers the following 12 topics:

Week 1 - From Partners to Co-Parents: We'll begin by understanding where your family is now, what brought you to this transition, and what each parent hopes the co-parenting relationship can become. We'll distinguish between the ending of the adult relationship and the continuation of the parenting relationship.
Week 2 - Understanding the Old Relationship Cycle: Divorce doesn't automatically end the interactional patterns that existed during the relationship. We'll identify the cycle between you (pursuing, withdrawing, criticizing, defending, controlling, avoiding) and explore how that same pattern may now be showing up in co-parenting. You don't have to resolve the marriage to stop repeating it.
Week 3 - Keeping Children Out of the Middle: We'll explore loyalty conflicts, triangulation, using children as messengers, oversharing adult information, emotional caretaking, and the subtle ways children can become involved in parental conflict. The goal is to create emotional permission for your children to maintain their relationship with both parents.
Week 4 - Communicating as Co-Parents: Co-parenting communication needs to serve a different purpose than communication within a marriage. We'll work on communicating clearly, respectfully, and efficiently about the children without reopening old relational conflicts. We'll also explore when a conversation is necessary—and when it isn't.
Week 5 - Boundaries Between Two Homes: Where does your responsibility end and the other parents begin? We'll explore privacy, access, expectations, schedules, household differences, new boundaries, and the difficult reality that you may no longer have influence over everything that happens in the other home. Healthy co-parenting requires both communication and separation.
Week 6 - Parenting Without Competing: Different homes will sometimes have different rules. We'll discuss consistency versus control, discipline, routines, expectations, decision-making, and how to manage parenting differences without asking children to determine which parent is "right." Children can learn to function within two homes without either home becoming the enemy.
Week 7 - Grief, Anger & Letting Go of the Former Relationship: Even when divorce is the right decision, there can still be grief. You may be grieving the relationship, the family structure you expected to have, traditions, financial security, friendships, your home, or the future you once imagined. We'll create space to recognize those losses while working toward keeping unresolved pain from becoming part of the co-parenting relationship.
Week 8 - Helping Children Navigate the Transition: Children experience divorce differently depending on their age, temperament, developmental stage, and family circumstances. We'll talk about how to communicate about divorce, respond to difficult questions, recognize behavioral and emotional changes, and create stability without pretending everything is unchanged.
Week 9 - New Relationships, Stepparents & Changing Family Systems: Eventually, someone new may enter one or both households. We'll discuss introductions, boundaries, parenting roles, loyalty concerns, communication with new partners, and how blended-family relationships can change the existing co-parenting system. A new relationship doesn't erase the original family system—it changes it again.
Week 10 - Holidays, Milestones & the Moments That Still Belong to Everyone: Birthdays. Graduations. Weddings. Sporting events. School programs. Holidays. Your children will continue having moments where both sides of their family matter. We'll talk about navigating these experiences in ways that allow the event to remain about the child rather than the relationship between the adults. Sometimes successful co-parenting means simply being able to share a room without asking your child to manage the tension.
Week 11 - Conflict, Repair & When Things Go Wrong: You will not co-parent perfectly. There will be misunderstandings, schedule problems, disagreements, missed communication, frustration, and moments when old patterns return. We'll develop ways to recognize escalation, step out of the old cycle, repair when necessary, and determine which issues actually require engagement. Progress isn't never having conflict. It's learning not to let every conflict become the old relationship again.
Week 12 - Building the Family That Exists Now: Divorce changes the family's story. It doesn't have to destroy it. In our final week, we'll look at what you've learned, the co-parenting relationship you're creating, the boundaries you want to maintain, and the values you want your children to experience across both homes. We'll ask an important question: Years from now, what do you hope your children remember about how their parents handled this chapter of their lives? You can't control every part of their experience. But you can be intentional about the part you create.

This isn't Divorce Mediation.

Our program is therapeutic and educational in nature. We don't determine custody, parenting time, child support, property division, or other legal matters, and participation should not replace advice from your attorney or other appropriate legal professionals.

Instead, our focus is on the relational and family system surrounding divorce.

How do you communicate?

How do you manage conflict?

How do you establish boundaries?

How do you protect children from adult issues?

And how do you create a functional parenting relationship when the romantic relationship has ended?

Do Both Parents Have to Participate?

This program is designed to include both parents in order to create a healthier way forward for our children.

It's not forced. It's not court ordered.

It's successful when two people are willing participants.

You cannot control whether your former partner changes.

But that doesn't necessarily mean you're powerless within the system.

Individual work may help you recognize your own triggers, establish healthier boundaries, communicate differently, stop participating in familiar cycles, and become more intentional about the environment you're creating for your children. When one person changes the way they participate in a pattern, the pattern often has to adjust. We can discuss whether individual work or another service would be more appropriate when joint participation isn't possible.

Pre/Post Divorce Program Fee

$1500

The Pre/Post Divorce & Co-Parenting Program consists of 12 structured sessions, typically completed weekly.

The program can support families preparing for separation, currently navigating divorce, or adjusting to co-parenting after divorce. Each week provides structure while still allowing us to work with the specific challenges occurring within your family. Some sessions may involve education. Others may involve slowing down a difficult interaction between co-parents. Sometimes we'll work on communication, boundaries, or a specific parenting concern. And sometimes the most important work will be learning how not to respond in the same way you did when you were married. The first and last session are 2-hours. The ten sessions in between are 90 minutes long.

The Pre/Post Divorce & Co-Parenting Program is a self-pay service and is not billed to insurance. The program is designed around co-parenting, family transition, relationship patterns, and the needs of the family system rather than treatment of an identified individual's mental health diagnosis. Keeping the program self-pay allows the work to remain focused on the goals of the co-parenting relationship and the structured 12-week program rather than being determined by insurance coverage requirements.

Payment for the program is due, in full, prior to beginning your program.

Your Relationship with Each Other is Changing. Your Relationship with your Children Continues.

Divorce may change where your children sleep. It may change holidays. It may change traditions. It may change what your family looks like. But children will continue building their understanding of relationships, conflict, boundaries, forgiveness, and family by watching the adults around them.

You don't have to give them a perfect divorce.

You can give them parents who are willing to learn how to do the next chapter differently.

The marriage may end. The family doesn't.

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If you are interested in the pre/post divorce program please reach out for more information.

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