Tag: divorce

  • Why can’t he just be normal?

    Why can’t he just be normal?

    I recently had a mom walk into my office and she plopped down on my couch and began sobbing. When she was able to talk, she kept repeating, “Why, why, why, why?” I finally got her calmed down and asked her to tell me what was going on. Her response was not remarkable, shocking, or…

  • Co-Parent Tip of the Month: Kids Want to Matter

    Co-Parent Tip of the Month: Kids Want to Matter

    I witnessed an amazing transformation recently in my practice that made me think how simply kids see their parents. I also viewed a short film called Talk to Strangers (https://childcustodyfilm.com/custody-film/) that reinforced a lot of what I had just experienced. In the final scene of the film, you see the children walking away from the…

  • Co-Parent Tip of the Month: Ten Rules

    Co-Parent Tip of the Month: Ten Rules

    This month, I want to share the rules of co-parent communication that we teach twice a month in our Advanced Issues in Co-Parenting Workshop for the Gwinnett County courts. If you don’t know about this workshop, you can access info about it HERE. Please share these with your clients and ask them to not use…

  • Jasmine: Daddy’s Little Girl

    Jasmine: Daddy’s Little Girl

    (To protect confidentiality, names and details have been modified) Jasmine’s mom and step-dad came to see me after attending our Advanced Issues in Co-Parenting Workshop at the Gwinnett Courthouse. Mom said she had never heard of the workshop before until she went to see her attorney when her daughter said she might like to come…

  • Let’s Just Call a Therapist

    Let’s Just Call a Therapist

    “…of course the therapist would have to say something to the court…wouldn’t she?”

  • 18 is the New 15

    18 is the New 15

    Teens are not equipped to handle too much responsibility. Recent research is telling us that 18 is the new 15, meaning that teens are maturing at a slower rate than they were decades ago. According to Dr. Daniel Siegel, “In a culture that says, ‘Okay, you’re going to go to high school, go to college,…

  • Modeling Resilience

    Modeling Resilience

    Resilience is a dying word in our society, in my opinion. It’s the capacity to recover quickly from difficult circumstances or the ability of a substance to spring back into shape after being stretched. Although making accommodations for certain trauma is certainly necessary and understandable, not all difficulties or “stretching” is considered trauma. In the…

  • Giving Teens a Choice

    Giving Teens a Choice

    We all recognize that teenagers have lives outside of their parents – lives they would much rather cultivate than their relationship with their parents! But we also know that during the teen years, a lot of things can go awry if a good solid parent/child bond is not in place. When I was a teen,…

  • The Truth about Parental Alienation

    The Truth about Parental Alienation

    The phrase parental alienation has become somewhat ubiquitous in custody cases these days, reminiscent of the path ADHD and bipolar disorder took years ago when they became the disorders du jour and popularized by our culture and media. Unfortunately, when that happens, the terms become watered down and eventually dismissed as overused and exaggerated, leaving…

  • The Power of Plan B

    The Power of Plan B

    Co-parent conflict is often about parents feeling frustrated by their personal differences. Chances are those existed prior to the relationship break-up, but they become more prominent as you try to navigate those differences after divorce or separation. A parent might be chronically late for parenting time transitions, or won’t let your child do normal kid…