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CONSULTATION
I provide consultation for a variety of purposes and situations including
- Parenting in intact families
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As you already know, raising children is sometimes a joy and sometimes a challenge. Meeting the challenges successfully may require learning some specialized information about child development stages, sibling rivalry, communication skills, emotional problems and expression, managing transitions, behavior management, social skills development, and family dynamics. Helping children to develop self-esteem and empathy, be considerate and responsible, perform well in school, and be happy are appropriate goals. Parenting in the context of special issues such as emotional problems, behavior problems, learning problems including attention deficit disorders, or trauma can be especially challenging.
- Co-parenting during divorce and in two separate homes
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Raising children in the context of divorce and separate homes may be especially challenging. Managing the transition from a marital relationship to a co-parenting relationship may be emotionally and organizationally difficult. This difficulty is compounded when one or both of the parents is dysfunctional. Nevertheless, your children's well-being is significantly determined by how well you learn to co-parent.
Establishing a focus on how the "best interests of the child" is truly served is an important aspect of this work.
- Mediation
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Mediation is an alternative to adversarial divorce proceedings. If two parents can negotiate the re-distribution of how the children spend time with them and other matters without going to court, they save time, money and aggravation. More importantly, they set a precedent for resolving differences together in the future as well. Mediation provides a context for negotiating a parenting plan and financial decisions. The resulting agreements, made by the parents, are reviewed by the parents' attorneys to ensure that the agreements are reasonable for each parent.
- Collaborative divorce planning
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When parents are unable to effectively participate in mediation, a variety of legal, financial, and mental health professionals can coordinate services within the collaborative divorce setting. A collaborative divorce group is designed to address the full range of needs of all family members. The collaborative divorce group provides a child specialist, parent coaches, certified divorce financial planners, and attorneys for each parent who are committed to the collaborative process. Divorce support groups are also part of the services offered. If you are committed to open, honest and respectful communication in the service of resolving differences, and if you want to be in more control of the decisions made for your family, and especially if you want the best outcome for your children, then you should consider a collaborative divorce strategy.
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