a difficult transition
Children and teens who have experienced divorce have unique needs. Stress, conflict, and loss all happen at once, causing parents and their children to feel overwhelmed. In the presence of this kind of distress, children often act-out due to misguided feelings of guilt and self-blame or as a means to bring their parents back together. Our goal and focus is to provide support and guidance so that both parents and their children can adaptively move through and cope with these difficult feelings and adjust to the life changes ahead.
We work closely with children and teens as they learn:
- To reduce feelings of guilt and to recognize, they are not the cause of their parent’s divorce
- Positive coping and adjustment strategies to altered family roles and rules
- Identify loss, sadness, anger, and fear in ways that promote healthy expression
- To develop a sense of hope about the future and about relationships
Focus on Cooperative Parenting
Our work with parents dealing with divorce focuses on:
- Helping to develop consistent parenting at both homes, and avoiding child and adolescent manipulation and “splitting” dynamics
- Helping move away from bitterness and blaming, and move towards practical problem-solving
- Helping parents focus on nurturing and supporting their children despite their own relationship challenges