Going through a divorce is difficult in a wide variety of ways. To get through it effectively, you will ideally have help from a team of professionals. It all starts with hiring an experienced and skilled divorce attorney whose personality and temperament are good matches for your own. This is someone you’ll be working closely with, so it is important to have an easy rapport.
Depending on the size of your marital estate and the complexity of your financial and family lives, you may also need additional professionals on your team, including certified divorce financial planners, wealth advisors, appraisers, forensic accountants, custody evaluators and more.
There is an aspect of your divorce that is easy to overlook but should not be neglected: protecting your mental and emotional health. Ideally, you will be able to make or continue a relationship with a trusted therapist to help you work through feelings of grief, loss and anxiety. If you need additional support, you can also work with a mental health professional known as a divorce coach.
What is divorce coaching?
Divorce coaching is relatively new. These are professionals, trained in mental health, who focus primarily or exclusively on helping guide you through emotional and practical issues related to your divorce. This could include:
- Becoming a coparent with your ex-spouse
- Helping your children cope with divorce
- Child development
- Getting through the divorce process
- Property division
- Housing arrangements post-divorce
In a recent Psychology Today article, one divorce coach stressed that divorce coaching is not therapy. Instead, a coach is a personal guide through the many difficult aspects of divorce that an attorney may not be best suited to help you with. And unlike standard therapists, divorce coaches are guaranteed to have considerable knowledge about and experience in divorce.
Which support options are right for you?
Anyone going through a divorce either needs or could greatly benefit from a good lawyer. Beyond that, however, the professionals you hire will vary depending on the details of your case. Once you find the attorney that is a good fit for you, consider looking into all other available resources for yourself and for those you love.