Benefits of Team Mediation or Collaborative Divorce Process:
- You, not a judge or lawyers, make decisions and agreements – limited only by your own reasonableness, creativity, flexibility and the law.
- The Team controls the process to ensure efficiency and a safe, open context for communication and creating win-win options.
- The absence of adversarial professionals. Distrust and fear require more professional intervention and higher costs.
- 1 or 2 Licensed Divorce Therapists help contain even most high-conflict couples to get to the divorce finish line.
- Individualized support from professionals trained to consider the needs and wellbeing of all family members.
- Avoid costly court battles and the added costs of using additional divorce professionals who are not working together collaboratively.
- Avoid the emotional stress and pain for immediate and extended family members when litigation requires you to “win against” your partner in an adversarial process.
- When emotions run high, emotion regulation skills learned from Licensed Divorce Specialists permit calm, thoughtful decision-making and solutions.
- Communication skills-building and support offered by Licensed Divorce Therapists before and during any necessary but difficult conversations.
- Co-Parents create a detailed Parenting Plan with co-parenting experts who help you anticipate your children’s future developmental needs, and avoid future conflict.
- Consensual Dispute Resolution (CDR) is a private and confidential process – only the final agreement (“Judgment”) is submitted to the court.
- Full disclosure and transparency regarding all assets and debts are legally required in any divorce process; your single, neutral Financial Specialist can help secure transparency, and track and trace finances in a friendlier context, without costly subpoenas and litigation.
- To prepare for decisions about how to share assets and debts, your neutral Financial Specialist offers a safe context to ensure education and a clear, shared understanding of your family’s finances that reduces anxiety, helps rebuild trust and reduces costs.
- Unlike divorce with a single, neutral mediator or litigation, in a Collaborative Divorce each partner is “legally represented” by a Family Law Attorney who considers their client’s best interests, as well as the wellbeing of all family members.
(Note: One big difference between any form of Team Mediation & Collaborative Divorce is the Disqualification Clause required by Collaborative. The Disqualification Clause requires all professionals to resign from the process if either partner opts to go to court, and thus increases each partner’s investment in the process.)
Critical Collaborative Divorce Benefits for Children & Adult Children of Divorce, with a neutral Child or Adult Child Specialist:
- The neutral Child Specialist ensures Children and Adult Children of divorce are given a voice – not the burden of a choice
- The impact of parental conflict, as well as kids’ needs and concerns are considered, understood and respected
- Children are buffered from the toxic levels of stress and conflict – the fall out of costly court custody wars
- Children are more protected from the toxic stress of being used by parents as go-betweens or confidantes, and from carrying parents’ emotions as well as too much “adult” information
- Co-parents learn to communicate effectively, and manage intense emotions to create a healthier, respectful context for raising their children
- Co-parents can learn to be skilled at jointly and respectfully participating in kids’ developmental events going forward (e.g. sports events, graduations from high school & college, weddings, baby showers, grandchildren’s birthdays and events)
- Divorce Coaches help co-parents create a detailed Parenting Plan, informed by the Child or Adult Child Specialist, and that anticipates children’s future developmental needs, and avoids future challenges.
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