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Helping You to Help Yourself
Services Offered
Attorney-Coached Mediation Support
It's usually a smart move to mediate rather than litigate your divorce. Still, it's daunting to step into a mediation with your soon-to-be ex and advocate for yourself when you don't have a clear understanding of your legal options. As an Attorney-Coach I am in your corner as you engage in mediation or try to negotiate directly with your spouse. Depending on the level of support you need, we may confer before and after each mediation session to prepare and debrief, review legal and financial documents, identify your options, evaluate proposals and prioritize issues. As a more confident and informed advocate for yourself, you will be better able to craft a thoughtful and sustainable agreement that continues to meet your family's needs over time.
Parent and Co-Parent Coaching
Unfortunately, separation or divorce does not end your relationship with your ex if you share a child -- it just changes the nature of the relationship. Despite the obstacles, you are called upon to forge a different sort of partnership that prioritizes your child's best interests over either parent's preferences.
As a Parent Coach, I provide more than a sympathetic ear: I help you to assess your situation objectively, identify self-defeating patterns, and establish healthier co-parenting rules, boundaries and habits. Nobody is born knowing how to co-parent. But it is a skill set that can be learned, and the benefits are incalculable.
Parenting Coordination
Parenting Coordination is a multi-pronged service that's relatively new to Massachusetts Family Law. As a Parenting Coordinator I help embattled co-parents to stay focused on the well-being of their child and to develop better communication skills so they can learn to co-parent without having to go back to court each time they disagree. Support may take different forms, including:
- information, resources and best-practice guidance on child-related topics;
- strategies that reduce co-parenting conflict;
- assistance in developing or implementing a viable parenting plan;
- suggestions for improving drop off and pick up arrangements;
- communication and safety protocols for vacationing with the child(ren);
- decision-making support about, for example, religious observance, school choice, afterschool activities, or integrating new partners.
Parenting Coordination relies heavily on coaching and mediating, but it goes a step further. When co-parents are unable to make a child-related decision, a PC can resolve the impasse by making a recommendation based on the child's best interests. Using all available tools, I will work to help you and your ex transform a high conflict relationship into a parenting partnership that better serves you and your children.
Collaborative Divorce
Collaborative Divorce is a team-oriented form of alternative dispute resolution in which both parties, their respective collaborative attorneys, and various financial and communication professionals work together to resolve the parties' disputes without litigation. Collaborative family law attorneys are trained to zealously represent their client's unique interests while remaining committed to arriving at a negotiated separation or modification agreement. The team approach can also be more economical because jointly hiring a neutral accountant, therapist, financial planner or realtor to join the team avoids the duplication of efforts often found in a litigated divorce scenario. I recommend collaborative divorce to clients who want me to personally negotiate on their behalf, yet value arriving at an out of court resolution.
HELPFUL HINTS
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