How Collaborative Divorce Works

In Collaborative Divorce, couples who have decided to end their marriage work with a team of professionals to avoid the arbitrary and uncertain outcomes of court litigation and to achieve a divorce settlement that best meets the specific needs of both parties and their children. Collaborative Divorce focuses on settlement, and addresses communication dynamics. It offers a more healthy and effective forum for the resolution of the couple's divorce issues.

The goal of Collaborative Divorce is to help the couple define and implement the settlement that best meets the needs of their family, and learn new skills for more effective communication, conflict resolution and post-divorce co-parenting. In order to accomplish these goals, three independent professional disciplines are available to work together as a team to integrate the legal, emotional, and financial aspects of divorce.

The Collaborative Team helps the parties achieve a divorce settlement that minimizes the negative economic, social, and emotional consequences that often undermine families in the traditional adversarial divorce process. By maintaining a primary focus on the needs of children and the welfare of the family overall, the Collaborative approach helps parents provide their children with the emotional support and healthy co-parenting they need.

Requirements for a Collaborative Divorce

The desire to change ineffective communication patterns and the commitment to work at change are vital to a successful outcome. If dysfunctional patterns are not changed, conflict persists. It is this focus on changing the couple's way of interacting with each other that makes the Collaborative Divorce process a better approach to both divorce, and post divorce co-parenting.

For a successful outcome, Collaborative Divorce requires the following:

• Both parties must dedicate themselves to honesty, openness and a willingness to place the welfare of the entire family first.
• Couples must commit to work on changing harmful habits and patterns, which is central to a successful outcome.
• Communication training is as critical to the process as the legal and financial negotiations; couples must agree on changing ineffective communication patterns.