Emotions are high and you need support above and beyond what your family can provide.
If you are lucky, your attorney or mediator is an empathetic individual who has respect for the intense emotional upheaval you are experiencing, but even if you have the best legal professional in the world, their job is not to help you process your emotions. Their job is to get you through the process and on with your life.
If you have seen divorce on the horizon for a while, you may have already found a counselor to work with, others may be finding a counselor to work with for the first time.
How do you choose a counselor?
If you are not in the counseling profession you may have the notion that all counselors are pretty much the same.
As a matter of fact, there are a range of specialties in the counseling field and, believe it or not, divorce is one of those specialties.
Counselors that work with clients going through divorce know a lot about the legal and emotional process because we keep in close contact with attorneys and GAL’s in the community. We cross train to learn as much about what you are going through in the courts so we may better serve you and we also educate attorneys so they may better serve you too.
Yes, your generalist therapist has been by your side for a long time, but there are intricacies about divorce involving the emotional, logistic and strategic realms that a general therapist is not hip to. Not because they are a bad therapist, it is just not their specialty.
If you needed heart surgery, you would not go see you internist. You would go see a surgeon.
In St. Louis we have a large group of counselors that specialize in divorce. We help families through the emotions but we also offer co-parent counseling, psychological evaluations, education, child therapy, and coaching. You may find us serving as mediators or coaches in the collaborative process. Counselors that specialize in divorce can also work collaboratively with you, your attorney and/or mediator to help you and your co-parent formulate a parenting plan that works for you and your children.
A divorce counselor is really the most effective choice to get you through this rough time and on to living again.
Feel free to click and reach me at Contact if you have any questions or need a referral.
Kristen Neal is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Clinical Director at Greenway Therapy . Learn more about her on her BIO page.
