Divorce Without Destruction: My Conversation on The Personal Side of Business

I was a guest on The Personal Side of Business, hosted by Jet Bunditwong, for an episode we called Divorce Without Destruction: Finding Clarity, Compassion & Cooperation. It is a conversation about something I have spent thirty years watching from both sides: what a divorce costs a family when it is fought in court, and how much of that cost is avoidable.

We covered most of what couples ask me in a first consultation:

• How mediation compares with litigating, in time and in money.
• How to support children through a separation without putting them in the middle of it.
• What can be done to repair the way two people talk to each other, even while they are separating.
• Why I take a holistic approach, which means education about the law and the finances rather than just paperwork.
• Real cases, including a few where the couple worked through everything and decided they did not want to divorce after all.

That last point surprises people, so it is worth saying plainly. The purpose of mediation is not to get a couple divorced efficiently. It is to give two people the information and the room to make their own decisions, and occasionally the decision they reach is that they are staying together. That is a good outcome too.

If you are considering a divorce, supporting someone who is, or simply curious about a less destructive way to handle it, the episode is a reasonable place to start. It is also a fair sense of what I am like to talk to, which matters if you are weighing up whether to sit in a room with me.

More about how the process works is on how divorce mediation works, and more about me is on my about page. The first thirty minutes with me are free, so if the episode raises a question about your own situation, ask me directly.