DIVORCE CO-PARENTING

Keeping Parenthood a Priority
(Number of sessions subject to circumstances)

As a parental coordinator, I have been holding divorce co-parenting classes to assist parents and children going through high-conflict divorce.

These court-ordered courses offer guidance to parents in implementing their parenting plan and helps them resolve conflicts regarding their children to ensure an emotionally healthy transition that can lead to meaningful parent-child relationships.

My hope is that educating parents about the impact of high-conflict dynamics and the resulting psychological trauma it causes for children will help co-parents shift their focus to the needs of their children.

Through psycho-education and learning about state-of-the-art research, parents can understand how the children are affected by divorce and how they can support their adjustment. Parents learn to experience what it’s like to be the children in the family involved, instead of seeing them from a their own, often resigned, angry, and exhausted perspective.

At this stage of the separation process, my primary role is to make this transition as smooth as possible for all parties involved.

Cooperative parenting, or co-parenting, is not just a mindset but also a set of specific strategies and skills that help to develop and maintain a workable family structure and a constructive and respectful environment that supports each child's growth.

Even the most amicable of separation arrangements can benefit from early advice and counselling. Early intervention is the surest way to reduce the time, trauma and expenses that usually accompany an acrimonious split.

For those parents who are, unfortunately, already in the mindset of bitter relationships and have been suggested by the court to take a divorce co-parenting course, I am a licensed facilitator for the following two court-approved co-parenting programmes:

Parents Forever™ Programme

This parent education programme is recognised by the Minnesota Supreme Court, where it originated. The course is structured into 10 one-hour sessions and addresses issues often mandated by courts concerning parental education, such as:

Children's reaction to divorce
Children's reaction to parental conflict

The recovery cycle of divorce for children and adults
Parental communication
The four different types of co-parenting

This course is suitable for relatively low-conflict divorce.

New Ways for Families ™

This program is a court ordered co-parenting education programme developed by the High Conflict Institute in the U.S. The course focuses on helping both married and unmarried parents strengthen their conflict resolution skills in separation or divorce. It has been designed to protect children as their families reorganize in new ways.

The structured course is aimed at parents who are working to resolve high-intensity conflict situations.