Consulting

“One-Time Consult”

The “One-Time Consult” provides a platform for family change. Parents are welcomed to design a One-Time Consult that best suits their needs. Pull from the three examples provided below (Divorce Well, Co-Parent Strong, and Step Wise) for examples of typical focus areas, and modify or expand to include your unique concerns. During the 90-minute ZOOM session, you’ll dive into your specific goals, uncertainties, possible areas of conflict, and niggling questions. Together we’ll explore how your children’s unique developmental stages and temperaments can be matched with your hopes for a healthy future. Karen will provide information, help generate options, resources and referrals – all in an effort to guide you toward a secure future:  Thriving kiddos, skillful co-parenting and stable family life.

(For Disclosure of Information & Policies, and Fees for Services, please review “Client Forms” prior to appt.)

Divorce Well

You’ve made the decision to separate. This is the time to engage a divorce/co-parent coach! Talk through divorce process options such as facilitative mediation (with or without attorneys) or Collaborative Divorce. Secure a commitment from each other to abide by separation do’s and one don’t to keep your children central – not caught in the middle. Please follow this link for a YouTube video where I talk through “How to Tell Kids about Divorce.”

“What about the kids?” Learn what’s most important as they experience family change, design together how you’ll talk with them about divorce, and gain tools to emotionally support them in the weeks and months ahead. Receive guidance on how to prepare children for and transition them into their two-home family.

Need help designing a developmentally appropriate, child-centered parenting plan? Are you looking for guidance on how to build healthy parenting-time schedules? Karen will help you find your way with attention to your children’s ages and stages throughout their growing up years. If you have attorneys who would like to attend the consultation, they are also welcomed. Want Karen to review your parenting plan prior to signing? She’s happy to provide detailed feedback by email. Please consider reading “The Parenting Plan Workbook” and accessing companion videos for additional assistance.

Co-Parent Strong

As you create a two-home family, you and your soon-to-be-former partner evolve into an important alliance: A co-parenting relationship. The question isn’t whether you will or won’t co-parent with your child(ren)’s other parent; the question is ”How skillfully will you co-parent?” Once parents share a child, co-parenting is until death do you part. Please consider reading or listening to “The Co-Parenting Handbook” for additional resources.

A One-Time Consult is for parents before, during or after divorce. Parents ask for a consult to develop respectful communication protocols, or resolve a focused dispute, such a school choice or difficult healthcare decision … or to gain perspectives about how best to navigate a parent’s relocation. Don’t hesitate to ask if your particular concern can be served by a consult.

Can a parent do a One-Time Consult individually? Most situations benefit from both parents participating in the One-Time Consult … but there are circumstances when a co-parent might want to do their own homework to be sure they are implementing “best practices” even when their co-parent may not have interest in working together.

Step Wise (From Dating to Stepfamily)

You’re ready to date – you’ve met someone. You are a parent entering the dating world, or you’re starting to date a parent – and you wonder to yourself, “What will this mean – they have kids?!?” Preparing to date, wanting to introduce the kids to a new partner, getting more serious, thinking about living together … come learn how to take these important steps into next time family.  Karen will help you become familiar with and unpack solutions for the five complexities associated with dating when one or both of you have children, getting more serious, and forming a ‘blended family’. Please consider reading or listening to “The Stepfamily Handbook” for additional information.

Karen’s “Stepfamily Stress Assessment” provides useful hints toward the common difficulties stepcouples face. You may discover that what causes tension for one is not what causes tension for the other! Bringing the completed tool to a One-Time Consult gives you a chance to learn how to step forward together more confidently and more connected in those moments when you feel divided or pulled apart by the needs of the children or demands of a co-parent.

A well-functioning “Parenting Coalition” is an important cornerstone of a stable stepfamily. Parents and stepparents grow into a team of adults working together effectively in a respectful, cooperative business-like manner on behalf of kids. Meeting together in a One-Time Consult to discuss communication protocols, discipline across both homes, transportation issues and coordinating activities are just a few of the skill-building and decision-making areas you may want to cover.