As a Family Law attorney, how can I help counselors who deal with patients contemplating divorce?

Preferably, be knowledgeable in their options (Collaborative law, mediation, other settlement processes and litigation). For those who want to have a positive relationship with their soon to be "X", collaborative has a great success rate because it keeps the temperature down. Choice of counsel should include attorneys with these skills. As once with a Masters in Counseling, I appreciate that the fear of the unknown can be the worst. Picking your process is a logical first step.  

I love this idea. As a Marriage and Family Therapist I see couples in the midst of fight-flight who are making choices from an emotional perspective. Later, once the smoke has cleared, each understands the emotional and financial toll taken by doing so.  Working from a collaborative perspective allows for more trust and less angst, and where children are concerned, the possibility of coming out of the process with less trauma.

While I have been through a divorce many years ago, it would be wonderful to have resources for my clients contemplating divorce to better understand the process and how a collaborative divorce might serve them in the long run.

The Collaborative Law process is a a form of alternative dispute resolution for divorcing couples who desire to avoid litigation but want zealous representation by their own attorneys during the process of reaching a Separation Agreement.  Unlike divorce mediation, the husband and wife are both represented by their own attorneys during the collaborative law process.  Each parties' attorney zealously represents their client's interests during the Collaborative Law process.  Unlike mediation, the Collaborative Law process has the parties negotiating a settlement through their attorneys. The attorneys during the Collaborative Law process negotiate, on behalf of their respective clients, between themselves and then go back to their clients to settle continuing disputes.  The CLP attempts to lessen arguments between divorcing couples.  The downside to the Collaborative Law Process is that it is much more expensive than Mediation.  During mediation, the mediator, who in their role as a neutral party, attempts to resolve all outstanding issues between the parties in order to reach what is known as a final Separation Agreement.  The Mediator then drafts the agreed upon Separation Agreement and then each party is strongly advised by the Mediator to have their own attorney read and explain the Separation Agreement to their client.  The Separation Agreement is presented at hearing to the Judge. If the Separation Agreement is well drafted and comprehensive, the Judge then  enters the Separation  into a Judgment of Divorce Nisi.   The Collaborative Law process is most successful with parties, who requires the intervention, of their own attorney to assist in the negotiation. The Collaborative Law process is better suited to couples who have difficulty communicating with one another and/or one of the two spouses is more domineering or argumentative.  Mediation is most successful when the divorcing couple is on fairly good speaking terms and are willing to reasonably negotiate with the assistance of neutral mediator.

In my opinion, the answer to your question is to encourage mental health professionals that may be treating clients contemplating divorce to maintain good boundaries and safe, therapeutic space and avoid attempts by the clients to weaponize the therapist by calling them as a witness.  The therapists engagement letter should lay out, in no uncertain terms, that the therapist will not agree to be a witness for either party and attempts to subpoena the therapist will be quashed.

Family law