When planning a wedding, to ease the stress and create a more enjoyable wedding, some couples hire a wedding planner to take care of the time consuming, myriad details of the wedding. When their marriage fails, those same couples who hired a wedding planner, may turn to a divorce coach to help ease the stress. and in a way, make the divorce process more enjoyable, by assisting the couple with the myriad details of their divorce.
A divorce can be an emotional, life changing time in a person’s life and some people need help in coping with not only the emotion’s that arise, but the legal and financial ramifications involved in a divorce, as well.
The concept of a divorce coach appears to have started with Dr. Kim Lurie, a Merrick, New York, attorney back in the 1990’s when she began calling herself a divorce coach. However, the term “divorce coach” doesn’t start showing up in newspapers until the 2000’s, when professionals such as attorneys, financial mediators, psychotherapists and others began reinventing themselves as divorce coaches.
Today, couples can work with several divorce coaches, each specializing in different areas, such as finances or co-parenting. A couple needs to find a coach that fits their needs, one who is competent and has the specialized training needed to help them navigate their divorce.
Divorce coaches can give a person pre-legal advice, thus minimizing the time spent talking to lawyers, which in turn, reduces the amount of paid out, as a coaches fees are less than a lawyer’s fees. However, most divorce coaches are used in conjunction with divorce attorneys. Brigette Bell, a Chicago divorce attorney, speaking about divorce coaches, said, “I love then, and if I had my way, I’d never work without them. They help manage the clients and support them by bringing a different set of skills to the divorce process than we do.”
A divorce coach is not there to give legal counsel or be a therapist, but is there as a guide. Randall Cooper, co-founder of CDC College for Divorce Coaching in Tampa, Florida, says his job is to be his client’s “thinking partner, to create a safe, supportive, nonjudgmental and patient environment.”