Our network provides services in support of couples engaged in an integrated divorce process. Each couple’s divorce plan will be uniquely tailored to their specific needs.
Introduction
Your initial session will be with one of our mediators, Diane Harvey or Beth Brown. They will help you determine whether mediation is the right forum for you and your spouse to discuss issues and make decisions about your divorce settlement. You will also evaluate your specific needs in the areas of finance, co-parenting, and counseling, and discuss a tentative divorce plan.
The length of your Introduction depends on the complexity of your situation and whether you meet as a couple, individually, or both. After the Introduction, you will decide how you want to proceed. Couples may use an initial mediation session to come to an agreement on a divorce plan.
Introduction: $125/hour.
Financial Planning
The financial divorce can be complicated, depending on your circumstances. There are many pieces to consider, including:
- Property ownership – existing and transfer
- Investment and bank account divisions
- Retirement account division
- Future spending plans
- Taxation and its impact on value
Pam Friedman, CFDA®, CFA®, can help organize your understanding of the marital estate. She will review financial information, help you define financial goals, and project your financial needs well into the future.
Financial Planning: Pam offers a complimentary 30-minute phone call to CID clients to determine their financial planning needs.
Investment advisory services offered through Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC | Form ADV Part 2A
Counseling
The emotional aspect of divorce is complex, and the range of emotions experienced can be as individual as the people involved. Unexpected emotions can be triggered that can be powerful, and this can hinder your ability to work productively.
Counseling can empower you to be a more thoughtful decision maker in this important life transition. Counseling can be helpful in working through feelings of:
- Grief and loss
- Fear of the future
- Loneliness
- Confusion
- Unresolved anger
- Negativity and self-esteem challenges
Counseling sessions are conducted by Diane Harvey or one of our associates for individuals and couples who are looking for emotional support at any stage of the divorce process.
Counseling sessions may be covered through your insurance mental health benefits.
Co-Parenting Support
With divorce, your marriage may be over, but if you have children, your family is not. Effective co-parenting can provide stability for your children while allowing them to maintain a close relationship with each parent.
Co-parenting support can help you to:
- develop respectful, consistent, and purposeful communication;
- share decision-making on important issues regarding the well-being of your children;
- provide your children with a healthy example for problem solving; and
- come up with a co-parenting plan that meets the needs of your family.
Co-parenting support sessions are conducted by Diane Harvey or one of our associates for couples who are committed to minimizing the negative impact of divorce on their children.
Mediation
Mediation is a confidential, structured process facilitated by Diane Harvey or Beth Brown. Mediation provides a discussion forum with the goal of reaching agreements that both find reasonable and in their best interests. The CID uses facilitative mediation, where the mediator’s role is not to provide legal advice, determine right or wrong, or to make any decisions about how to resolve the issues, but rather to facilitate communication so that it is more productive.
The mediator holds confidential all communications, written or oral, which occur prior to, during, or after mediation. The mediator will destroy all written notes taken during the mediation. Note: The exception to confidentiality is that mediators are mandatory reporters with regard to any suspected abuse/danger to others.
The number of mediation sessions used to come to full agreement will depend on the complexity of your circumstances and what areas of agreement are not in dispute. The length of a mediation is determined by the goals and progress of each session, but a session that lasts longer than four hours is often unproductive.
The mediator can assist couples in documenting, in their own words, the terms of their agreement. A written mediated agreement can be incorporated into a divorce decree by an attorney. If attorneys are participating in the mediation, they may draft the agreement in language that can be used in the final divorce decree.
If you are unable to come to agreement on all issues in mediation, you can continue to engage in a collaborative process with collaborative law attorneys to work with you throughout the process. You also have the option of each getting a non-collaborative attorney who may take your divorce to court.
Mediation: $200/hour, estimated.
The Kitchen Table Divorce 