Cascadia Collaborative Divorce
Upcoming Events:
Divorce: Recipe for Disaster or Success?
Process Options for
Minimizing the Trauma of Divorce
Process Options for
Minimizing the Trauma of Divorce
June 5, 2009
1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
The Good Shepherd Center
4649 Sunnyside Ave.
Seattle, WA 98103
Nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce. Because people are vulnerable before, during and after that major relationship transition, we as professionals need to be ready to help.
Families need three basic types of support during that time – legal, emotional and financial. As therapists, you help your clients with their emotional issues. During this training, we want to help you understand your clients’ legal and financial concerns. By learning about the spectrum of choices that your clients face and what resources are available, you make your job and their lives easier.
During the training, we will explain the basic ingredients and various process options of divorce to allow you to educate your clients. We will talk about parenting plans, child support and relocation, as well as discuss the costs involved for people going through a divorce or separation.
We will also introduce you to Collaborative Divorce — what it is, how it differs from traditional litigation and why it works. We will share our experiences with teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach to divorce. By the end of the training, you will know what collaboratively trained lawyers, mediators, divorce coaches, and financial, child and vocational specialists have to offer you and your clients. You will even see demonstrations of the dynamic and complementary roles of a professional collaborative team.
You will have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and get answers about how to serve your clients, whether they are already in the process of divorce or separation, or considering a change in their relationship. If you counsel individuals or couples, we encourage you to come learn with us.
Presenters at the workshop are members of the Cascadia Collaborative Alliance and are experienced in guiding couples through divorce using a collaborative process.
Laura Banks, JD
Laura Banks has been practicing family law since 1978 in private practice, representing GALs in juvenile dependency cases, and as a senior deputy prosecuting attorney for King County. She currently offers creative family solutions through collaborative family law and mediation.
Maureen Conroyd, LCSW, BCD
Maureen Conroyd has been in private practice since 1984. Her expertise is working with adults, children and their families. She also provides family mediation and Guardian Ad Litem services. Maureen is a divorce coach and a child specialist.
Celia Griffin, CPA, CDFA
Celia Griffin has been a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst since October 2004. She enjoys helping individuals and couples assess whether their settlement will be fair, provide for the life they envision, and meet their financial needs after their marriage ends.
Peggy Hoban, JD
Peggy Hoban is a Seattle-based collaborative law attorney and mediator. Her focus on peace and social justice has long been a thread in her work, and she applies those same principles to working with families in the area of family law.
Jeff Shushan, MA
Jeff Shushan has 20 years in private practice with couples, families with children, and individuals working through trauma and addiction issues. Working as a Collaborative Divorce Coach since 2004, Jeff is co-chair of the KCCL Family Law Practice Group.
Transforming Divorce -
A Safe and Effective Model
Save this date: Thursday, June 26, 2008
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Location: Good Shephard Center
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103
RSVP to Mike Fancher at (206) 784-3049 or mike@seattledivorceservices.com
Past Events:
DATE: Friday, June 6, 2008
TIME: Check in at 8:30 am; presentation begins at 9:00 am
COST: Free
LOCATION: Seattle Pacific University, Library Seminar Room, 2nd Floor
Please join us to learn more about a new model for divorce that can help your clients resolve their issues in a safer and less damaging way. This process is designed to deal more directly with the emotional and family dynamic aspects of the dissolution of the family, to minimize the trauma and maximize the potential for continuing co-parenting.
At this presentation, we will explan what Collaborative Divorce is, how it differs from the traditional litigation model, and how it can help your divorcing clients move forward with their lives in a happier and healthier manner.
COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE:
A BRIDGE FOR FAMILIES… AND PROFESSIONS
Divorcing families, especially when children are involved, face challenges unknown to former generations. Continuing high divorce rates (close to 50%) and increasing life expectancy are social changes which combine to profoundly affect families in our society.
Collaborative Divorce is a relatively new and rapidly spreading model with the goal of transforming the divorce process into a bridge to a successful life-after-divorce – for adults and children.
In the Collaborative model, mental health professionals and attorneys work together to help families
- navigate the divorce process,
- prepare for the post-divorce future and
- weather the personal impact of an unprecedented cultural shift.
The Collaborative Model offers the MHP some important gifts and bridges to:
- a client-centered path beyond the medical model,
- a unique form of accountability rooted in open teamwork with other professions and short-term, visible success/failure,
- a deepening understanding of various collaborative practices.