Divorce Counseling for Couples in Chicago

Divorce Counseling at Couples Counseling Associates in Chicago
Call or Text 312-416-6191
infocouples@gmail.com
All inquiries and sessions are strictly confidential

Divorce Counseling: The What and How

Learn how divorce counseling can help you and your spouse make a level-headed decision about the end of your relationship.

If you’re considering divorce, it’s worth visiting a couples therapist to help with your decision-making process.

What to Consider Before Breaking Up

Couples break up for many reasons. One of the most common is that they have not learned to manage each other’s differences very well. However, both people can learn to adapt to change and improve their communication skills so that the relationship is not so contentious.

Before choosing to divorce, have you…

• Clearly communicated with one another why the relationship feels threatened?
• Made expectations about each other clear enough?
• Considered what could save your relationship?
• Examined how marital conflict impacts your children?
• Discussed financial responsibility?
• Truly understood why divorce or separation is right for you?

If you answered NO to these questions, discernment counseling could be very beneficial before deciding on breaking up. This will allow you to take one more look at your relationship before making a permanent decision.Your counselor is an unbiased and objective professional who can help you agree on next steps and allow you to go through the process with dignity.

Visit a counselor before you decide to separate because counseling teaches you relationship skills that help you understand yourself, your partner, and become a better communicator. You may learn that both you and your partner want to make something work, but you just need the right tools.

If you have answered yes to the above questions, read on.

What To Consider When You Decide To Divorce

When couples decide to end their relationship, they may need help navigating the difficult road ahead. Getting divorced is a process, not an act, and requires forethought, planning, and a cool head.

We know it’s difficult to go through this process alone and, because friends or relatives may be inclined to take sides, it’s not always helpful or possible to discuss details with them. Our therapists at Couples Counseling Associates can help you navigate the process of during and after the end of the relationship.

How Can Couples Counseling Help During Divorce?

What is the best legal approach?

When couples decide to break up, they have to choose their legal options: The collaborative approach, the mediation approach or litigation. Most couples who decide to get divorced are not sure about what path is right for their situation. Dissolving a relationship with dignity and creativity increases the chances of ending the relationship emotionally intact instead of emotionally destroyed. This prevents couples from feeling mutually victimized or like the pawns of the legal system.

Some choices can result in mutually destructive outcomes, while other paths can be catalysts for building strength, wisdom, and awareness. Working with a couples counselor can give couples more control over the outcome, manage their anxiety and feel less mutually victimized.

What are the stages of divorce?

There are at least five stages in the process of ending a relationship: pre-divorce, initial, middle, end, and post. Each partner may be at a different stage or move back and forth between the stages. The more out of sync the couple is, the more challenging the process can be. Each stage presents couples with different challenges. Couples counseling can help manage anxiety and reactivity when couples are out of sync and help them get to the same stage.

What actually happens in during couples counseling sessions?

The counselor will propose individual and joint sessions. During the individual sessions, counselors help clients address their fears, concerns and worse-case scenarios. In joint sessions, couples counselors facilitate difficult conversations in a safe environment to create a vision of the kind of divorce the couple wants to have. Together, the couple can create a platform for finding solutions as a team, design rituals, write personal manifestos and more.

What to Consider After Divorce

Even after a marriage ends, counseling can be helpful because the lives of the couple (and their children) change. New challenges arise as the family confronts changes or comes to terms with new dynamics.

Legally drafted co-parenting agreements alone are often not enough to help reduce stress and build resilience. Stages in the aftermath of a dissolution exist too. Stages shift according to inclusion or exclusion of family members or the ages of the children. In joint and individual sessions, couples counseling can help reduce legal fees and help negotiate household arrangements involving children, conflicting loyalties, inclusion of new romantic partners, establishing rituals and boundaries between spouses.

You may want to initiate personal growth through individual counseling or simply improve communication with your ex to navigate new family roles and relationships. Regardless of the reason, counseling after the dissolution of a relationship can help reduce stress. You can also develop relationship and communication skills that are beneficial for a lifetime.

Listen to Couples Counseling associate, Katerina Fager, talk about ex-spouse communication and co-parenting on the Let’s Talk Divorce podcast.

What’s Next

• Learn if divorce coaching is right for you
• Learn if discernment counseling is right for you
• Learn more about Couples Counseling Associates
• Find the right couples counselor
• Read about marriage conflict and parenting
• Read about co-parenting and newly created stepfamilies
• What about divorce and COVID-19? Dr. Sara Schwarzbaum answers
• Call 312-416-6191 to ask confidential questions or to make an appointment with Couples Counseling Associates

Our experienced associates can help you when faced with divorce or separation:

• What should you and your partner do?
• Have you both tried to make the relationship work?
• How can you communicate more effectively with your partner?
• How can you deal with anger?
• If you do move forward with divorce, how can you do so civilly?

And, if you do decide on divorce, one of our expert associates will help you navigate:

• Negotiation of household arrangements involving children
• Conflicting loyalties
• Inclusion or exclusion of new romantic partners
• Establishing or changing routines and rituals
• Relationship between spouses

More Resources for You and Your Partner

In our efforts to bring value to your life, or if you are not in the Chicago area, Couples Counseling Associates has developed a series of lessons that could have a major impact on effectively improving your relationship. We encourage you to dive into the series and discover how these resources can benefit you and your partner.

Remember, it’s the positive habits we develop that guarantee us success in all areas of our lives. Discover the seven healthy habits that improve relationships or get in touch with us to learn more about Couples Counseling Associates.

Click here to send us an email message or to make an appointment.