How you feel before, during, and after the process of separation or divorce matters. Collaborative Divorce is an interdisciplinary approach aided by a team of legal, financial and family professionals with expertise and guidance to assist people to peacefully reach a sustainable settlement out of court. 

Amrit will assist you and your partner as your family professional to create a parenting plan for your children, keeping the children in the forefront, away from conflict, in addition to: 

• Better manage emotional concerns that may arise

• Improve communication and establish new boundaries with your former partner

• Identify and specify interests and needs

• Disclosure of separation to children 

• Adjustment to the rebuilding of family 

• Discussions of how decisions about your children and their new routines will be established according to their needs, growth and developmental stages 

• Identify daily expectations and responsibilities of each other regarding the children’s emotional and physical wellbeing, educational, religious and extracurricular needs 

Children’s voices are important throughout the process, as this will determine the story they will tell about their parents’ divorce in future.  Amrit will facilitate this transition for your family and may engage other family professionals to assist if needed. 

As a neutral facilitator, Amrit helps to assist in the collaborative process. In this role, Amrit will: 

• Provide both you and your partner with a safe and respectful environment to ensure your voices may be heard

• Assisting you to bring your best self to team meetings so that your emotional responses are not at odds with your own interests

• Facilitate effective dialogue between you, your former partner and other collaborative team members

• Develop boundary setting and safety planning to reduce conflict 

• Keep you on track with your agenda to manage process and achieve desired results 

• Present for you as a go to person, for you to raise any questions/concerns for the collaborative team

Specialized Parent Counselling for Separation and Divorce

Parents that wish to co-parent well can turn to Amrit for up-to-date knowledge, evidence-based practice and years of personal experience.  Individuals may experience many emotions to this life transformation including depression, anxiety, relief, disbelief, anger, sadness, shock, guilt, ambivalence, grief, feelings of betrayal and trust issues.  The importance of conflict free communication, respect and ease in transition in co-parenting will ensure positive adjustment for the children. 

Amrit does not do custody and access assessments, provide recommendations to the courts or make decisions for parents. 

Individual Counselling for Separation and Divorce

The transitions that come with separation and divorce can be challenging to cope with especially if you were not the one seeking the separation. 

During this challenging time, individual counselling may provide a place for you to process the “unravelling journey” in the words of Brené Brown. Through counselling, Amrit can provide you with a better understanding of what has contributed to the ending of the relationship so that you can:

• Recover and begin healing 

• Reconcile emotions in healthy ways to move through challenges hence preventing extended conflict.

• Process and adjust to changes in other relationships 

• Grow, achieve insights and develop tools to begin your new journey in life.

If you would like to learn more about benefits of Collaborative Divorce, the following links may be helpful:

• What is Collaborative Divorce? - Ontario Association of Collaborative Professionals

• Collaborative Practice Knowledge Kit - International Academy of Collaborative Professionals