Interview

Navigating International Divorce – TDM Expert Interviews
Thumbnail for the YouTube Video "Navigating International Divorce: Challenges and Strategies - TDM Expert Interviews (EP. 12) Chloe O"
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Navigating International Divorce – TDM Expert Interviews

chloe-o-contributor
Chloe O.
Alternative Dispute Resolution professional and Certified Divorce Coach
The Divorce and Separation Coach

Introducing the latest transcript blog featuring an insightful interview with Chloe O., an experienced divorce coach specialising in international divorce. In this insightful interview, Chloe shares her expert knowledge on what international divorces are, the unique challenges they pose, and how to navigate them effectively. From dealing with cultural differences and cross-border legal systems to managing emotional stress, Chloe offers invaluable advice on making the process as amicable as possible.

Join us as we explore the common issues that arise in international divorces and practical strategies to help individuals maintain clarity, focus, and resilience during this complex journey.

Read on for the full transcript of our interview, “Navigating International Divorce: Challenges and Strategies.”

 

[Music]

Hello everybody, thank you so much for joining us again on The Divorce Magazine YouTube channel or on the website if that’s where you’re watching it. My name is Dr Soila, I’m the founding editor of The Divorce Magazine, it’s been running for, over 10 years, let’s put it that way, and um, today we have Chloe and um, Chloe has contributed to The Divorce Magazine quite a bit so we like that. Um, really interesting, and extremely informative content that you have sent to us so, if you haven’t met Chloe, please look her up on The Divorce Magazine or, on her Instagram.

Anyway she’ll tell us where to find her at the end of this um, interview so, Chloe is a mum of two pre-teen girls, and has been helping people through divorce and separation for over a decade now since her own um, divorce. I’m introducing you Chloe, I hope that’s okay? She was born in Paris, to a French father and uh, an American mother, and she’s been living in the UK for the past 15 years and is a very active um, member of the expert community.

Um, she has personally experienced divorce twice, um, the first from her father, the father of her children after six years of marriage, and the second divorce was also from the father of her children but in a very different context, where he needed to move abroad suddenly, and um, and that brought up all other issues that that um, included financial issues and child arrangement seeing as they would be living in different countries so the whole thing, kind of was brought up again is that right Chloe? Yeah, and that was a second experience, so given this story um, it’s not surprising the direction that Chloe took, which is to become a non-court dispute resolution, res, resolution professional and a certified divorce coach.

She now dedicates her time as you will see here and in other context uh, she dedicates her time to something particularly purposeful to her, which is supporting others through one of the most difficult and stressful life transitions that they can ever experience in their lives. So welcome Chloe, and, thank you so much for having me, pleasure, for coming and being with us today.

So I’m going to do this a little bit differently than I do with, with other um, interviews. I’ll ask you, tell us about your work, and what it entails. Yeah, so divorce coaches are, are a fairly new um, profession in the UK. Quite established in the US, it really depends on where you are in the world. But basically we insert ourselves between the work of a therapist, and the work of a lawyer. Our, our objective is to support people through the journey of divorce, from one end to the other ideally, and to be there really as their thinking partner, because there are thousands and thousands of decisions that need to be made um, in the context of your divorce and they’re not necessarily legal decisions.

So I work a lot with expat, there’s decisions with regards to which country they want to live in after divorce um, how are they’re going to arrange um, for their children to see both parents if they’re in different countries um, all the questions are around whether the settlement discussions are working the way they want and whether they’re, they can accept the proposals that their ex is making for them, to them. So there’s a lot of different issues that come up and that require some proper thinking. And your friends and family can be really helpful, but they’re not professional, they’re not trained um, I bring that specific training specifically around conflict management and negotiation skills. So my objective is to help my clients to divorce out of court, to reach agreements amicably, doesn’t mean they’re best friends, it means they do it collaboratively. And so I coach them through communication methods, negotiation strategies, and overall how to limit the conflict, so that the divorce can be as fast, as cheap, and as conflict free as possible.

And that can’t be easy because we already know because I’ve been through divorce myself, and we already know just how emotional, people can get when they’re going through divorce and what emotions can, arise in them and how, that can just bring the whole process to unravel and become quite conflictual. Yeah. Absolutely and big part of my job is helping people to identify these emotions, recognise and accept them, but also to make sure that they don’t tint their decision-making.

So the processes around fact-based decisions, because those are decisions you’re going to have to live with for quite a while after your divorce um, you want to make sure that they’re not made in the spur of the moment based on, on short-term emotions, but that they’re really thought through, and that you’ve, you know, compared those decisions to your long-term objectives, and to your children’s wellbeing needs. Yeah, yeah.

So today we’re looking at international divorces um, yes, which actually is so important because the world has become so small, it’s not a big, big world where trouble was much more complicated now it’s so much easier to travel and to settle in different parts of the world.

What is the process when going through an international divorce?

So why don’t you talk us through what you, what you have found or what the process is when you’re working with people who are going through or might end up going through an international divorce. Yeah, well I mean I think in general, you know, an expatriation or a national marriage all amazing opportunities, you get to learn about someone else’s culture, you get to go live in a new country, and discover a whole new world of, of opportunities new ways of thinking. What it does do though, is it, it does take tend to create a strain on the couple, it can create an imbalance. A lot of my clients have been the ones following their spouse um, either to, to their home country or they travelled together before the spouse’s job, and so they have had to put their own career on the, on the back burner a little bit, they have had to leave their own friends and family behind to follow this romantic relationship um, and, and what happens that a lot of couples have a hard time finding a new balance, that that works for them in that new context.

So there’s a lot of thinking that needs to go into the decision to move abroad even before um, you know you’re anywhere near divorce but once you get to the stage of divorce, it is particularly difficult, when you’re in that situation. First of all you’re far away from your friends, your family, your support network um, sometimes you’re getting divorced in a country where you don’t even speak the language, or you don’t speak it very well. You don’t know how the how the legal system works there, none of your friends and family can tell you, you know share advice because they divorced in another country um, and then there’s a lot of kind of legal elements to it that become complicated that don’t arise in a local divorce, and so that’s where having somebody who’s specialised and who can really guide you through, um, all those different implications for the divorce, that your typical lawyer or typical divorce coach wouldn’t be informed about um, that value is, is, is tremendous because that avoids making really costly mistakes later on.

What is an international divorce?

Yeah, yeah can I, I just realise that what, what do we actually mean by an international divorce? I, I just thought to myself that some people might see think about it that um, okay so you’re having your wedding and you go and you have it in Barbados, and then you’re going through divorce, do you get divorced, is that an international divorce where you have to go to Barbados to get the divorced you have it here? Or is it where you have a divorce while you’re living in, you move, you know immigrate to Barbados and you’re living there and then you go through divorce while you’re there?

So that there are very complex rules around which country is eligible to deal with a divorce and I, I would let a, a lawyer answer that question because it will depend on the country and there’s a lot of different conventions that regulate that, but that is one of the biggest decisions that people have to make very early on, with regards to their divorce is, which country do we get divorced in, and if they have ties to different countries, um, if one of them’s from France and the other one’s from the UK um, it might be that both countries would recognise their right to, to rule on this divorce.

That being said, every country has very different rules, very different laws, different ways of approaching divorce, you know, in the UK we’ve, since 2022 we have No Fault Divorce so you don’t need to prove any wrongdoing as for a divorce, in some countries you do. So you’re not going to approach it the same way, so that decision of choosing the right place for you to divorce has a lot of implications it’s not you know some countries take a lot longer to get divorced and some are a lot more expensive just because legal fees are more expensive um, there’s all kinds of rules that come into play with regards to how long you might have been married, or how long you’ve been separated, to be able to divorce. So you need to spend time understanding all of those differences, so that you can make an informed decision, and that’s usually one of the ones that most of my, my clients struggle with very early on, it’s an important decision yeah, okay.

What advice would you give to a parent who wants to relocate as a result of getting a divorce?

So let’s take an example, of a couple living in the UK, and they’re both from, you know um, which country sh, shall we pick they’re both from Kenya. O kay, they come here, and they’re, they’re living here married um, have children, and then they start going through a divorce, yeah, and one partner wants to take, you know, the mum says for instance, well we are having a divorce, I don’t need to be here anymore, I’m moving back to Kenya with my children. Um, do you have any advice as to how to manage that because that can be so difficult for the children for the, um, dad, and for the mum you know, how any…

It’s one of the big challenges that comes up in international divorce especially, in the example I was stating of people following being the one who followed their spouse. They were there for that person, it often doesn’t make much sense for them to stay in that country if they’re no longer married. Plus, you know when you’re get divorced it’s tempting to go back to somewhere that’s familiar and where you have your friends and family, so relocation comes up a lot and when you’re bring the kids with you, it becomes very complex. Um, there’s a lot of rules that you know that prevent you taking your without permission of the other parents, you’re not allowed to kidnap the child even if you don’t see it as kidnapping, as you think it it’s just taking travelling abroad with your child, so you need to be really careful about how you do that and understand the local laws, with regards to that.

But in general it’s a very difficult thing to uh, to force the other person to do through the legal system which means that it is typically something that you want to negotiate. You want to sit down with your spouse and say listen this is why I think it’s in the best interest of the children for us to go back to Kenya in your example, this is how we would work, this is what I suggest, and really try as much as possible to bring them along on that journey and to get them to understand the value, of the children and to agree to all of the, the nitty gritty of how it’ll work.

So I have a template that I, I make available for free on my website, to help people plan long-distance co-parenting, because there’s a lot of things to think about. Who’s going to pay for the children’s flights back and forth, from what age can they go on their own, who takes care as of Visas, if there’s need for visas in one country or the other, who keeps the passports, um, how is contact maintained outside of those times of visitation, what does that mean in terms of devices you provide to the child, so the other parent can contact them. There, there’s just so many dimensions that you need to anticipate, and the more you can document those up front, the less conflict you get later on, because both parents are on the same page and have agreed as to how it’s going to work. So that’s something I spend a lot of time working with my clients because it’s very common that they, they want to go back to their home country. Yeah, yeah.

Have you experienced any cases where relocation is not possible post-divorce?

And do you know of any cases where, that had, you know, maybe the dad, or the mum, has wanted to relocate well I’ll come back to that one, but um, and the, the judges have said I’m sorry you can’t relocate, I know this is more like a legal issue but you know from, from the work that you do, have you met any families where the relocation has not been possible post-divorce?

There’s case where, there’s places where it goes, it goes to court, and you know it’s a bit of a Russian Roulette when you go to court, you never really know what the judge is going to decide. In general, it ends up with a very binary decision, you know, one parent has the, the children and the other doesn’t. The beauty of negotiating the agreement, is that you can round the edges a little bit, you know it’s always going to be binary you’re not going to send the child to school, you know, halfway between Kenya and the UK, but um, you can still make, make it happen in a way that allows parent who’s being left without the children, to feel like they’re still very involved in part of the children’s day-to-day life, and that’s where you need to really speak to each other, to find the best possible arrangements for you and for your children. Yeah.

Yeah, and I think that’s where the children really come into you know very child-centred, very child focussed, what’s the best thing for the children, especially, probably if one parent had, both parents have been very active in their lives and then they lose, the presence of one parent you know pretty much, you know as it was, then you know the distance grow not just geographical distance, but also, relational distance. The you know, the wellbeing and the best interest of the children are always the paramount priority for any court, so if it did go to court, that’s what they would look like and each parent would have to show, how it’s better for the children to be in X or Y country. Yeah, so you know whether it’s just having the conversation directly with your, your ex or if it’s through the courts, you need to be able to articulate why this is better for the children, and how it would work in practice. Show that you’re not trying to alienate the other parent, um, that there really is no ill intent there, it’s purely because it feels like the right thing to do for the children at this stage. Yeah, yeah, okay.

In your experience, what was it like when your ex-spouse decided to move countries? How did the dynamic change?

If I can use your example, your life’s example, for your life’s experience as an example, where you were, I’m assuming you were in the UK, and then your ex was the one who was going to, to leave. Um, and you had already come to some kind of agreement, and you know, and all of that so what, what changed what um, you see what I’m asking? Yes well a lot changed and partly because, the way we handled the first the actual divorce, versus the second uh, iteration was very different. So when we originally got divorced um, we got divorced very amicably, we prepared a lawyer which you were able to do and got divorced in France, you could do that at the time in France, and you know we spent a thousand pounds, three months of our life and that was it, it was sorted and he lived 10 doors down the street, saw the children very regularly, we weren’t best friends, but we got on, and we were able to co, to co- parent at least together um, and then you know several years down the line, things had changed, he had met somebody new, I actually had met somebody new too, but the influence of this new person in his life, led to him moving abroad. And that transition was not handled nearly as smoothly as the first one, um, partly because I wasn’t aware that he was moving abroad, it happened suddenly um, and so there was a long period of uncertainty I didn’t know where he was, before finally receiving a lawyer, a letter from a lawyer telling me that he’d moved abroad.

So the way it was handled and the fact that, we didn’t speak to each other directly at any point during that process, and it lasted about a year, the negotiation, and the court process, we did didn’t speak to each other because, he was intent on only communicating via lawyers, so it cost both of us a fortune it took a long… Yeah, I was just thinking how much that would have cost. Oh it goes so quickly, we were just talking about it the other day, we were reminiscing now we get on nicely but at the time, it was incredibly difficult for our relationship, I felt very betrayed by the fact that I had been blind, blindsided by his departure, um, I can’t speak for what he felt but, there was a lot of tension, and what the difference was, between our ability to co-parent originally, and after that happened, was night and day.

The collaboration, the communication, even the quality of the time of the, the transitions when, when the children were going from me to him, or him to me, um, you know originally we used to meet for coffee and just have coffee out together and then the children will go off with one of us. Um, for a long time after high conflict divorce, um, I couldn’t even look him in the eyes, the transition, were you know the handovers happened at the front door to about 8 seconds, and ended up with the door being shut in someone’s face, and you know that has a huge impact on the children. It’s horrible for the parents, but the children get to see their parents not even being able to speak to each other, and so the cost of that, is massive, and that’s where having those, those conversations early on about what would happen if one of us moved abroad, would have really helped prevent a lot of those issues.

How do you manage the child arrangements in an international divorce?

Yeah. Yeah. So how did you manage that child arrangement? Because as you was saying before the, the, the divorce before the, um, interview started, we’re just saying it’s already hard enough getting to an amicable or, an agreed child arrangement when you’re in the same city, or the same town, or the same village, um, compared to live alone being in the same country, how do you manage child arrangement?

The advantage we had, is that there was no um, there was no conflict about where the children were going to be living because he had um, left with so we weren’t fighting around, you know, the main residence of the children. Uh, but there was a lot of back and forth around the logistics for holidays um, and which countries they could travel to, who would come and pick them up and whether in this case he had to come pick him up in London, or whether I could bring him to wherever he was, um, notice periods, if things need to change, and how that would happen, and I think there’s a lot of things that in hindsight, I would have handled lot better uh, that now I think, now I have to live with these agreements and actually some bits of it don’t work for me, but we’ve put so much time and effort and pain, into reaching them that, we’re just kind of living with what, what we’ve got, but I’d like to share those lessons with people who are in those earlier stages of divorce, to make sure that they think through, what that feels like, what that looks like in practice when they agree to certain things.

So, so one example is, you know oftentimes somebody will want to take the children back to their home country, and they’ll tell the other spouse, or the ex-spouse, in exchange you can have the children for all school holidays. Which seems like as much as they can give right, it’s all the available time, but for the person who is taking the children with them, that means they will never again spend a school holiday with their children. That’s quite a big implication, it depends how old they are, but if they’re young, that could be 10 years, 15 years of never taking a holiday with your children. You have to think through these kind of proposals, and really make sure that it’s something you can live with in the long term, and that’s not going to cause problems down the line. Yeah, yeah because otherwise the one who’s not having holidays with their children they become, the strict parent, and the other one is a fun parent, which happens a lot.

How would you solve the issue of who is having the children and when?

Um, so that’s one thing so how would you solve that that issue for example, who’s having the children when, while one parent is in the UK for instance, and the other one is in Kenya? The issue is really individual for each family because it depends on their children, depends on how old they are, and how they react to change, how attached they are to each parent, how long they’ve been living in the country where they’re being taken from, so there’s a lot of different factors but, in, in general the best thing to do is to try and maintain as much regular contact as possible.

So people get very hung up about the holidays, and that makes sense because that’s when you get to actually see your child, but what creates a relationship, is that ongoing contact, and how do you make sure that the parent who’s far away, is still part of the children’s daily life, that they’re involved in health care decisions, education decisions, parent teacher meetings, all of those things how do you plan for that in a way that they can be put brought in on Zoom, or in some other way, and that they’re involved but really so they can stay close to their, their children, and then the other element is culture. I mean in your example both parents were from Kenya, but if you’ve got, you know, for example the father who’s British, and the mother is Kenyan, and she take children back to Kenya, it may be that the father’s worried and the children’s English is going to get less good, or that, they’re going to lose touch with their British culture, and so how do you build that into the children’s routine so that both parents remain, you know, part of their day-to-day life, and the influence of both parents remains part of their day-to-day life.

Yeah, and these days is so, there’s so many ways of keeping in touch like you’re saying, a parenting meeting you can call in for you know, on Zoom or on Teams or, you know, yeah, you can yes exactly, you just need to have your phone really with you, to plan ahead, to make sure that you’re thinking of time differences and, you know, letting the other person know as well about the times of the appointments. And I’m assuming that when you’re making those, you know, the structured co-parenting plan, um, that you keep in mind the ages of the children because now they’re two and four, but when they get to 14, they can fly on their own, you know, so what will that look like or, you know um.

That’s a big element Soila, because I think in general whether it’s an expat divorce or not, um, a lot of people tend to design their parenting plans based on today, and what the children need and, and do and, and they’re at today, and they forget to think about the future, and when they’re going to grow up, and things like at what age can they travel on their own, you know, if your children are two and four today, you probably don’t have that in mind at this stage you know it seems so far away, but really thinking about the long term and how that will work. What also happens if one of the two parents meet somebody new, how will that person be introduced, how will they be eased into the children’s lives. If you can anticipate all of that, at a time where you’re not in the heart of the storm, when you’re not living those events that can trigger a lot of emotions, you can anticipate, and look at them more cool-headedly, and make decisions that are actually in the best interest of the children, rather than based on emotions in in the moment of crisis. Yeah.

Oh there’s so much that is going on through my mind as you’re speaking, even when, when you started speaking about, what if they met somebody new, and I’m thinking okay, the parent who doesn’t live with their children, like um, the parent who’s left in the UK, who only sees the children, you know holiday time for instance, and the children are so excited to come and see their parent here, and then the parent has met somebody else, at what point do you introduce this person to them, the kids want to come and hang out with their parent and then oh, there’s this other person in the house, and where’s, I want my time with my mum or my dad and you know, so it can just cause so many other, um, so many things to think about.

So I’m assuming one of the things you’re saying is that make the plan as structured as possible but not set in stone. Well you know what I, I think there there’s two sides to that. Not set in stone in stone because life, and things change, and children grow, and circumstances change, so you can never sign a co-parenting agreement, you know, when your when your children are two and four and say that’s going to stand until they’re 18, the reality is will not let you do that, um, that being said, I think that it’s important to have a baseline, when having a discussion and documenting decisions you make as a couple, around how things will work, allows everybody to be on the same page.

It takes away a lot of the disagreements later on, because usually it’s the fine print that leads to conflict uh, so things around, if you need um, to have to get papers from the other parent to renew the children’s passports for example, how long ahead of time do you need to ask them, and what’s the timeline by which they need to provide those? That can cause, I’ve seen so many people have so much conflict around that because they’ve booked an appointment at the embassy they’re ready to go for the passports and the other parent hasn’t sent the documents, and they’re arguing, and this is a very small example, but it leads to so much back and forth and so much tension between the parents, and it’s just not necessary. If they just agreed, will, you know, any request will be made for weeks ahead and you have two weeks to provide them that’s it, everyone knows where they stand.

It doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible, if your ex is on holiday at that time and says I can’t send them right away it’ll be an extra week, it’s fine, but you have an agreed baseline, and I think that’s where the beauty of a documented arrangement is, is really live yeah, okay.

Thank you so much, but before we, how can people reach you Chloe,? Where can they find? So they can reach me by through my website, I have a link there to book a free discovery call, I always offer a free touch point, to get to know each other, to make sure that I’m the right person to help them, to make sure for them, to make sure that they’re comfortable speaking to me, and that I’m the right person for them, and just making sure it’s a good match. So they can book a free discovery call we have that informal chat, and they can decide at that stage whether they want to continue or not.

I do encourage people to check out my website because there are as you said earlier, a lot of free resources, I write blog articles, I have a podcast, I have a newsletter, do videos there’s a lot of information there, and I’m a very strong believer that information is key. It is really the power that allows you to handle your divorce properly. And you do have the free download? Yes everything is, is there for free it’s really a wealth of information, the idea is that people can gather that information and then we can work together to make sure that we’re tailoring the journey to their specific family. Yeah, okay. Thank you so much Chloe and um, thank you for having me, contact details at the you know at the bottom and people can contact you through that, and um, yeah, thank you and you know please keep sending your articles through, they’re amazing, well thank you so much, thank you, take care.

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Read more articles by Chloe O.

About Chloe O.

“My name is Chloe O., I am an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) professional and a Certified Divorce Coach. I specialise in working with women to help them reduce conflict during and after divorce by improving their negotiation and communication skills with their spouse. The objective is to work towards an amicable divorce outcome in order to minimise the emotional and financial cost of divorce. I work with all types of clients but I have extensive experience in supporting expatriates and international families who are dealing with the unique situation of living abroad during and after their divorce, with limited local family support, language barriers and relocation considerations.”

For more information about my work and services (including my Podcastsnewslettermyth-buster videos…), you can visit my website and/or follow me on InstagramFacebook or LinkedIn.

How to Cope with Divorce Interview
Thumbnail for the YouTube video "How to Cope with Divorce - TDM Expert Interviews (EP. 6) - Danielle Barbereau"
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How to Cope With Divorce – TDM Expert Interviews

Danielle Barbereau
Danielle Barbereau
Divorce Coach
Danielle Barbereau – Professional Divorce Coach

Introducing our latest transcript blog featuring an enlightening interview with Danielle Barbereau, a distinguished Divorce Coach. In this insightful conversation, Danielle shares invaluable wisdom on navigating the emotional journey of divorce and finding the resilience to cope with divorce.

Join us as we delve into practical strategies for coping with divorce and embracing personal growth amidst life’s challenges. Get ready to be inspired and empowered as we explore the transformative power of resilience and self-care in the face of adversity.

Read on for the full transcript of our video, “How to Cope with Divorce.”

[Music]

Hello everybody, um, today I’m so pleased to have Danielle with me on The Divorce Magazine, which is part of our events that we’re holding at the moment which is all about navigating divorce.

And today um, Danielle who’s been a contributor to The Divorce Magazine before, is here to talk to us, about the process of divorce but from a different angle not the financial side and not from the legal side. I’ll tell you what she’s going to speak about today.

So before that I’ll tell you a little bit about Danielle. She’s a highly qualified, I’m going to read it here on the screen, she’s a highly qualified Relationship Coach, and the UK’s first specialist in Divorce Coaching. She’s a published, published author of “After the Split”, a book that I highly recommend, and Edition One and Edition Two. And she’s currently writing her first novel, well done Danielle, thank you, diminished woman and another one that she’s co-authoring um, at the moment with Alex Swallow which is going to be of immense help, to other coaches who are building up their practice.

So they’re in the process of writing that, you’re working on your title, you’re almost finished, and I think a lot of people will need and they do need help just building up their own private practices, so I think that will be really, really welcome, to a lot of people. Probably not only divorce coaches by the way, even psychologists when they’re set, setting up their own private practices. What do we need to know ,yeah, yeah.

Because the problem is if you are not successful in this, you may be tempted to give up. And that be a crying shame. Completely. And um, Danielle has worked in the field of divorce since 2010, and has worked with over 1,400 clients. She’s um she’s, she’s a fully qualified coach with a Masters in Sociology and a Masters in Coaching.

On The Divorce Magazine if you want to read any of the articles that Danielle has written for us, you can go on there. We have “Impact of Breakup and How to Survive It”, and there’s “Why do People Have Affairs?” and the other one that we have is “Coping With Divorce When Your Spouse Leaves you.” So really, really you know, it’s those timeless articles because divorce keeps happening and those topics are still relevant today.

I’m Soila, I’m a, Counselling Psychologist and the Founder of The Divorce Magazine. Um, so today Danielle I came across your blog, um, which was entitled um, “Steadying Yourself When you Wobble During Divorce and, and Separation” and I thought, perfect for navigating divorce um, events at the moment that we’re holding on The Divorce Magazine.

How do we steady ourselves when we start wobbling during the divorce process?

And so yeah, please, tell us how do we steady ourselves when we start wobbling during the divorce process? Thank you very much Soila, I think the first thing to say is that it is completely normal to wobble. In fact, it would be abnormal not to. Of course it is, because we are going through something so enormous – a loss of identity, a loss of everything we knew before.

Probably we’ve been betrayed as well in the process for example, if somebody has left you without telling much truth actually for another person. So it’s extremely uh, difficult and completely normal to, make a little bit of progress and then a, dip again, completely, completely normal.

I was looking at a client I’ve had since the new year, and I was uh, wondering why have they stayed for a long time in their marriage actually because, you can also wobble, about deciding or not to leave the relationship and sometimes, when you are in a marriage uh, the other partner may be quite adept, as at doing quite enough, just to keep you there. And then obviously falls back into bad habits.

So I looked at clients and I thought well, what do they have in common and I’ve made a couple of notes which is why I’m looking down here.

The first one is that, they are all over the place. That’s a, a very technical place for tell but actually that’s what it is, they don’t know what to think. They are low, confused, unhappy, uncertain, and in these sit, situations it’s very difficult, to take a you know, to keep going in something when we are not too sure.

They may also believe what, their partners has said. For example that it’s their fault, if a relation, “look what you made me do” is a sentence we all know. So they scared of ending the marriage especially, if they’ve tried very, very hard to keep it going and invested so much of themselves in that.

And of course everybody hope that things would get better, and even when a decision is made, they still deep down hope that our partner is going to realise what an error they are committing and they are going to come back. And also, a lot of people have a great deal to lose, by ending a relationship. By um, financially of course, but also socially uh, and you know some people operate in circles where frankly they’re going to be dropped very quickly, at the end of a relationship.

So it’s normal, normal first of all to take a long time to make the decision, and secondly, even when the decision is made, to wobble, for all these reasons. Yeah, I really like that. That, that part where you’re saying “it’s normal to wobble”, “it’s normal to wobble” and just before we started um, recording, there’s a quote that you read and um, do you remember.

I like that quote, that I found somebody online called, Dr Julia Samuel and in fact I will refer to her once more before the end but she said, “grief” and we’re looking at grief here loss, “is an emotional response to an event.” So something unthinkable, unexpected happens, and we have an emotional response. Well that’s normal isn’t it. But somehow, we’re very harsh on ourselves, thinking why can’t I resolve this. Well there’s plenty of reason why we can’t resolve this. So I like that very much.

Can you talk a little bit more about the grief we experience when going through a divorce?

Yeah, can I just tap on that part where you’re talking about grief, because one thing that I find that when, when I work with, because my work is very much with children, parents, who are going through divorce to do with their children. Not so much with them as the adults, but to help them, uh, navigate their children’s feelings, emotions, and so forth.

And one of the things that I have found when I, when I do my assessment with the parents, is, understanding how easy it, it is to not really understand that going through a divorce is not just grieving for, the loss of the marriage, but there’s so much more that you’re grieving for. Can we talk a little bit about the grief?

Absolutely. Um, we grieve not only, about as you said the end of a relationship, but first, first of all, there are a lot of people affected, and you mentioned children, also elderly parents, also friends and family so all this, is extremely difficult and some times for example, being humiliated out of a relationship, if this been an affair or if everybody knew before, you did, it’s really, really difficult to handle.

I remember a client saying to me years ago, “I’ve lost my past and I have lost my future.” And that sentence stayed with me because obviously she thought she had been married for over 30 years, they had children, so she felt that, that all, all that was tainted. But also she was looking forward to a happy retirement with her husband, who incidentally had asked her to go and buy a house, never visited it, and then said “by the way this is your house now, and I’m going there.” So she said I’ve lost my future. That is terrible.

How do you help a client who feels like they have lost their past and their future cope with divorce?

Yeah, and I’m just thinking just that what you said about “I have lost my past and I’ve lost my future.” Can I just ask how you then helped this client because, I’m sure there are people who are going to be listening to this who are just like, absolutely, especially when they’re in the beginning, of the divorce process or they’re really into it. What would you say to them, if they think “I’ve lost my past and I’ve lost my future.” What would you say?

First of all it’s important that they feel hurt, it is true. Because I mean they’re going to feel that, their partner is bulldozing them into making decisions, there is a legal process taking place, they’re completely losing control, so I think the first thing I want them to know, is that their fear, is valid. They need to be heard, it is true, they have lost the future as they had dreamt it.

But of course, once they work through all this, they will discover another future, often a better one by the way, but it is at that point, they don’t see it, at all, and yes it’s true that they, for example this woman at from the lovely cottage in the country, thinking it would be happily ever after, except she found herself on her own in the beautiful cottage.

So yes, the future has been to stolen from her, but then I work at first of all, helping them through the worst of it because they are at a terrible time, in fact I remember that client, cried so much that I was running out of tissues! I had a box, and she was using them all, um, and then, it’s important but equally they can’t stay there. You can’t forever think, “oh my God somebody has stolen my future.” That cannot be.

So, very quickly you have to think of, extracting yourself from this. So first of all it’s the survival, and then starting to think, and later on when you work through, and often the relationship was not that good actually when you think about it, there were things which were not brilliant, you work through and start thinking of another future. Yeah, yeah.

And you said something there about, first of all she can’t stay there. No. But we know, you know and I know, yeah, that there are men, and women, and spouses, and ex spouses, who will stay there and not just for the year, they can stay there for, several years. And that is so, depressing to see. Because it is normal.

I mean you know people have been punched in the stomach metaphorically speaking, it’s a huge thing, it’s a huge shock. It’s like, a kind of a grenade in your life, and it’s normal to take time, at first you’re winded for a while, and then you have to work through something extremely complicated which makes no sense. But I would say that after a few months, you have to start thinking now hang on a minute, during that time if I’m not working through this, my life is on hold, my partner’s life is not on hold, if there is another party involved. They’re not on hold, so who is losing there?

I think it’s very important to see that, and I also think that, it is incredibly bad for clients to ruminate. You cannot stay thinking about what you’ve lost. You, at first yes, you have to understand what you’ve lost, but very quickly, you have to think, and agree even intellectually that your future, is going to be different and you have to work through the pain, and unfortunately there’s no easy way of doing that it’s painful, but at the end of it you find a way to grow.

Yeah, I had as you say so many clients, but I believe that they, at the end of it, I would say 99.9% of them have found a way to grow and that’s the success. Yeah. And what you just said there I think um, apart from what you had said about um, it’s normal to feel the pain, but where you said unfortunately it’s painful. It is painful, yeah, undoubtedly. Yeah undoubtedly, painful I mean I had written in the first book if had a magic wand I wish, I see people I mean struggling in such levels of agony, and I have to help them uh. And I think it’s very much about, yes, you are right, you are in that terrible place.

I think that people need to be, compassionate towards themselves and sometimes people say “I can’t believe”, “I can’t emerge from that.” Well I can believe. So you can’t be too, too hard you have to be compassionate.

I remember again Dr Julia Samuel who I heard few months back, she spoke about rituals in the recovery process. And I like that very much. She also called them beautifully, “habits of the soul.” Oh. And I feel it’s lovely too because you have to hold on to something. And she wanted them to start rituals which make, make them feel safe, grounded, and maybe if every morning they start with a walk, instead of staying in bed, unwashed saying “poor me, poor me.” I think it’s quite nice to start with this.

So I absolutely agree with that and rituals are important, we know that in history and they are grounding, and anything which can ground you at the beginning when you feel, you’ve lost control you are in kind of moving suns, is really important those little, stones you can jump to in the middle of the mud, to hold on to, yes because I can do this, and this and if you have a I don’t know, even an invitation to do something, think about it, it’s the next little stone to jump onto. And I really like that very much.

I like that too and there’s something quite empowering about creating your own rituals. Um, you don’t have to stick to that person’s ritual, or that person’s ritual, it’s creating your own ritual. I remember a client saying to me you know the, at the table you know what it’s like in a couple, she said that night she sat in his chair. And that was, it’s nothing, but it was hugely relevant to, of course it was, it meant do you know what, I own this house it’s my space.

Have you seen the different ways that men and women cope with divorce?

Yeah, yeah. What Danielle, what about okay I don’t know what percentage of your clients are, men because I know in my work probably 97% of them are male. Um, so they’re mostly dads who have been um, court ordered to attend or who have been suggested to attend a, a Triple P Parenting Program that I offer, and then I have mums who come in for other reasons. And I just want to, to understand a little bit if in your field you’ve seen, different ways that men will cope as divisive as it might sound, that men will cope in different ways than women tend to cope.

I would say that 50% I’m, I’m an equal you know 50% men and women. Good. Uh, so I find it difficult to answer that because in my view, it’s not men, it’s people. There are people, who struggle, some of my women client will say “well men do this” I said “well actually no, people do this. There are people who have affairs, there are people who will evade, trying to be uh, put in front of the, consequences of their action. It’s nothing to do with men or women.” So to me I feel that much more.

Now in terms of copying mechanisms, in some way women can speak more to friends, although that’s a double-edged sword, you know sometimes well-meaning people, can give the wrong advice. Men, not so much, and I think the reason they work with me is maybe that they feel lonely in this, and they that they need support. But no I, I can’t put it down to, but obviously also you mentioned that you work with people who have young children. For me, most of my clients are a little bit older, and often the children are young adults or even they have left the. So it’s slightly different. I don’t deal with children arrangements and to me I refer, to Parenting Coaches when there are issues like this I don’t deal with them. Yeah.

Can you talk about the double edged sword of talking to friends and family about your divorce?

And I think you touch on something quite important there, which is talking. You said one thing you said it can be a “double-edged sword.” And I know with, with my male friends you know they say the same thing they’re like “oh when we have a problem we just go sit down and we go hey how is everything”, and then that’s it five minutes and it’s done. But then, we’ve come to see the statistics in terms of the biggest killer of men in this country is suicide. Indeed, and um, so there is something to be said about allowing or not even allowing that’s the wrong word, to get men to speak. It’s so normal that you’re hurting.

When I, when I work with the dads in my practice, I’ve seen some of the most amazing fathers, who are just absolutely hands-on and they want to be there for their children but that is kind of taken away from them and they will sit and they will break and they will cry and they can’t understand you know, why this is happening. But they won’t do the same outside with their friends, or you know, they’ll just say “yeah no it’s okay it’s a little bit hard but you know.”

So I, I wish that you know, they could have this space that, where they can just feel. Comfortably, safely, like we do, you know with friends. But I want to talk about the double edged sword bit, because I kind of have a feeling I know what you’re talking about, but tell tell us what you mean.

So first of all you write, and I work with clients like this, whatever parent uses their children as pawns as a frankly, frankly put the child first and there a lot of you, there’s a lot of evidence about that. It is so wrong. Men do it too, women do it. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think in the recovery process and to stop from wobbling, it is very important to spend time with friends. Uh, friends have a huge role to play, not for advice, I still don’t believe that I’m much agree, with you it’s about having a safe space, somewhere where people are not judged, and where people are not going to get the wrong kind of advice. But friends are essential because we are not uh, you know alone in the world. We need to be connected and in fact I would say a way to stop wobbling so much, is to connect. And it’s very, very important to, build up those connections.

The temptation when it happens initially is to stay in our shells and, yes for a short amount of time, but that is important to reconnect, and maybe actually, to have normality or at work as a matter of fact, normality it’s normal to go to the pub with a friend, it’s normal to play sport with a friend. That’s what you need to reconnect and to be reminded, that you are much more than what has just happened, you know that doesn’t define your identity forever more. And sometimes that break, where you are not “oh that poor person who’s been left behind” is really, really important.

And also, with a friend you’re going to laugh. And my goodness I believe in that. Because sometimes you can forget, and having a good laugh is really useful. So not being isolated during the process, but equally friends, yes some friends have different functions, that would be slightly wary about the well-meaning friends. And certainly incredibly wary and in fact avoiding like the plague the social circle and people would say “so what’s happening now?” As if that was, you know, your life is about, entertainment, yes, I mean for goodness. The answer to that I believe in very short sentences. “Yes I’m going through something very difficult” and not comment because really that’s for you.

And people who think they can go speak about you are not friends. So if you know I, I was telling you earlier on like you know when I was going through this book which I read ages ago and I was going through it again. I’ll send you a new copy Soila! Yeah, there’s so much in here like I was saying to you the, this section where you say “you will get better and you will find a new you.”

I know it’s a process, and I’m just remembering when I was going through divorce, you’re, you’re pretty lost, internally, mentally, and you will make mistakes where you will confide in somebody who will just fund the flames of your anger. Um, you will feel alone, you will feel judged, you will feel useless, you will feel like you have failed, you will worry about my future, what am I going to be? What am I going, to who am I? You know all of that, there’s a lot and all that can I remember just feeling lost and when you’re saying just staying in bed, because, what’s the point?

But the point is you need to get up. My first client the door to was in her dressing gown and I said oooh shower, make up, and we start working. To be honest she was my first client my, my list of clients was not long, I could do this. But what you say is absolutely the spirit of my work. Yes, I have to help people through, but having been doing this for, you know 14 years now, what I know with absolute certainty, is that, eventually people emerge.

And um, there is now something we speak about post-traumatic growth. And yes it is a trauma by the way, but that PTG, post-traumatic growth I love that. It’s only because you’ve gone through something very difficult that you work it through, that you grow, to bigger and better, and you know sometimes my client said to me “oh, you know now two years down the line, five years down the line, I’m much happier, you know, I’m with a better partner I’m with,” whatever or decide not to have a partner by the way. But they have this decisions and they are happier, really it is true because we grow out of these mad things that we go through.

For a while we don’t see that of course we don’t, but I always say to client you will eventually, and yes it’s a new you, but I mean I’ve been through divorce too and gosh when I remember what it was like. But I’ve emerged and, and have a much happier life, in every single way.

What does one do with the anger when the relationship ends suddenly?

Yeah, yeah, can we touch on the anger. I think correct me if I’m wrong cause you’re the relationship person. I, imagine that the person who leaves, sometimes they have processed the leaving while in the marriage, it’s kind of “easy” in inverted commas, to leave but the person who’s been left, the anger, not so much even the pain but the anger of how dare you? What did I ever do? I’m just I’m just thinking what does one do with that, when you think that you’re sailing along with your, spouse like really nicely and then suddenly, he or she, or they turn around and they say actually, I need to get out of this.

I’m thinking about a client I was working with yesterday, at the end of November, her husband announced he was leaving uh, no real explanation. Uh, immediately before Christmas so, two weeks later, he wanted to go to mediation. And because she didn’t feel ready, he was saying “you, you’re dragging your feet, you’re this, you’re that, you’re the other.” Well I’m afraid, well before you can do anything, you have to process this woman is winded. And for me the first thing people will think is pain. This and, and confusion, “what is it? Why? Why? Why? In fact, most of them will never know why.

But this um, yesterday morning my client said to me so we’re looking at now January, and she said to me “I’m so angry.” And I said good, good, because she has moved from the pain where she feels it’s her fault when she doesn’t know what to do to saying, “how dare he.” And already, she had put in place things where she was saying no. And I was pleased to see that because that means that on some level, not a lot, first of all she had lost control before and also for me I work at trying to make a, client see or to get some form of control.

And when they start being angry, they are more able to do this. I mean, you know and again, she might be angry, and then the next day she’s so low, that’s normal. But, eventually there is a pattern, and she emerges from this. So when I hear that they’re angry, I’m quite happy actually, again as long as they don’t stay there.

Yeah, they don’t stay there and they don’t become destructive. No, that’s it. Yeah, yeah, and I like what you just said, about the you know, one minute you’re feeling like this, the next minute you’re like this, because it’s not a linear process. Oh no. The recovery, it can be you take two steps, and you go back, and you, will so no wonder you’re calling it wobbling, you know because you wobble, wobble, until you’re able to then eventually, you know steady yourself and yeah, yeah. And it’s again completely normal, but the trend is up even if it’s two forward, two steps forward one back, the trend is up, and the moments of wobbling, will be less frequent and less deep as well, as time goes on.

How do you approach a new client who is feeling really low?

So have to hold down there, it’s like you know by the fingernail, hold on there. You can’t bear. Let’s imagine um, just before we finish Danielle, let’s imagine I am a man, my wife has just said to me, or my husband has just said to me, I don’t want to be here anymore, I have met somebody, and um, all that is breaking out and I’m feeling really, really, really, really, awful, and I come to see you and I’m like Danielle I found your contacts online, on The Divorce Magazine, could you please tell me what, how, I need your help. Where do you start and what would that work look like?

So I get very few, of these kind of clients because my clients are normally referred by lawyers, and they are not coping. So um, what so that’s one bit, they’re not coping somebody just been told I’m going. Uh, the, I help people make decision. Now a person who’s feeling guilty because they have said, it’s the end of the marriage, it’s rare but actually, it’s really good if a partner can say, “I’m really sorry, but this is the end and I’ve met somebody.” I wish, I wish people would all do that.

Instead, most people, at least the people I work with, have been at the receiving hand of somebody, who is not telling them the truth, who has been planning for a year or two to uh, leave, who is blaming them for that, “it’s your fault you did that, you didn’t do that”, trying to feed the narrative.

And that or even give no explanation, that first client I mentioned in her dressing gown, she came back from work one night to find a removal van on the driveway and he went. And she never got any explanation. Now that is hard. Whereas an explanation like that, it’s hard of course, but at least it’s honest, because otherwise you feel you’ve been lied to and there’s nothing worse. You deserve the respect of an explanation, and if you don’t get that, no wonder it’s hard. And it will take longer to recover, because how the relationship ends, has an impact, no question about that. Yeah.

There’s yeah, there’s, there’s a part where in your book where you say, right at the beginning getting divorced where you say “only initiate proceedings if it is what you really want to do.” Yes, they are, a lot of people who say “right so this is the end, so there’s no need to speak to a lawyer by the way, let’s just agree” and you know, and you are bulldozed into a process which is completely out of your control.

So at first no, take your time to think what do I want often it’s because the, actually the person who say they want it to be done very quickly, I’ve met somebody else, I’m afraid you don’t jump to their tune you need to be ready, but eventually you will see, you will understand, that you can’t make anybody love you. You know that doesn’t exist, you sooner stop the tide, frankly.

So eventually you’re thinking no that’s it, and then if you decide that’s it and I’m starting the divorce, that is a heck of a big control that you’ve taken back. But only do it when you’re ready and I had a client who had to wait you know 6 months or, or more, before they felt capable of that. Well fine, you know fine. We I, think it has to be when you’re ready. Yeah, it, it, is like we said right at the beginning going full circle, it is a loss. When somebody comes and announces to you that somebody very close to you has died, you need time to process, you need, you, you’ll sit there going I don’t understand, I don’t understand, I spoke with them yesterday, how can they be dead? You know, the same thing with, with marriage I’m ending it, but what do you mean you’re ending it, what, what I’m you know.

Exactly, and you’re right to make that comparison because I, I make that comparison with clients. The, the difficulty with divorce, is that as opposed to death, your partner is alive. Not only that, but your partner might be with somebody else. My goodness, you know the one who is going to get the, the casserole and the sympathy is the widow or the widower, not the person who’s been left behind. And it is so hard to cope, with the idea that somebody has gone with somebody else, and yeah it is incredibly hard.

I really compare it with the feeling of death, loss that way, but almost worse at the beginning because on top of this you had humiliation, being lied, to all sorts of things. But in, I think in the long run you, possibly recover quicker nevertheless. There’s something there.

Danielle thank you so much, it’s a conversation that we can keep going where I’m thinking maybe, we need to at some point talk about, just focus on the shame, yeah, um, of a failed relationship, you know, um.

That is huge, yeah. Um, so I think and then also the, the maybe on the other side of it, where it’s the guilt I don’t know if, if people who live relationships go to see divorce coaches because they feel so guilty for what they have done. I don’t know, I can’t, so because. My work is really to make people look at the reality and they might not like this. But guilt, guilt, even if you both agree the marriage comes to an end, you’re guilty, you feel guilty so it’s, you have children, you have, we spoken about that before, so guilt is a very, valid emotion.

And of course, even if you have been left, you feel guilty, that so what was wrong with me? What did I not do? What did I not? Say, well probably nothing. It’s just you know but, and that, on that you mention the death of a loved one is the same you feel guilty, you know did I do enough? I didn’t say that, all sorts of things guilt, and shame, are usually and if you manage to work through those emotions, you definitely uh, you know emerge quicker.

What tips would you give to someone going through a divorce to steady themselves?

If you were to give us some tips to steady yourself, what, during you know from, when you wobble during divorce what would you say? I’m looking at my list, not remating, so maybe the not to do is that, did I put other negatives, not looking at everything in terms of loss.

But if I want to be positive, I would say regaining control sometimes is very small like sitting in his chair, compassion for self, I mean there’s something you can’t, laughing, moving, taking exercise, journaling. Journaling is seen as, you even if you write two sentences at the end of the day, it’s very important to just it’s a way of saying something without it having consequences. Yeah. Eyes firmly on the end goal. I’m going through this but I know I will emerge, and I will emerge in a better place.

I think it’s also important not to be, some clients will do plenty of things they instead of doing the thing they do, huge amounts of activity, sometimes you need calm. Because it’s in, space a calm space, that thinking can happen uh, what else could I say uh, friends are very important, grieving for the future instead of seeing it as loss. I’ve, I’ve lost my past, I’ve lost my future, yes I need to grieve for that and accepting that it’s huge, and then keeping hope, I know I will emerge even if I can’t really see how. I know that and I will learn from it. If you manage to keep that perspective, and it it’s like flexing a muscle, it gets easier. At first it’s hard but it gets easier, and frankly I can say in all honesty, that at the end, all my clients except one or two but it’s not a lot of number, emerge stronger and better. It is the truth. It is, it is.

Thank you so much Danielle as always. You know your articles that we have um, with your book, if anybody I mean there’s a second edition. So if you can get this, especially honestly, especially if you’re, at the beginning or right middle part of the divorce and you’re struggling with this, you know um, from breakup to recovery uh, first things first, finding some relief, there’s so much in here. And it’s a tiny book so if you’re carrying it you know, it’s not big bulky, it’s straight to the point I think um. Thank you, yeah, if you can, that was actually why I wrote it uh, the solicitor with referring client say, tell us what you say to your client. So that was that. It’s not about me you know some people write about them of no interest just trying to get people at the beginning or early in the process, yeah, and maybe in the middle as well yeah. That was why. Why don’t you tell people how they can contact you? Oh thank you very much, so my name is, complicated but my email is danielle@danielleb.co.uk, that’s it, I don’t know if you can see my name on that, yeah, I mean we’ll have it, we’ll have it on the, yeah, good perfect, and it is on my website, it is on Amazon, but really it was just written, it was not meant to change the world, simply to give support like I do to my clients.

Yeah and, and, um, we’ll have it at the bottom of the link anyway, so people will know how to find you. Thank you so much, I’ll be in contact with all the other bits that we need to cover, an absolute pleasure too, thank you, definitely, bye, bye, bye!

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About Danielle Barbereau

Danielle Barbereau is a leading professional coach specialising in Divorce since 2010. Her unique skill set compliments and adds value to the work of family solicitors by addressing ‘a significant gap in their service’. She supports clients through what is a difficult and painful process (enabling them to give clearer instructions and make better decisions), freeing the lawyer to concentrate on the legal aspects of divorce.

Danielle is the author of After the Split: The Definitive Guide to Recovery When Relationships Break Down which is available on Kindle, Amazon and on Danielle’s website: www.danielleb.co.uk.