subject: Virginia Collaborative Law Divorce Coach - Keeping Costs Low [print this page] Virginia Collaborative Law Divorce Coach - Keeping Costs Low
VIRGINIA COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE
THE COST OF DIVORCE - PART III
COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE COACH
When engaging in collaborative divorce in Virginia, parties have the option of choosing to involve other collaborative professionals as needed. These professionals may include divorce coaches, financials, and child specialists.
Collaborative divorce coaches are mental health professionals trained in the collaborative process. Their role is to assist the parties with the emotional aspects of the divorce. Both parties may choose to engage collaborative divorce coaches, but there are cases in which only one or the other party may use a coach. Often, one party tends to be more prepared emotionally for the divorce than the other, but even in situations where both parties are "on the same page", divorce is emotional. There is often fear and anxiety that one needs to calm as they go through the divorce. Additionally, more often than not, there are communication barriers between the parties, which are often at the root of the break down of the marriage.
In traditional divorce litigation, when the parties are fearful or anxious they discuss their fears or anxieties with their attorneys. A supportive attorney will, of course, listen to their client's concerns, but in all probability, the attorney has no expertise in mental health issues and has no formal training upon which he or she can call to help the client conquer their issues. Further, every time a client communicates with their attorney, they are paying their attorney for the attorney's time. The attorney's billing rate is much higher than that of the collaborative divorce coach. By using a collaborative divorce coach, the parties are getting the expertise of a collaboratively trained mental health professional who will help them to work through the emotions, fears, anxieties and concerns present in every single divorce, and the parties employ this assistance at a much lower cost than that of using the attorney.
When parties have employed collaborative divorce coaches, the attorneys may call upon these professionals from time to time when problems arise between the parties. Instead of the attorneys tying to solve problems for which they have no expertise, the problem can be referred to the divorce coach who will then work through it directly with the parties. This saves the parties money and reserves the attorneys' time for matters which truly need the attorneys' attention.
