Beyond Divorce: Co-parenting Counseling & More
Divorce or separation is a difficult and emotional time for families, especially for the children involved. Parenting with an ex-partner can bring up a range of bitter emotions and logistical issues. Having an experienced therapist alongside this journey will greatly help reduce the friction and help you put your child’s best interests in mind.
Contact us at (314) 200-5131 to arrange for a consultation.
Solutions for Families and Children Impacted by Separation or Divorce
West County Behavioral Health provides services to help parents ease into the co-parenting phase of their lives. Our licensed therapists are trained in family counseling and are able to help couples going through a separation or divorce as well as heal devastated parent-child relationships. Services we offer:
- Co-parenting Counseling – Gain coparenting knowledge, learn attitudes, and develop healthy practices.
- Parent Coordination – Get help making child-related decisions for high-conflict divorced parents.
- Parent Child Reunification – Reestablish trust between you and your child after a difficult divorce.
Certified Co-parenting Counseling
Co-parenting counseling service is a post divorce family therapy that addresses the co-parenting relationship and children’s issues associated with divorce and family separation. The goal is to help improve parenting relationships and enable them to work together to raise their children. Your co-parenting counselor will help you:
- Reduce conflict and friction between you and your former partner.
- Develop conflict resolution skills.
- Establish healthy communication between co-parents.
- Create a co-parenting strategy.
- Increase parenting time.
Learning to co-parent effectively will greatly benefit your child’s well-being too. To lessen the impact of your divorce, on your child’s life, we will help you:
- Set up rules which allow children to freely love all parents.
- Establish stable homes for children.
- Learn ways to engage your children positively.
Your Child’s Involvement in Co-parenting Counseling
Children can find it hard to accept the realities of your divorce and how it has changed the family structure. As a consequence, your children may experience symptoms of anxiety, academic decline, behavioral problems, and depression. We will work with you to find out how your child is coping. If needed, your therapist will provide individual counseling for your child to process his or her thoughts and feelings.
First Session With a Co-parenting Counselor
Your co-parenting sessions will be held in a safe and welcoming place in West County Behavioral Health. Your counselor will get to know your situation and both co-parent’s individual expectations moving forward. This initial evaluation is a vital part that helps your counselor understand the family dynamics and identify what needs to be addressed.
Your counselor will make sure healthy boundaries are set so that both co-parents can be able to agree and disagree respectfully on parenting issues. Your counselor is an experienced therapist that will guide you with communication strategies to diffuse conflict caused by miscommunication. Your counselor is there to help you focus on the children and make decisions based on your children’s needs.
Parents may not always be willing to enter co-parenting counseling. It is possible to have individual sessions to help improve co-parenting skills as long as one parent is interested.
If you are mandated to attend by court order, your counselor will speak to you about what information will be kept confidential and what will be shared.
Certified Parenting Coordination
In the case of high-conflict divorced couples where basic communication is not possible and mediation is not effective, engaging a parenting coordinator is a viable solution. The goal of parenting coordination is to build a workable business-like relationship between separated parents. This enables them to put aside their strong emotions and cooperate with each other to raise their children together.
Parenting coordination can help you:
- Protect your child’s best interest.
- Gain insight from an outside party that prioritizes the child’s well-being.
- Reduce conflict and let you focus on parenting your child.
- Develop a cooperative relationship with your former partner.
- Reach a decision on child-related issues.
- Prevent further litigation and spend less time in court.
The improvements you gain from engaging a parenting coordinator will also affect your children. Your children will experience these benefits:
- Reduced negative effects of parental conflict on your children.
- Reduced risk for emotional and behavioral problems like anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.
- Preserve family resources from avoidable litigation.
- More time and positive interactions with parents.
Parent Child Reunification
The bond between parent and child can be greatly damaged for a variety of reasons. Whether it is caused by intense disputes or drawn-out legal battles during divorce, reunification therapy will help reestablish the trust between the parent and child. Parent-child reunification focuses on attachment and healthy communication to heal the relationship or treat alienation.
With the help of a clinician, you can begin working on your relationship with your child. Therapy will progress at a pace your child is comfortable with. This means that reunification may be a long-term effort.
Please Contact Us To Schedule an Appointment
West County Behavioral Health is dedicated to providing high-quality co-parenting counseling, parenting coordination, and parent-child reunification services. Located in Saint Louis, Missouri, our place is readily accessible to the residents of St. Charles and St. Louis. We strive to create a safe and supportive atmosphere for our clients.
If you would like to schedule an appointment, you can reach us at (314) 200-5131.