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Welcome, welcome, welcome to my first online newsletter, which you will be receiving twice a month!

I’m Susan Regan, a licensed psychotherapist in California and an online coach with over 25 years’ experience helping people heal and move forward in their lives and relationships.

The purpose of my work and interests have always been focused on helping people create the kind of life and relationships they want.

The goal of my monthly correspondence with you is to give you a few...

We all need personal time and space. This may mean alone time, or time with just our friends. Sometimes, fear of hurting, abandoning or rejecting your partner can make it hard to say, “I need some time alone.” Over time, this can leave you feeling depleted or resentful. Or it can have the opposite of the intended effect – you stay home with your spouse or partner, but avoid contact. One of you watches TV downstairs while the other is upstairs on the computer.

Bringing your...

During a separation process parents‚ personality differences get magnified
– especially when deciding the custody of their children.

Disappointment, depression, anxiety, and anger are normal at this time. Different personality types express these feelings in different ways. Understanding what’s underneath the behavior can help you find empathy for yourself and your child’s other parent.

Problem Solvers: This type fends for and protects their children more than they...

Families don’t end in divorce- they change. There’s a lot of adjustment. Sometimes figuring out how to share parenting responsibilities brings up old issues from the marriage. Despite this, it is important that you both put your kids’ needs first.

Co-parenting Counseling helps parents restructure time. You will learn to adjust to custody arrangements and how to set up space in each home to make kids feel secure. You will also learn to set healthy boundaries so everyone feels...

Divorce With Dignity is a divorce facilitation service with the goal of getting people through their divorce in a holistic, cooperative, peaceful, and cost-effective way. One of the benefits we offer our clients is referrals for additional services they may need to make the divorce a smoother transition. For example, some clients may be in situations where they have a need to seek therapy or counseling during the divorce process. In these cases, we refer them to professionals like Susan...

When there is personality conflict,
it’s invaluable to have the help of a neutral third party
– someone who understands how divorce impacts everyone,
including parents and kids.

Co-parent Counseling benefits include:

• Keeping focused on the children
• Understanding kids’ developmental needs
• Helping kids adjust to the transition
• Providing a neutral and emotionally safe place for parents to create a new relationship, based on the best interests of their kids.

Co-parent Counseling...

Now What?

Well, you’ve come to the decision that you have to divorce and you really want to get through this as peacefully as possible without spending your life savings. Just remember that as long as you and your spouse are in agreement, you can pretty much do whatever you want—it’s just a matter of figuring out the best strategy to get through the court system. Here are some things you can do to avoid litigation and get your process through your local court system.

First...

Transformations and changes are showing up in my divorce support groups!

My divorce support groups that begin as eight-week series often evolve into groups of people who continue on by joining the next session, and then extend their participation with series after series. The reasons are varied, but most of them feel that getting to the next level of healing is right around the corner, and they are motivated to keep working toward that goal. In the past month I have been hearing so many...

Divorce almost always entails a lot of negative emotions and consequences. It’s difficult to see anything positive in it. But it actually can be an opportunity for you to transform your life on an emotional level and change your lifestyle for the better. When intense things happen in our lives they often cause us to have to change radically.

Patterns that may have been formed long ago can keep us re-creating the same scenarios, even when they are not healthy positions for us. When these...

There are 7 stages of grief and loss that you will experience when going through separation.

The universal stages of grief and loss that are most recognizable are: denial/sadness, depression, anger, bargaining, and acceptance.

There are two other stages of grief that a person goes through during separation of a major relationship. It’s hard to look at the last two stages when you are deep and raw in grief.

The sixth stage is recovering from the damage caused by the relationship and...