Co-Parenting 101: Raising Kids, Together and Apart
So, you have recently decided to separate. Perhaps you have been divorced for years or maybe you were never married. In any case, raising a child with someone you aren’t partnered with or living with anymore changes the situation. There is no single exhaustive list of how-to’s about co-parenting, and every parent, child, and family…
Read MoreCo-Parenting After Divorce: How to Set Aside Differences and Support Your Kids
This blog was originally published on Counsel Philadelphia and is re-posted here with the author’s permission. Adam Goodman is a former Staff Therapist at Council for Relationships and a licensed attorney experienced in divorce mediation and co-parenting. Co-parenting is hard, especially if уоu have a contentious rеlаtіоnѕhір with уоur ex-partner. Yоu may bе соnсеrnеd аbоut your…
Read MoreThoughts from the Movie “Boyhood”
The Oscar-nominated film Boyhood takes us on a young man’s journey through 12 years. The poignant movie shows the mistakes and triumphs of one family, with parts that we can all relate to. We asked our therapists to share their thoughts from the movie. Read their feelings on Boyhood below before the Academy Awards this Sunday. (Spoiler Alert:…
Read MoreSeparation and Divorce
While counseling frequently helps couples to make their marriages more satisfying, there are also times when counseling can help a couple to decide that they need to bring their marriage to an end. Sometimes people learn in the process of therapy that unresolved conflicts have been left unaddressed for so long that the damage to…
Read MoreConfusing the Symbolic with the Real in Coping with Sexual Infidelity
April Westfall, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist & Senior Staff Therapist in the University City and Wynnewood Offices. With our divorce rate for first-time marriages in the US continuing to hover around 50% – and even higher for those previously married couples – not surprisingly, many newlyweds look to the ceremony itself as if it were…
Read MoreMoving Beyond the Betrayal: Why Some Couples Are Able to Get Past a Partner’s Infidelity More Easily than Others
Infidelity and affairs in marriage and our committed relationships have been around forever and will continue to be so. No couple, however happy and well suited to each other, can completely escape the possibility of it happening to them. Most affairs are conducted in secret and end of their own accord without being brought to…
Read MoreBreaking Up Is Hard to Do
When my adult daughter introduced us happily to her significant other, it was practically love at first sight. The two seemed a natural match, not only for one another, but also to my husband and myself. While the two navigated the ups and downs of their budding relationship, we became more and more attached to…
Read MoreThe Challenge and Hope of Reunification Therapy
Priscilla Singleton, MSW, LMFT, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and a marriage and family therapist. Ms. Singleton’s areas of expertise are separating and divorcing families, adoption, promotion of child and adolescent connection in their families, children of divorce, and co-parent counseling. Ms. Singleton has been in practice for over 25 years. Sometimes a parent can…
Read MoreIt’s Not Always a White Christmas. Complicated Families: Complicated Holidays
Family holidays used to be simpler, at least that is the myth. When family members look more alike, have similar ideas of how the holidays are celebrated, and have common expectations of behavior, food and customs, life seems easier. Today many more families are intercultural, interracial, and inter-religious, especially in big cities. Blended families are…
Read MoreHelping Children Grieve: Expressing Emotions, Affirming the Universal
It is a Tuesday evening in January, 2010. The room is abuzz with the energy of 12 children, ages 7-9, who show up in this large room most weeks from 6-8 pm to play and talk and have a snack. These children have something in common that does not meet the eye. Their young lives…
Read MoreWhat to do When Your Friends are Getting a Divorce (Part 3)
In parts one and two, we touched on some ways for Ann to explore and cope with her experience of Mary and Andy’s divorce. This last part will look at the possible impact on Ann’s relationship with her own husband, since one of her worries was that this might happen to her and Jim. STAY…
Read MoreWhat to do When Your Friends are Getting a Divorce (Part 2)
In Part 1, we noted some of the feelings which Ann might experience as she copes with the news that her friends, Mary and Andy are in the process of divorcing. In the second of our three articles, we will look at some of the issues which might come up for Ann as she experiences…
Read MoreWhat to do When Your Friends are Getting a Divorce (Part 1)
Jim and Ann are a couple in their 30’s with 3 small children. They have been part of a group of friends since college. Their social life, both individually and together has revolved around this close circle of married friends with whom they have shared support, childcare, and many important life events. Recently, Ann received…
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