You will need the assistance of several professionals when you are going through a divorce. Hiring a divorce attorney is a necessity because of the many legal complexities of the process. Some divorcees also find it helpful to see a mental health therapist to discuss their emotional issues related to the divorce. If you are working with both of these people, you may wonder why you would need to have a divorce coach. The answer is that a divorce coach provides a service that is unique from a therapist and can help you through the process.

Not a Therapist

The jobs of a divorce coach and a therapist do overlap in some basic areas. Both approach your divorce from a personal perspective, understanding that it is an emotional process. However, there are several differences in how a divorce coach can help you reach your goal:

1. A Divorce Coach Focuses on Action: You see a therapist to better understand how your divorce is affecting your emotions and how to cope. A divorce coach addresses the issues that you are concerned about with your divorce and helps you create solutions. A divorce coach will make sure that you follow through on your plan, while a therapist takes a more gradual approach that encourages you to reach a conclusion at your own pace.
2. A Divorce Coach Can Relate to Your Experience: Many divorce coaches chose their profession because they went through their own divorce. They know which parts of a divorce can be difficult and how divorcees need both support and encouragement. A divorce coach can be like a friend who has already experienced his or her own divorce, except a divorce coach is also professionally trained to advise you.
3. A Divorce Coach Works Directly on Your Divorce: Therapy is about addressing you as a person, which may take a larger view than the immediate concerns of your divorce. A divorce coach is most concerned about how your divorce is immediately affecting you and is part of the divorce team that is guiding you through the process. Some divorce coaches work alongside divorce attorneys, with each focusing on the ways they can help you.

Contact a Kane County Divorce Attorney

No single professional can replicate all the ways that a divorce coach can help you. A St. Charles, Illinois, divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group can put you in contact with the firm's divorce coach to discuss the benefits of the service. Schedule a free consultation by calling 630-584-4800.

In the years following a divorce, opportunities come up that may require two parents to live in different parts of the country. You can contest your co-parent’s decision to relocate with your children, but the court may decide that the move is in their best interest. You may also find a career opportunity in another city that is too lucrative to pass up. Long-distance parenting is a difficult adjustment for you and your children and will never feel like an ideal situation. There are ways you can maintain a healthy relationship with your children.

1. Regular Communication: It may be impractical to see your children in person frequently, but you should have a weekly schedule of when you will talk to them. Your children should be able to rely on you calling them at the same times each week and feel like you will respond to them if they need to contact you. Video calls can give your conversations more intimacy than voice calls.
2. Regular Visits: Though less frequent that your calls, your in-person visits with them should also follow a regular pattern. Most of the time, you will need to travel to them for your visits. You can ask a court to consider your travel expenses when calculating your child support payments.
3. Longer Visits: Your children can also travel to visit you, but it will be better for them to have a few long visits each year than several short visits. This lessens the stress of them traveling and gives you more uninterrupted time with them. Summer vacation is usually the best time for them to visit you because they can stay for several weeks.
4. Normal Interaction: Long-distance parents may try to make up for not seeing their children more often by giving them gifts or planning fun outings during each visit. This gives them an unhealthy expectation that your relationship is based on you spoiling them. Being with them and doing normal activities should be enough. Save the gifts for special occasions.
5. Cooperation: Long-distance parenting works best when your co-parent accommodates your efforts to contact and visit your children. As the full-time parent, he or she has even greater responsibility for your children than before. Your co-parent can make your parenting easier by preparing your children for your visits.

Contact a St. Charles Divorce Attorney

You need to modify your parenting agreement when you and your children no longer live near each other. A Kane County family law attorney at Goostree Law Group can help you create a new parenting schedule that allows you to see your children. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

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It can be difficult to continue to make house mortgage payments on your own after your divorce. However, you may be able to keep your marital home for the foreseeable future if you are able to get a reverse mortgage on your house. Reverse mortgages are available to people who are at least 62 years old and have a large amount of equity in their home – usually at least 50 percent. You use the money you receive from a reverse mortgage to pay off the remainder of what you owe on your home mortgage, with the surplus available for other expenses. Gray divorcees should consider whether a reverse mortgage could help them during the division of property, though there are risks.

How It Works

Assuming that you qualify, you can apply for a reverse mortgage – also known as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage – with lenders who specialize in this type of loan. The amount of money that you can borrow will increase in conjunction with your age and the value of the property. With a reverse mortgage, you no longer make mortgage payments on your home or payments on the loan as long as you remain in the house. The loan and interest are due when:

• You die;
• You decide to sell or leave the home;
• The home is unoccupied for a stipulated amount of time; or
• The lender forecloses on your home.

The lender recuperates the money from the reverse mortgage when selling the home. You cannot owe more on the loan than your property is worth, but the lender will protect its investment by requiring you to keep up with property taxes, home owner’s insurance, and maintenance of the property. Failing to meet these standards allows the lender to foreclose on the property.

Divorce is more than a logistical process that determines who gets what properties and how you share responsibility for your children. For you, it is an emotional and personal process that will at times make you feel uncertain about your life and your future. Divorce is a new and frightening experience for most people, and it can be helpful to have someone who is knowledgeable to guide you through the process. That is why a growing number of divorcees find it empowering to have a divorce coach.

What Is a Divorce Coach?

A divorce coach is a professional who works with divorce clients on handling their emotional concerns and guides them towards being a constructive part of the divorce process. A divorce coach is part of your divorce team that includes your attorney. Divorce coaching has grown as a profession in recent decades, and there are programs that train divorce coaches how to handle real-life scenarios that occur in divorces. Finding a Certified Divorce Coach should assure you that you are working with someone who understands how to help you.

What Can a Divorce Coach Do for Me?

A divorce coach can be useful at any stage of the divorce process. Clients will consult divorce coaches to:

State divorce laws will not allow you to gain an advantage in support payments by quitting your job or not searching for a job. Your child support and spousal maintenance can be based on what you are realistically capable of earning. Courts will not offer much sympathy to people who try to cheat the system by creating an artificial need for support. If you are capable of working, you are expected to keep your job or try to find one.

Leaving Your Job

Courts determine child support and spousal maintenance payments based mostly each spouse’s income. Thus, a spouse could seemingly reduce his or her child support obligation and qualify for spousal maintenance if he or she was unemployed. You will not fool the court if you voluntarily leave your job in order to gain an advantage. The court will instead base your income on what you are capable of earning. However, there is a difference between quitting a job and leaving a job because it conflicts with your parenting time. As a single parent, you may need to look after your children during the hours you normally work. A court may be understanding in this situation but will expect you to look for another job that fits your schedule or to find childcare services.

Losing Your Job

You may become involuntarily unemployed during your divorce due to layoffs or being fired. The court will not hold it against you if you lose your job but, once again, will expect you to be actively looking for a job. It may want you to take a job for lesser pay until you can find new employment in your field.