Divorce Planning Checklist
Divorce may not be something you have spent time planning (or hoping) for, and when you and your spouse decide that your marriage cannot survive, you may feel overwhelmed with emotion and with all of the things that must be done. The emotional and logistical aspects of a divorce can leave you unsure how to move forward. The staff at Johnson Mediation understands how difficult a divorce can be for you and your family. We have developed a divorce planning checklist to give you some guidance about how to take those first steps right away and how to stay on track so that you can move forward with your life.
No one enters a marriage hoping that the outcome will be divorce. Of course, our hopes and dreams for our marriage are quite the opposite. And, if you find yourself in that spot and you need to move ahead with a divorce, it can be extremely stressful, complicated and overwhelming. The team at Johnson Mediation understands the process well and can help you with each and every step of your divorce, so that you can focus on healing and moving forward and not get so bogged down in the process.
Hiring a divorce mediator is a really important decision as you move ahead with your separation and divorce. A divorce mediator can help you settle the terms of your divorce, including developing your parenting plan, dividing your joint property, and deciding whether you need to think about spousal maintenance or child support. It is critical to establish a strong connection with your mediator and feel like you can be open and honest and ask the questions that are on your mind. Your mediator’s primary goal is to help you find common ground with your ex in order to find a path forward to your future
Our staff is asked regularly whether we think that divorce mediation is a tool that can help individual families navigate divorce. It is very common to wonder if mediation can truly help resolve what is likely the most significant conflict of your life. Maybe your relationship is particularly complex, high in emotion and conflict or maybe you anticipate difficult resolving issues around custody. These are all very normal concerns about the divorce process and the team at Johnson Mediation can answer your specific questions and give you an idea of what to expect if you move forward with divorce mediation.
Divorce is a very emotional decision that impacts every member of your family. It is normal to feel intense sadness, anger, regret, anxiety and even grief. Even when the decision to divorce is mutual, you may still need to work through a sense of loss. If you share children and a home, you may grieve the loss of your marriage, your existing family unit, or your sense of security. It is really important to acknowledge these feelings and work through them so that you and your family can move forward in the healthiest way possible. Johnson Mediation offers a wide variety of divorce support services to help you navigate the divorce process, including post-divorce support services.
The divorce process is complicated and if you hire lawyers and go through the court system, you can easily expect it to take many months to resolve. You must work around the schedule of your attorneys as well as the judge and even the courtroom. The average divorce that is litigated can take anywhere between six to twenty-four months to complete. That means that your family may be in limbo for an extended period, which can take a huge emotional toll on you and your family, especially if you share kids.
