Can Family Counseling Help My Children Adjust to Divorce?

 Posted on June 30, 2022 in Divorce

Research suggests that the negative effects of divorce on children in Illinois and across the rest of the United States can last for many years after the divorce is finalized. Children are often stuck in the middle as parents struggle to manage their relationship with each child and the challenging divorce process simultaneously. Unfortunately, this often results in direct or indirect attempts at parental alienation and enormous negative impacts on children’s mental health. 

There is good news, however. Family counseling allows parents and children to learn more about how to manage divorce with skill and compassion. It teaches parents to collaborate and avoid inadvertently harming the children, and it teaches children the skills they need to manage and process their emotions about the divorce. 

How Does Divorce Affect Children? 

Even if a child’s parents did not have a great relationship before the divorce, the jarring separation of a child from living with both of her parents - and the changes in living situations this separation brings - can be deeply unsettling. Depending on her age, a child may struggle to understand why her parents are separating and what it means for her future. She may feel fear, depression, and anxiety, and even the best-behaved child may begin to act out unpredictably. 

How Does Family Therapy Help Children During Divorce? 

Therapy can provide many skills and strategies for helping children manage the negative effects of divorce. During family therapy, children can learn to: 

• Recognize both parents have good qualities - Children often read into their parents’ feelings about each other and come to view one or both parents as completely good or completely bad. Therapy can help them realize that both parents are imperfect people who have good and bad parts but who love and support their children. 

• Communicate more successfully - Children may struggle to express their feelings to either parent or even to themselves. Therapy teaches children healthy ways of saying what they feel so that they can be honest and parents can understand their needs and feelings. 

• Understand they are not to blame for the divorce - Children often assume they are somehow the reason their parents separated. If left unchallenged, this can cause a lifetime of stress and guilt. Therapy can help children reason through this unfounded assumption and allow the parents to assume the responsibility for the divorce. 

Call a DuPage County Divorce Lawyer 

Getting divorced can bring up difficult questions about what is best for your child. At The Stogsdill Law Firm, P.C., our Wheaton, IL divorce attorneys are committed to helping you find and pursue the answer to those questions by providing you with outstanding legal representation and connecting you with professionals in other industries that may be able to help. To learn more, call us at 630-462-9500 today. 

Source: 

https://aamft.org/Consumer_Updates/Children_and_Divorce.aspx