Articles

We really did have the best of intentions.  After 2.5+ years of living in a pandemic, we tried to schedule our first Girl’s Night Out at the Ocean View Fishing Pier’s top deck in August. We planned it.  We had the food ordered.  The venue set.  We were thinking happy thoughts about orange crushes and...

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  It’s probably not what you envisioned when you thought about what life would be like as an adult. The marriage, the home, the 2.5 kids, the golden retriever… but, then again, so many things are different than what we envisioned, and that doesn’t necessarily make them any less wonderful (or, conversely, make them less...

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One of the things that I find the most interesting about suicide, and the people who either commit it or don’t, is that it’s often a question of opportunity. For someone like, say, Sylvia Plath, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after sticking her head in the oven, it was an opportunity. In that time,...

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For the past 30+ years, we’ve offered our monthly divorce seminars on the Second Saturday of the month.  For a long time, we even called them ‘Second Saturday,’ because that’s when they were offered.  Even after we added a Third Tuesday evening seminar, we still called them ‘Second Saturday’ seminars. I think one of the...

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Trauma Responses to Divorce and Custody Cases

Divorce is a trauma. It’s a trauma for you, and, in many cases, it’s a trauma for your children, too. But, then again, probably many of the events leading up to your divorce and/or custody case were pretty traumatic, too. It’s not like you just showed up at a divorce attorney’s office unscathed, and suddenly...

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Divorce and Suicide

  There are just some conversations that are difficult to have, and this one is a good example. I talk about divorce every single day, and, somehow, that never really gets to me. I have a fundamental belief that there’s no reason to stay in an unsuccessful, unhappy, unfulfilling, and/or abusive marriage. That, for me,...

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Pregnant and Expecting – a Virginia Divorce

Pregnancy can be wonderful, but it can also be really challenging – especially if you’re also starting to think that your marriage may not last past (or even up until) the birth. Expecting women are particularly vulnerable, especially if you’re currently unemployed, because childbirth is both personally and professionally complicated. Not only that, but caring...

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After you’ve lost child custody in Virginia

There are probably very few things as devastating as losing custody of your children. As a mother myself, I can only imagine. In my experience, this happens pretty rarely, and (I’m sorry to say) often not without reason. In the majority of cases, the parties agree about how custody and visitation will be handled between...

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