Collaborative Divorce: An Effort to Reduce the Damage of Divorce

Divorce has been trapped in the adversarial system of the courts, a system ill suited to the needs of a family attempting to reorganize itself and still safeguard the well-being of its members. Collaborative divorce (CD) is a relatively new approach comprising an interdisciplinary professional team trained to help the divorcing family arrive at a financial, legal, and emotional settlement. The CD approach is designed to assist both members of the couple and their children transition into a more constructive future wherein they can still be a family. The structure and adversarial approach of the courts have been replaced by collaborative structures and principles developed to encourage honesty and cooperation. The case presented illustrates how this actually works. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.