029: Healing the Hurt: Supporting Kids & Co-Parents Through Divorce with Mental Health Professional Lauren Blake

Divorce brings many challenges to families going through a divorce, and involving a mental health professional can make all the difference in their outcomes on the other side of the divorce.

On this episode of Children First Family Law, Krista sits down with Lauren Blake, owner and founder of Michigan-based Blake Family Consulting. Lauren is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a decade of experience working in family law with highly litigious families. Her practice focuses on providing trauma-informed collaborative care to high-conflict families.

Krista and Lauren start their conversation by exploring Lauren’s career path from family law paralegal to a mental health provider. Lauren outlines the mental health challenges that often accompany divorce, the overuse of terminology like “parental alienation,” and Lauren’s childhood experience with alienation and divorce. She shares the therapeutic resources now available to families, what divorcing couples need to know about the role of attorneys, and why these couples should consider individual therapy as well as co-parenting therapy. You’ll hear how anticipatory anxiety can impact kids required to see the disfavored parent, when “no contact” with a parent is necessary, and the various roles outside of mental health professional Lauren often takes on.

Lauren Blake is uniquely positioned to understand the needs of both children and adults in high-conflict divorce situations, and she shares her tips for successfully navigating them.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Lauren Blake’s journey from family law paralegal to mental health provider
• The mental health challenges that often accompany divorce
• The nuances surrounding “parental alienation”
• Lauren’s personal story of alienation, including not knowing her father and the dynamics of her parents’ divorce
• How she uses her personal story to help others going through divorce
• Signs of parental alienation
• Therapeutic resources available today that didn’t exist when Lauren navigated her parents’ divorce
• How therapists can, and often should, testify in parental alienation cases
• What couples considering divorce should know about the role of attorneys
• The importance of “uncoupling” to be good co-parents
• Why divorcing parents should consider both individual therapy and co-parenting therapy
• The challenge of anticipatory anxiety for children seeing the disfavored parents
• When “no contact” is warranted, including child abuse or sexual abuse
• Pacing therapy well and not rushing kids, but knowing when a push is necessary
• The role of attorneys in speaking truth to their clients
• Various other roles Lauren sometimes takes on, including Guardian ad Litem
• Re-establishing relationships post-divorce and how to frame therapy correctly for the best success

Resources from this Episode

www.childrenfirstfamilylaw.com

www.blakefamilyconsulting.com

All states have different laws; be sure you are checking out your state laws specifically surrounding divorce. Krista is a licensed attorney in Colorado and Wyoming but is not providing through this podcast legal advice. Please be sure to seek independent legal counsel in your area for your specific situation. 

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