How A Coach Contributes To The Collaborative Law Process:
1. Clarify and frame client needs and desires
A coach will:
• help you and your attorney clarify and prioritize important issues,
• help you examine and understand your feelings, and assist with face-to-face meetings between you and your partner.
2. Assist the parties to communicate
A coach will:
• help you state your needs and desires in ways that makes them easier for your partner to hear,
• help you to understand and suitably respond to your partner’s needs and desires,
• help you and your partner process and express difficult feelings,
• separate volatile emotions from the priorities that must be addressed,
• help identify and appropriately respond to triggers that may derail communication,
• assist the entire family to process the changes inherent in a divorce.
3. Facilitate all aspects of the legal settlement
A coach will:
• facilitate creation of the child custody and access agreement, using specialized knowledge,
• help the children by helping parties work together effectively to plan the family’s future,
• assist parties to negotiate a settlement fairly and quickly,
• help the attorneys work together productively,
• achieve parity with the other party’s coach,
• help parties achieve a divorce settlement that is fair, fast and economical.