Separation and Divorce Support » Books

Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:35:16 +0000

A friend lent me this book when my husband left me and I was in the depths of dispair. I was reading anything I could find to try and help me understand, but this is the one book that really helped. I latched onto it like a life-preserver to a drowning person. I have read each chapter several times now, and keep getting more out of it as I progress in my healing. I returned my friend’s copy and bought my own (which I have now in turn lent to a friend in need.)

One of the revelations I found comforting was simply to know what the physical symptoms of grief are – that my sore throat, my aching chest and my dry mouth were all manifestations of my emotional trauma.

This book felt like I was talking to a friend who had been there and back, and could take me by the hand through the healing process and help me find my way back to joy. Please read it if you are hurting from the loss of a relationship – it will comfort you a great deal and help you move forward constructively. Then lend it to someone you know who could be helped by it.

Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:28:16 +0000

Kids tend to blame themselves when parents divorce. The Sandcastles workshop–now mandatory in over a dozen counties throughout the United States–is a half-day group session for children of divorce between the ages of 6 and 17. This intensive workshop helps kids open up and deal with their feelings through drawings, games, poetry, role playing, and other activities. Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce details many of the workshop exercises, all designed to increase communication, understanding, and togetherness between parents and kids. The book is also packed full of suggestions on everything from the best way to break the divorce news to a child (it differs according to age group) to facing the holidays, visitation, custody arrangements, anger, discipline, co-parenting, single parenting, overcompensation, sorrow, custody fights, and much more.

Author Gary Neuman never patronizes or preaches, and although he is technically a child advocate, he proves himself to be an advocate of every member of the divorcing family. Neuman takes a hands-on approach and believes that children need not be permanently scarred by divorce–that with work and time, divorce can actually become a positive force for change. A powerful tool for protecting children caught amid parental struggles, Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce should be required reading in all divorcing families. –Ericka Lutz

Child Support Survival Guide

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:15:34 +0000

Child Support Survival Guide is a vital companion and reference for anyone, rich or poor, concerned with child support. It will teach custodial and noncustodial parents, as well as legal guardians, their options. It will provide solutions to parents seeking owed child support and choices to parents fretting the child support they pay. It is also an excellent reference for any Child Support of Family Law Attorney.

Child Custody, Visitation and Support in Texas

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:04:13 +0000

With the divorce rate in the United States above 50%, more parents are being faced with difficult situations involving their children. Whether it’s difficulty seeing them on a regular basis, being denied visitation altogether, watching their children be neglected or abused, not receiving enough child support, or not receiving any monetary support at all, parents increasingly find themselves in the court debating issues that involve their children. This book is designed to let parents know their legal rights and help them take their case through the court system.

In simple language, this book tells you:

–How to get custody in Texas
–How to understand Texas family court procedure
–How to modify a custody, visitation, or support order
–How to take in case of kidnapping or abuse
–How to get sole or joint custody
–How to terminated parental rights
–How to calculate child support in Texas
–How to prove paternity

The Custody Wars: Why Children Are Losing The Legal Battle

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:58:51 +0000

An impassioned argument for the restoration of children’s rights to the foreground of family law

Drawing on a wealth of legal cases and research-as well as on the personal stories of families caught in these disputes-Mary Ann Mason presents a program for reform that is certain to change the terms of the debate on child custody, one of the most highly charged topics on the national agenda.

“A brilliant, highly readable book that not only points to shocking court and mediation policies but proposes sensible remedies that could be enforced tomorrow. The Custody Wars is essential reading for judges, attorneys, mental health practitioners, mediators and responsible parents everywhere.” -Judith Wallerstein, Ph.D., author of Second Chances and Surviving the Breakup

Good Parenting Magazine: Divorce: The Custody Wars: Why Children Are Losing The Legal Battle, And What We Can Do About It

Child Custody Made Simple

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:37:36 +0000

CHILD CUSTODY MADE SIMPLE is an indispensable guide to the strange, sometimes bewildering world of family courts. Written in clear, simple language, it answers many questions posed by separated, divorced, and never-married parents. Packed with expert tips and techniques, this informative book unlocks the secrets of family law, and shows you how to succeed in the brave new world of single parenting.

In CHILD CUSTODY MADE SIMPLE you learn:
- What custody decisions are really based on.
- Who usually wins a custody trial.
- Where to find the best lawyer.
- How to save thousands of dollars on legal fees.
- When to fire your lawyer–and when not to.
- How to respond to emergencies such as domestic violence, parental kidnappings, false allegations, and custodial interference.
- Why judges follow support guidelines–and how to influence them.
- Five strategies to improve your chances of collecting child support.
- Eleven ways to enforce a child support order.
…and much, much more!

You owe it to yourself and your children to read this book!

A Concise Guide to What You Need to Know About Divorce

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:41:31 +0000

You may need to journey down the warpath to stand up for what you must. Or if you and your X2B don’t hate each other just because you are getting a divorce, you may work together to custom design your new, separate lives, or your new two-home family.

This book tells you in detail exactly what you need know to make informed decisions, describes how you can write up your decisions in a legally binding document, or what will happen if you go to court. The back of the book contains a chart for the easy comparison of the litigation, negotiation, collaboration and mediation processes, along with many helpful financial worksheets.

You will also find an explanation of the Informative Mediation Process, and an extremely useful General List of Topics to be Resolved. Whether sitting down to work it out, or standing up to fight it out, for information to help shape and control your new future, and to control the costs, don’t wait one minute more to order The Four Ways of Divorce.

The Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Divorce

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:52:20 +0000

Youre getting divorced. You want out or he wants out, either way youÕre tempted to bend over backward just to get it over with. The result: You get screwed. How screwed? Consider this:

* The average woman experiences a 45 percent drop in her standard of living after divorce
* 45 percent of children living with a divorced mother live at or near the poverty line
* Only about 45 percent of custodial parents due child support payments receive the full amount

In Hit Him Where It Hurts, acclaimed matrimonial attorney Sherri Donovan shows you how to take the offensive in the bloody game we call divorce. With her take-no-prisoners approach, you can ensure that you will gain your freedom without sacrificing your health, your wealth, or your well-beingÑor that of your children.

Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:22:32 +0000

The most practical– and legal — companion through divorce ever published.

Like most people who are going through a separation or divorce, you’re probably wondering “What’s next?” at every turn.

So turn to Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce for clear answers that can help make your divorce simpler and reduce your expenses. With compassion and understanding, Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce will help you:

# understand the divorce process
# work with mediators or lawyers
# avoid expensive and painful court battles
# figure out alimony
# establish child custody and visitation
# determine child support
# divide money and property fairly
# draft a marital settlement agreement
# deal with divorce emergencies
# address post-divorce issues, and
# find helpful resources.

On every page, this book stresses the importance of minimizing conflict, explains complex legal problems concisely, and provides advice on how to protect your interests. Plus, easy-to-use charts make it simple to find the divorce laws in your state.

The updated 2nd edition has new information for planning your parenting agreement and includes a new chapter on divorce in military families. While plenty of books out there claim to cover divorce thoroughly, only Nolo consistently delivers clear legal expertise and invaluable insights. Trust Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce to help you through every step.

For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:04:19 +0000

Mavis Hetherington, “without doubt the world’s preeminent researcher on the family processes that surround divorce,…has distilled the wisdom growing out of her many studies of the short-term and long-term impact of divorce on family members” (Eleanor Maccoby, Stanford University).

Offering “a welcome corrective to misleading and simplistic accounts,” Hetherington “not only provides scientifically sound and wonderfully sensible guidance but dispels the myth that divorce is always negative” (Ross D. Parke, University of California, Riverside).

This “widely-heralded study” (Time) is a “reader-friendly guide to how people can build success out of the stress and adversity of divorce” (Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, London), presenting a more nuanced picture of marital breakup—not as a momentary event but as a life process.
Hetherington identifies the kinds of marriages that predispose a couple to divorce or not and also pinpoints “windows of change” that allow some to fashion the challenges of divorce into an opportunity for themselves and for their children.

For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered