“Co-Parenting is an enterprise undertaken by two or more adults who together take on the care and upbringing of children for whom they share responsibility,” according to James McHale, a researcher with the Department of Psychology and Family Study Center at University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.

This definition is simple, but co-parenting isn’t always as easy as it sounds.  As you may know, co-parenting can be a very daunting, emotionally taxing, and logistically challenging process.  It can also be a rewarding, emotionally sustaining, and fulfilling process.

Your child’s self esteem, academic achievement, career success, understanding of self, and even their ability to love and be loved can all be impacted by how they experience their parents’ divorce and co-parenting.

Studies show that every child of divorce struggles emotionally with the changes in their family. However, children of low-conflict, highly cooperative co-parents begin to rebuild their resiliency more quickly.  My goal is to help parents focus on and support their children’s emotional well-being, one of the best predictors of future success.

As a Co-Parent Mediator,  I understand that it is very complicated to co-parent with someone to whom you respond with intense emotions.  My job is to help co-parents in conflict transition their relationship to a more successful experience, both for themselves and for their child.  I assist co-parents in finding a style that can help them experience their interactions together in a way that defuses the intensity of conflict to a level that helps each of them begin to enjoy their job as a parent, even when co-parenting.

I structure my co-parenting sessions in different ways, depending on the family.  Some co-parents can sit together and discuss issues in their relationship together.  Some co-parents need to meet individually for a time.  The end goal, however, is for the co-parents to be able to address difficult issues for their children by design a plan for how they will communicate and navigate complicated issues.  This work can create a space where children can experience their parents in low conflict situations, increasing their own resiliency in their future.