The Collaborative Co-Parent provides you with the cornerstone to restructure your family dynamic so that with the right rules and tools in place, as separated parents you can coexist (and hopefully even get on!).

Introduction

Chapter 1: So, You’ve Separated. Now what?

Transitioning from spouse to co-parent.

The healing process

Telling the children: what’s appropriate and what to avoid 

The first stages of uncoupling

Early days navigating the separated family unit

Chapter 2: Communication Is Everything 

Tools and resources to encourage healthy, safe communication with your ex.

Listening 

The need to pause

Why reflection is so important during any type of communication 

Responding (often the toughest part)

Encouraging communication between children and their other parent 

Chapter 3: Two Sets of Everything, New Rules, Road Mapping Schedules

Navigating two homes.

Telling the school and other providers

The hardest part: deciding on parenting arrangements and remembering the children’s best interests are paramount 

The need for routine and stability: what works and what doesn’t 

Co-parenting fundamentals: same rules, different homes

Writing The Collaborative Co-Parent has definitely been, in many ways, a journey. A journey toward a healthier co-parenting relationship for myself in reflecting on the good and bad of what I, and many of my clients and friends, have experienced. It has also been a journey in accomplishing something I so badly wanted to do: share my knowledge and experiences with those who need it most.

 I am so thankful to my clients and the people who shared their experiences with me. They taught me just as much as I have guided them. Working with so many strong, resilient people has allowed me to gather information and provide my readers with everyday examples of what works and doesn’t work in navigating the co-parenting world. It is only through my own lived experience, and the challenges of those I have worked with and helped, that I have gained perspective in sharing that which I have in this book.

Most importantly, I am thankful to you, the reader, for trusting in me and being open to embark on the co-parenting journey. Your children will be forever grateful to you for allowing them to experience a more stable, secure, and rewarding future. 

This book provides a mindful separation and parenting tool. Together, we will navigate this journey and grow strong and resilient children. Separation is not the end—it is the beginning of a new journey providing you with the foundation to create a new type of family with your own rules. 

The Collaborative Co-Parent is a modern and timely resource for separated parents. It provides a practical outlook in high conflict, fractured relationships where children are too often caught up in the grief and unhealthy dynamic of a separating family. Our philosophy is simple: co-parenting made dignified, simple, and collaborative. 

When picking up this book, you probably thought, “But what is a collaborative co-parent?” Let me start with this. If you lie in bed awake at night following a marriage breakdown or end of a relationship think about the following, this book is for you:

· What happens now?

· How do we both raise the kids?

· This feels complicated.

· The road ahead seems daunting.