Divorce and Co-Parenting Counseling in Alpharetta and Roswell, GA
Divorce is not one decision. It is a decision, then a legal process, then a rebuilt life, then a long stretch of raising your kids with someone you are no longer married to. Each of those asks something different from you, and most people are somewhere in the middle of one of them when they first call.
Before you have decided
Some people come in still holding the question. They are not sure whether they want out or whether they want it to get better, and they have been carrying that for months or years without saying it out loud to anyone.
That is a legitimate reason to start therapy, and it is not the same thing as having made up your mind. Sometimes the work clarifies that the marriage is worth another attempt. Sometimes it clarifies the opposite. Either way, you get to think it through somewhere other than in your own head at two in the morning.
If you and your spouse both want to try, couples work is on the table. If you are the only one asking the question right now, individual work still helps.
During the process
The legal part of a divorce and the emotional part run on different clocks. Attorneys move at the pace of filings and court dates. You move at the pace of a person whose life is being rearranged. It helps to have somewhere the second one gets attention too.
A few things that come up for almost everyone in this stretch:
Telling your children. There is no perfect version of this conversation, and you will likely have some version of it again at every age they pass through. We can help you plan what to say and how to say it.
Grief that does not look how you expected. You may have wanted this and still feel wrecked by it. Both can be true at once, and it does not mean you made the wrong call.
Anger that shows up at odd times and does not always have a good place to go. Having somewhere to set it down means it is less likely to spill over at home.
The practical weight of splitting a household, sorting out what goes where, and noticing which friendships shift.
The quieter question underneath it all: you were part of something for a long time, and figuring out who you are now takes time. That part is normal and it does get clearer.
We are not attorneys, and we do not do custody evaluations, letters for court, or expert testimony. What we offer is a place to be a person while the legal process treats you as a party to a case.
After it is final
The paperwork ends. The relationship does not, because you share children.
That is the part almost nobody prepares for. You spend a year or more getting out of a marriage, and then you find out you are still in daily contact with the same person, just with new rules and no good template for how it works.
Co-parenting
This is where the work shifts from processing to skills.
We build communication that holds up when things get tense. How to write the message, what to leave out, when not to respond at all. How to handle a handoff that keeps going sideways in the driveway with the kids in the back seat. Where to set a boundary and how to hold it when it gets tested.
Some of what makes this hard:
Your ex does not follow the schedule and you are out of ideas that do not involve going back to court.
Your eight-year-old repeats things that clearly came from the other house.
You have met someone and you have no idea how or when to introduce them without setting something off.
Two households with two sets of rules, and your teenager has noticed exactly where the seams are.
A lot of co-parenting advice assumes two people who both want it to work, and that is not always the situation. If you are dealing with someone who moves the goalposts or uses the kids to send messages, the work looks different. It becomes less about collaboration and more about running your own household well, keeping your responses short and steady, and protecting your children from a conflict they did not start. You can lower the temperature on your side even when the other side never does.
Support for your kids
Children rarely say what they are actually worried about. It comes out as stomachaches on Sunday nights, a sudden drop in grades, or anger pointed at whichever parent is safest to be angry at.
We work with children and teens directly, in ways that fit their age, and we keep parents informed about what is useful without turning your child into a messenger between two houses.
Working with Holli
Holli Hutson, LMSW, is a certified divorce and co-parenting coach and has been doing this work since 2017. She uses a strengths-based approach informed by attachment theory, along with CBT, DBT, ACT, the Gottman Method, and Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy. Clients tend to say sessions with her were the first place they could say the ugly version of what they were actually thinking.
Serving families across North Fulton
We see clients in person at our Alpharetta office and by telehealth throughout Georgia, including Roswell, Milton, and Johns Creek.
Wherever you are in this, the deciding, the middle of it, or five years past it and still dreading every exchange, that is worth talking about.