A Conversation with Kelly Myers
Today I am meeting with Kelly Myers, a Certified Divorce Coach, mediator and co-parenting specialist. Kelly is also a co-trainer for Co-Parenting Specialist Training, which is offered to divorce professionals around the world. Kelly focuses her work on empowering family law clients in making informed decisions, finding their voice and achieving positive outcomes for themselves and their families. If there are minor children involved, then she helps the clients make child centered decisions that aid in re-structuring of the family. Kelly is able to work with clients all over the world. What sets Kelly apart is she started her work after going through her own family law matter and learning some hard lessons.
My mediation, litigation and prenuptial agreement practice involves participants and clients who are often small to medium sized business owners, or have certain investment assets that involve issues beyond just family law. Because these issues are broader than just family law they require that I bring into the mediation room (or as consulting attorneys and experts) additional professionals.
With close to 10 years of experience as a divorce coach, Kelly possesses a deep understanding of the complex dynamics involved in divorce and separation and their impact on the family. She is a professional I like to bring into the room to help optimize the experience for my family law clients.
Here are ten ways Kelly can assist clients going through family law matters. These are actually very brief summaries and if you would like the complete pdf, you can email Kelly directly at Kelly.myers@firststepsdivorce.com and reference this post.
1. Helps clients understand the different ways they can get divorced such as litigation, mediation, and collaborative divorce. She then helps them make the decision that aligns with their divorce goals, keeping in mind the relationship the clients may have post-divorce.
2. Assists with creating a divorce team and identifying the different members of the team such as a certified divorce financial analyst, divorce coach, and divorce focused real estate professionals.
3. Facilitates clarity on the client’s goals for the divorce process itself and for the client’s post-divorce life.
4. Helps with envisioning a client’s life post-divorce, such as thinking about goals for career, personal growth, and relationships after divorce.
5. Provides support in being open to change and the upheavals that divorce brings with the understanding that life will look different, but change can bring new opportunities and happiness.
6. Assists with identifying and communicating the client’s goals with their divorce team to empower and enable the team to be more effective.
7. Educates and works with the client on new ways of communicating with the former spouse or co-parent.
8. Helps clients focus on what they can control and what they cannot control.
9. Works with the clients to get organized and prepared for meetings with the divorce team, the spouse or co-parent, and mediation sessions or court appearances.
10. Works with the clients on a comprehensive parenting plan that provides a road map for parenting in two homes, while continuing to provide the support children need. As a divorce attorney, this one of my favorite services that Kelly offers as children are the most important and precious asset of any divorce or co-parenting relationship.
Kelly and I met through Forrest Woody Mosten, who has led me to innumerable talented people around the globe available to help family law clients with their matters. Kelly’s approach to coaching, mediation and co-parenting is grounded in empathy and the belief that divorcing couples have the ability to work together in finding equitable solutions that best serve their unique circumstances.
Ashley Andrews has practiced exclusively family law for close to 20 years. Her firm is set apart because she handles high-conflict and complex child custody matters, divorce cases with business owners, high-asset divorce cases, and domestic violence cases. She has an in-house forensic accountant who works on all her cases in some capacity. She has litigated family law cases all over California, including multi-week trials in the following counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange County, and Riverside. While still taking the litigated family law cases, she is optimizing her practice by adding in mediation and collaborative divorce, a shift that she finds harder for the family law practitioner but better overall for the participants and their families. In her spare time, she is learning tennis, growing orchids, walking her Yorkshire terrier, frequenting the Norton Simon, and attending every Mosten Guthrie class she can fit into her schedule.
This material is provided for educational purposes only. Providing this information does not establish an attorney/client relationship. None of the information contained in this post should be acted upon without first consulting with an experienced family law mediator and attorney. Should you have questions about the content of this post, please arrange to discuss via a consultation.