Help for Clergy
Divorce Conflict Solutions offers courtesy consultations to clergy ministering to families whose parents are embroiled in conflict about their children. Together, we can help these families move beyond their deadlocked positions toward healing for both parents and their children.
Before, during, and after a bitter divorce even the best-intentioned parents can unwittingly, and almost inevitably, fall short of providing their children with the stable, loving parenting they aspire to. Worse, their own suffering can lead them to place their children in the center of their conflict. The more difficulty parents have with the loss, wounds, fears, and animosity of their fractured relationship, the more trouble their children are likely to have – with their parents, with siblings and peers, at school and in the community, and, ultimately, with their own developing self-image and future intimate and family relationships.
Just as children can be drawn into the struggles between divorcing parents, so can clergy, who, committed to ministering to entire families, feel caught in the middle. The challenge of providing support to families locked in protracted and unresolved conflict can feel overwhelming. Clergy refer patients to Divorce Conflict Solutions when they observe that conflict between separated parents is hampering their children’s well-being. Helping parents come to reasonable, mutual agreement regarding the sharing of parental rights and responsibilities also helps parents truly refocus on their children’s best interests.