Divorce is not a rare occurrence in California. People from all walks of life have come to the realization that their marriages are not working and choose to go their separate ways. Experts have speculated that changing expectations about married life and longer life expectancies have led to an increase in the divorce rate in California and across the United States. While divorce is not unusual, some people do choose to divorce in different ways.
Recently, award winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, rock-star Chris Martin, have decided to divorce. However, in their announcement they claimed to be undergoing a “conscious uncoupling.” While the phrasing raised a few eyebrows in the media, some divorce experts have applauded Paltrow and Martin for taking a positive and more child-friendly approach to divorce — in this case, the couple has two young children.
Experts say, that while the wording may seem pretentious to some, it raises awareness of an alternative to contested divorces. Instead of taking a negative and litigious approach, the couple works together to separate their lives. They realize that they are on different paths and peacefully separate in order to follow them.
For average Californians who are interested in an uncontested divorce, divorce mediation often offers a solution. Through mediation a couple can come up with an agreement to best fit their family situation. In mediation, the couple will work with a neutral third-party to solve issues including alimony, child support, child custody and the division of assets. This way, families can limit their emotional stress by quickly and easily coming to an agreement.
While this approach will not work in every situation, divorce mediation can often help keep couples out of court. This way a judge isn’t making all the decisions, but the couple is crafting the best divorce settlement they can for themselves and their family.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Is ‘conscious uncoupling’ a better way to divorce?,” Anya Sostek, March 29, 2014