Patrick Ward, PhD » divorce

The Structured Separation Agreement

Patrick Ward — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:34:49 +0000

Occasionally in my practice there is a couple I am working with that are “stuck” and if they continue to stay together they will definitely hurt their chances of perpetual marital bliss. Yet, divorce is not something I encourage though for some it becomes a decision they must make. Sometimes it is helpful for the couple to agree to “trial separation.” In this post you will learn a way to go about a structured or trial separation. Continue

Sharing Custody, Part 2

Patrick Ward — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:57:14 +0000

Sharing custody means that a child’s parents or guardians do not live together and must negotiate caring for the child or children from two different homes. Usually this is due to a marital divorce or separation of cohabiting couples. Shared custody, or co-parenting, presents unique challenges for the parents who are trying to carry out the “best interests of the child.” Continue

Happiness, Marriage, and Divorce.

Patrick Ward — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:06:31 +0000

Can marriage make you happy? Or, if you are unhappily married, will divorce make you feel better? Probably it will not. I’ve been working with couples long enough now to see patterns, tendencies, and trends in marriage and divorce. One tendency I want to highlight here is the human tendency to pursue happiness in all the wrong places and then get upset when those places in our lives don’t produce happiness. “The pursuit of happiness” was written into the U.S. Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson as a right of all the people, and so we Americans expect happiness to come to us. Remember though, the right is not to have happiness, but to pursue it. Rather than pursue, I think many of us have a tendency to postpone happiness. We say to ourselves; “When (fill in the blank) happens, then I’ll be happy” or “If I get that thing, that promotion, that degree, that person, then I’ll be happy.” Continue