MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ARE FOR CRAZY PEOPLE- WE'RE NOT CRAZY!

By: Randy Heller, Ph.D., LMFT, LMHC

Date: April 28, 2025

WHY DO WE NEED A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL ON OUR COLLABORATIVE TEAM?

"We don't need a Mental Health Professional (MHP) We're not crazy. We just want to get divorced. Once we're divorced, and I don't have to deal with them anymore,  everything will be fine. Can't you, as an attorney, just help us do that? I don't understand why you keep pushing the idea of a MHP on the Team? By the way, we went to marriage counseling and look where it landed us! What gives you the notion that having a MHP working as a Family Specialist/Facilitator in our divorce process will help us to do any better than we've already done? Look where we are!"

This is not unusual rhetoric coming from clients who don't understand the value added that MHPs bring to the Collaborative Teams. I'm here to explain just how an MHP can help you to move through divorce in the most efficient and effective way.  

The Long Island Collaborative Divorce Professionals (LICDP) is a group of specially trained professionals who bring our discipline specific skills and shared values and attitudes, and goals to move families through this process in the most respectful, compassionate, peaceful, cost-effective way.

As a Collaborative Facilitator/Family Specialist, I have specialized education and training and, as needed, can help with:

• Assisting you to determine what is most important to you in the divorce process.

• Assisting you to create goals for you and your family.

• Identifying and help you prioritize your concerns.

• Assisting you in managing the emotions that are part of the divorce process and in reducing

stress.

• Assisting you to strengthen your communication skills and to help you communicate your needs so that you can be heard.

• Making effective use of conflict resolution skills.

• Collaboratively work with you, your spouse, and the other members of the Collaborative team to improve interactions, reduce misunderstandings, resolve problems, and facilitate the Collaborative Process.

• Assisting you in developing co-parenting skills.

• Assisting you in understanding your children’s needs.

• Assisting you in developing a Parenting Plan with your spouse so that your children can have loving relationships with both of you, and,

• Facilitating the process during and outside of meetings with the goal of making each meeting as effective, productive, and efficient as possible. 

Every family is unique. I want to understand your family's individual needs and ensure that your final agreement is durable and will endure the test of time, keep you out of court, and enable you to continue to be a family in a different form. 

Please let us help you. We know that we can.