Divorce Therapy · Michigan
Nobody tells you it would feel like this.
Not the lawyers. Not the mediator. Not even your closest friends who said "you'll be okay" before changing the subject.
They see the paperwork. The logistics. The before and after.
They don't see what happens at 2am when the house is quiet and the life you built is somewhere in a legal document being divided into halves.
The part nobody talks about
There is a loneliness to divorce that is almost impossible to describe to someone who hasn't lived it.
Your social circle quietly takes sides. The couple friends disappear. The holidays get complicated. The kids go to the other house, and you sit in a silence you don't know what to do with.
And somehow you are supposed to function. Show up to work. Answer emails. Be present for your kids on the days you have them. Keep it together in front of people who have no idea what is happening behind closed doors.
Meanwhile you are grieving a future that no longer exists. A family that looks different now. A version of yourself you don't fully recognize yet.
All of it is real
Maybe you left and you still feel guilty. Maybe you were left and the rejection lives in your body like a wound that won't close. Maybe you loved them and still do and you're grieving a person who is still alive. Maybe you're relieved to finally be out of something toxic — and somehow that relief makes you feel worse, not better.
Maybe it's all of those things at once on the same Tuesday afternoon.
There is no right way to go through this. And none of it means you are broken.
And if your marriage had narcissistic dynamics
Divorcing someone with narcissistic traits is not a normal divorce.
It is litigation used as control. It is co-parenting that feels like an extension of the abuse. It is rebuilding your sense of reality while someone is still actively trying to rewrite it. It is feeling crazy, exhausted, and somehow still guilty — even though you know what happened behind closed doors.
You are not crazy. You are not overreacting. And you deserve a therapist who actually understands what that kind of marriage does to a person.
What brings people here
The grief of the relationship and the life you thought you'd have. The loneliness of losing half a family overnight. The ache of not seeing your kids every single day. The financial anxiety that makes it impossible to think straight. The bitterness that is quietly replacing the person you used to be. The trust you don't know if you'll ever get back.
And underneath all of it — often — the family of origin wounds and survival patterns that shaped who you chose, how you loved, and why leaving or being left feels like it is confirming something you always feared about yourself.
That is the work. All of it.
What therapy here actually looks like
This is not a space where you come to vent and leave with a breathing exercise.
We go into the grief. The patterns. The survival responses that are running the show right now. The identity that got swallowed by the marriage. The version of you that existed before all of this — and the version that is trying to emerge on the other side.
We work with your nervous system, not just your thoughts. Because divorce lives in the body. In the tension you carry. In the hypervigilance that won't turn off. In the way your chest tightens every time you see their name on your phone.
This is steady, honest, real work. And it can change things.
You can start now — wherever you are
Whether the papers are freshly signed, the ink isn't dry yet, or you've been divorced for two years and still don't feel like yourself — there is no wrong time to start.
The only thing that matters is that you're tired of carrying this alone.
A note for family law attorneys
Your clients are navigating one of the most destabilizing experiences of their lives — often while managing high-conflict co-parenting, narcissistic dynamics, financial upheaval, and grief they have no space to process.
I work with divorce clients throughout the entire process to support their mental and emotional health — helping them stay regulated enough to make clear decisions, process the layers of grief and trauma that complex divorce produces, and begin rebuilding from a grounded place.
To be clear — the legal expertise remains entirely in your hands. My role is not to advise on legal matters, strategy, or outcomes. My role is to make sure your client is emotionally supported and mentally stable enough to get through the process with their wellbeing intact.
Think of it as a partnership. You handle the legal. I handle the human behind it.
I understand narcissistic relationship dynamics, family of origin wounds, and the specific toll that high-conflict divorce takes on a person's nervous system and sense of self.
If you are looking for a therapist who will take the full complexity of your clients' situations seriously and stay clearly in her lane — I welcome the referral conversation.
Divorce therapy may be a good fit if you:
Are in the middle of a divorce and barely holding it together
Have finalized your divorce and still don't feel like yourself
Are divorcing someone with narcissistic traits and feel like no one gets it
Are grieving not seeing your children every day
Feel the bitterness creeping in and don't want to become someone you don't recognize
Are carrying guilt, grief, relief, anger — sometimes all before breakfast
Want a therapist who won't flinch at what happened behind closed doors
Whatever brought you here — you don't have to keep doing this alone.
Who this is for
Divroce Therapy
Frequently Asked Questions
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There is no wrong time. Some people begin therapy when the process starts and they are barely holding together. Others come after everything is finalized and still do not feel like themselves. Wherever you are in the process — whether the papers are just being filed or it has been two years since they were signed — therapy can meet you there.
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Divorcing someone with narcissistic traits is not a typical divorce. It often involves litigation used as an extension of control, co-parenting that mirrors the dynamics of the marriage, distorted narratives that make you question your own reality, and exhaustion that goes far beyond the logistics of the divorce itself. The emotional toll is different. The support you need is different. And having a therapist who genuinely understands those dynamics — rather than offering generic divorce advice — matters.
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Leaving does not end the grief — it often begins it. You can grieve a relationship you chose to end. You can grieve the future you imagined, the family you hoped for, or even the person you thought you were marrying before things became what they became. Grief and relief can exist at the same time. Neither one cancels the other out.
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Divorce often involves a quiet loss of identity — particularly when the marriage had dynamics that asked you to shrink, perform, or disappear. The version of yourself that existed inside that marriage may not be the one you want to rebuild around. Therapy helps you untangle who you were in the relationship, who you were before it, and who you are becoming now.
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Co-parenting with an ex — especially one with narcissistic or high-conflict traits — is one of the most sustained stressors a divorce can produce. Therapy provides a space to process the emotional weight of it, develop steadier responses when the dynamic pulls you back into old patterns, and build the internal regulation you need to parent from a grounded place even when the situation around you is not.
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It rarely is. What looks like disproportionate grief is often grief that has been building longer than the marriage itself — grief from old wounds, old attachments, old fears that this relationship activated and that the divorce is now surfacing. The end of a marriage can open things that were never fully grieved. Therapy creates space for all of it, not just the part that makes sense on paper.
Begin divorce therapy in Michigan
I offer divorce therapy for adults across Michigan including Grand Haven, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, and surrounding communities.
You survived the marriage. Now let's build what comes after.