Telling kids you are getting a divorce

Alan Yellin, PhD Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, shares advice for parents on the best way to tell your children that their parents are getting a divorce
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Telling kids you are getting a divorce

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Telling children that their parents are getting divorced, is one of the most difficult conversations a parent will ever have. We ask parents to do that conversation together. To sit down with the children together, hopefully, on a weekend; so the parents have lots of time to be around and answer questions for the children. We want the children to understand that the divorce never, ever has anything to do with them. That divorce is a grownup kind of problem. We also ask parents to not give details of the reason that they are getting divorced, so that neither parent is to feel to blame. We also want children to know, that mommy will always, always be their mommy; and daddy will always, always be their daddy. We want them to know that parents are going to try to work very hard to be good friends. That's the conversation that we want to have with the children during the first time.

Alan Yellin, PhD Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, shares advice for parents on the best way to tell your children that their parents are getting a divorce

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Alan Yellin, PhD

Psychologist

Dr. Alan Yellin is a licensed psychologist as well as licensed marriage and family therapist.  He has been in practice for over 30 years working with children, adolescents and adults. Dr. Yellin did his post-doctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. In his practice, he sees children with learning problems, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fears and social skills issues. Additionally, he has a sub-specialty in working with children from divorced families as well as helping parents deal more effectively with their divorce. Dr. Yellin’s practice also includes working with adolescents and adults with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive issues as well as issues around life passages. Dr. Yellin believes that therapy works best when the client and therapist have a collaborative relationship as they explore thoughts and feelings and work towards solutions, and uses a combination of scientific data along with humor to help people achieve change. He is in a long-term happy marriage and has two grown children.

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