How to get through your first holiday season after divorce

Wendy Walsh, PhD Relationship & Parenting Expert, shares advice for parents who are spending their first holiday season alone after a divorce
Single Parenting | Your First Holiday Season After A Divorce
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How to get through your first holiday season after divorce

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Facing the holidays after a divorce can feel terrifying. This important family rituals mean a lot to our mental health. It's important to remember though that every religion in the world has some kind of festival of lights, because this was a scary time for our ancestors. We didn't know if the sun was coming back or a food was around so we huddled around fires with people we loved. So it's okay in the holidays to feel sad. You don't have to have forced joy. But it's also important not to wallow in it, so I've got a few tips for you. The holidays are going to happen. Your ability to huddle with people around fires are going to happen. It may not happen on the day that you've planned, because maybe your kids will be with the exes, but you can find another day in the holiday calendar to make it your own. And it may not happen with the people you normally have it with. You know, Dr. Freud mentioned a really healthy defense against emotional pain. He calls it sublimation. Sublimation is when you take your pain and you focus it on somebody who's experiencing the same pain, and you console and give to them. So why don't you make a holiday table this year. If you start asking around, you're going to find there are lots of misfit, extra people around who don't have family and you can give to them in the same way you're consoling yourself at the same time.

Wendy Walsh, PhD Relationship & Parenting Expert, shares advice for parents who are spending their first holiday season alone after a divorce

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Wendy Walsh, PhD

Relationship & Parenting Expert

Dr. Wendy Walsh was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as co-host on The Dr. Phil spinoff, The Doctors TV show. She also hosts Investigation Discovery Network’s “Happily NEVER After,” as well as being part of Dr. Drew’s Behavior Bureau on HLN Network. On CNN and 9 Network, Australia, she breaks down the psychology of sex, love, gender roles, divorce, parenting and other human behaviors. Dr. Wendy is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at California State University, Channel Islands. She holds a B.A. in Journalism, a Masters degree in Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and is the author of three books and numerous publications, including The 30-Day Love Detox. She appears regularly on The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, The Steve Harvey Show, The O’Reilly Factor, Inside Edition, The Katie Couric Show, Jane Velez-Mitchell, and The View.

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