Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Dry Run Divorce helps you discover the answer that is right for you before going to Court.
How Can We Ever Make an Agreement?
Dry Run Divorce provides a structured, limited time to discuss your issues privately with a neutral mediator.
What Will Happen to the Children?
Dry Run Divorce helps you develop a parenting agreement that works for both of you.
How Can We Work Out the Finances?
Dry Run Divorce is a mediated process that results in a mutual agreement about your finances and your home that you can take to Court if you decide to divorce.
What If We Decide to Reconcile?
Dry Run Divorce will help you define your “Bottom Line” for staying together and a plan for restoring your relationship.
Dry Run Divorce
A Time-limited, Mutually Beneficial Approach to Considering a Divorce
Any couple confused about whether they should separate is facing an unknown future in the midst of intense personal turmoil. It is almost impossible to make rational decisions when individuals feel compelled to engage divorce attorneys or to file for divorce because they see no other options. Dry Run Divorce offers a better way forward. With Dr. Gail Petrich serving as a divorce mediator and neutral advisor (negotiator?), the couple enters into a mutual agreement for a controlled separation for six or more months, while they explore their options for the future, alone or together. In the process, the couple will address the practical issues involved in a divorce, which serves as a “last resort” reality test to help reach a decision.
The Advantages of Dry Run Divorce
A Reality Check:
Your “Bottom Line”
Many couples experience ambivalence when it comes to the prospect of divorce, but one or both people may see no other option and end up divorcing by default. Through Dry Run Divorce, the couple has the opportunity to slow down and consider the consequences of a divorce, while experiencing what a divorce would actually feel like. This controlled separation period allows time to discuss issues related to finances (child support and maintenance, if any), parenting plan, living arrangements, and their own relationship, under the guidance of Dr. Petrich and with the help of their own individual, couple, or children’s therapists. The process is not just a rehash of failed couple therapy.
The most important part of the Dry Run Divorce is the discussion of the “Bottom Line” of what it would take to save the marriage. Both parties spell out their “measurable objectives” to stay in the marriage, such as a commitment to therapy, substance abuse treatment, anger management, or ending an emotional affair. Dry Run Divorce offers the spouses one last option to maintain their marriage and to honor the years they have been together.
At the end of your agreed-on deadline, you will have clear direction. If you choose to divorce, you will be ready to use the mediated agreements to finish your divorce uncontested. If you choose to reconcile, you will move back into the marital residence with goals for a reformulated marriage.
A More Peaceful Process
As a divorce mediator, collaborative attorney and psychologist, Dr. Petrich developed Dry Run Divorce to help couples navigate the difficult journey of separation and to reach a conclusion that is mutually agreed upon. Having witnessed the emotional and financial toll that a contentious divorce takes on both couples and their children, Dr. Petrich serves as a neutral mediator to help the couple work out the difficulties for their children and the financial details of their separation and divorce agreement.
A Transition Time for Children
Couples with children hope to spare them from the ravages of a combative divorce process. Dependent children worry about who will care for them and if they will have to leave home. Dry Run Divorce provides parents an opportunity to try out different parenting plans, including the option of nesting, where the parents move out, while taking turns staying with the children in the family home. Regardless of your decision about living arrangements, Dry Run Divorce is structured so that both parents share the responsibilities of childcare and continue to provide a safe place at home for their children.
An Alternative to Legal Proceedings
Hiring individual attorneys and filing for divorce immediately creates a higher level of conflict, eliminates the option for an uncontested divorce, and generates expenses that many couples would rather avoid. Unlike public court proceedings, all conversations with Dr. Petrich are confidential. If individual lawyers are already involved, she can serve as a go-between to negotiate as a neutral mediator for both parties. At the end of the Dry Run Divorce process, in a time frame agreed on by the spouses, the couple will either proceed to divorce (with the mediated agreements prepared in the process with the help of Dr. Petrich), or move back to the marital residence to resume their marriage. Dry Run Divorce serves as a “Reset Button” for a different kind of marriage.
