How You Start Your Divorce Matters with Susan Pease Gadoua

By Andrea Vacca

A Better Divorce Podcast with Andrea Vacca - How You Start Your Divorce Matters with Susan Pease GadouaIn this episode of A Better Divorce Podcast with Andrea Vacca, we welcome guest  Susan Pease Gadoua, Psychotherapist and Director of the Changing Marriage Institute.

Tune in to this episode as Susan talks about: 

  • What she advises to those considering a divorce
  • Factors to consider in the divorce process, including mediation
  • The importance of doing your own research regarding the divorce process
  • Giving your spouse a chance to fix the marriage

As a child of divorced parents, Susan knows first-hand how disruptive an unhappy marriage and subsequent marital dissolution can be. When her mother and father split in 1981 (on their 28th wedding anniversary), marriage counseling was unheard of and emotional divorce support virtually nonexistent.

Susan's personal experience, combined with years of working with couples in distress – both in striving to save their marriage or transition out of it – led her to become passionate about offering support to people at perhaps one of the most crucial junctures in their lives.

In 2000, Susan founded the Transition Institute of Marin, and she developed an entire agency dedicated to helping men and women take care of their emotions when their relationship was in turmoil.

In just a few years, the organization grew to the point where it needed a broader reach. Today, The Changing Marriage Institute has a national, and indeed international, audience. Susan also began changing the focus from almost exclusively on the divorce transition toward all kinds of relationship concerns, including alternative ways of coupling.

There still exists today a great deal of shame for those who are not following the "traditional, one-size-fits-all" marriage paradigm. The goal of much of Susan's work is to turn that around by helping people let go of shame and get on the other side of the pain.

Susan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Certified Mediator.

Learn more about Susan: 

A Better Divorce Podcast with Andrea Vacca

A Better Divorce with Andrea Vacca is for those contemplating divorce or in the middle of the process and want to hear expert advice about how to navigate the emotional, legal, and financial issues in a more positive way, so they not only survive, but THRIVE after their divorce.

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