The bright side of divorce, according to experts
CTV
Divorce doesn't have to only be heartbreak, custody battles and bitter ex-spouses. Experts explain how you can work toward building something new in the wake.
Amy Mazur spends holidays and vacations with her kids and their father, even after a divorce.
“It is so much less stressful for my children … and for myself,” said Mazur, a clinical social worker in Brooklyn, New York.
Her relationship with her ex-husband isn’t the picture that’s often painted of life after divorce, but it’s what works best for her family, she said. The marriage had begun in young adulthood and when it no longer worked for the people they grew into, she said they found a way to love and support one another while no longer being married.
Divorce rates have been steadily trending downward in the United States, according to recent data, but marriages ending are still a common, disruptive experience.
Most people probably don’t head into marriage anticipating divorce — but for those who find themselves in one, there are ways to encourage compassion for one another and ultimately build something stronger, experts said.
A divorce can be amicable yet still marked by loss and grief, said Rebecca Hendrix, a marriage and family therapist in New York.
There is the loss of the life you’ve built, including the home you lived in together, a name you may have shared and the routines you developed, she added. And then there are the emotional ties.
