Divorce doesn’t have to become a family war.
If you are separating or divorcing, you may be carrying a quiet fear about what this will mean for your children – and for the family you thought you would have.
Divorce changes a family. It does not have to destroy one. Here is what decades of research actually show: children are harmed far less by divorce itself than by the conflict or trauma that surrounds it.
Children can adjust to living in two homes and to a family that looks different than it once did. What is far harder for children is ongoing conflict, instability, fear, divided loyalties, or feeling caught between the people they love.
Children should not have to carry messages between parents, manage adult emotions, hear one parent criticized by the other, choose sides, or feel responsible for keeping the peace.
There is another way forward. Families can move on with two homes and less conflict. Divorce doesn’t have to become a family war.
At Untangled Roads, we help families reduce conflict, mediate, stay focused on the child and safety, and build a healthier structure for what comes next.
A child centered trauma informed approach to family change
Our work is coordinated and forward-facing. We work with families navigating separation, divorce, co-parenting, high-conflict, blending families, and the challenges that can come as families restructure or blend.
Lori Lickstein, MSW, LCSW-C, works with parents to understand and interrupt the patterns that perpetuate conflict. Through authenticity and a trauma-informed, humanistic, relational, eclectic clinical approach, we work together to understand, accept, and heal. This is not couples counseling.
The work may include de-escalating conflict, strengthening communication and boundaries, reducing reactivity, developing more effective co-parenting strategies, and helping parents make decisions through the lens of what their children actually need.
Lori has worked with children, adolescents, adults, and families for more than two decades. As a trauma therapist with extensive experience in complex family systems with complex trauma, she understands that high-conflict divorce is rarely just about communication. Families can become caught in patterns of fear, anger, hurt, mistrust, safety, betrayal, addictions, protection, and reaction that take on a life of their own.
The goal is to help untangle those patterns so the family can move forward differently.
Kristen Wavle works with children and adolescents, giving them a therapeutic space of their own -separate from the parental conflict -where they can make sense of family changes, express what they are experiencing, strengthen coping skills, and build resilience. Same practice with coordinated care.
Children do not need to become participants in their parents’ conflict to be supported through divorce.
Two clinicians. One practice. One coordinated approach.
Parents and children are often treated by entirely separate systems, leaving no one looking at the family as a whole.
We work differently. Our coordinated model helps us understand both the children’s needs and the dynamics around them while maintaining appropriate therapeutic boundaries. It is not a custody evaluation, a litigation strategy, or an effort to determine who caused the marriage to end.
This is therapeutic family work focused on what happens next.
Getting started
Every inquiry to Untangled Roads is answered personally by Lori Lickstein.
If your family is separating, divorcing, struggling with co-parenting, blending families, or trying to find a healthier way forward after conflict, you are welcome to reach out.
lorilicksteinpsychotherapy@gmail.com
Untangling conflict. Protecting children. Moving families forward.
Untangled Roads, LLC 