Divorce Coaches Academy

Beyond Being Heard: Children’s Voices and the PARENT Framework
How do we make room for children’s voices in divorce without asking them to choose sides or carry responsibility for adult decisions?
In this episode, Tracy Callahan explores the difference between asking children what they think and helping them feel heard. Drawing on research discussed by Dr. Michael Saini, she considers how parents can invite their children’s perspectives, understand the concerns beneath their words, and explain how those concerns informed a decision.
For divorce coaches and other dispute resolution professionals, this work often begins with one parent. Tracy walks through DCA®’s PARENT framework to show how coaching can help a parent recognize conflict patterns, question assumptions, and bring a clearer understanding of their child’s needs into parenting conversations and mediation.
In this episode:
Why children can have meaningful input while adults remain responsible for decisions.
How everyday conversations can make room for a child’s experience.
What changes when listening becomes gathering evidence against the other parent.
How to explore the concern beneath “I don’t want to go.”
When professional support or a formal process may be appropriate.
How one parent’s participation in coaching can create opportunities for problem solving.
A question to take into your practice:
How can you help a parent listen to understand their child’s experience without needing the answer to support their position?
Continue learning
Coaching Parents Through Conflict is a six-week live course using the PARENT framework, with case examples and practice exercises focused on reducing escalation, strengthening parenting plans, and keeping children at the center.
Mondays, November 9–December 14, 2026
1:00–2:30 p.m. Eastern
Resources referenced
Michael A. Saini, “Children’s Voices in Divorce: Beyond the Right to Be Heard.”
Rejaän, Z., Mol, C. R., van Dijk, R., & van der Valk, I. E. (2026). A systematic review of children’s views and experiences regarding their participation in divorce-related decision-making at home, in court, and during mediation. Family Transitions, 67(6), 495–541. Read the study.
Learn more about our training and professional development at Divorce Coaches Academy®.

For years, Collaborative Practice has recognized the value of a dedicated divorce coaching role on the interdisciplinary team, but eligibility was largely limited to professionals licensed with a mental health background. Professionally trained divorce coaches were trusted by collaborative lawyers and supported families through the process every day, yet they couldn’t formally take a seat at the table.
In this episode, Tracy Callahan welcomes Dori Braddell, The Divorce Mentor and Director of Education and Development for Canada with Divorce Coaches Academy®, who recently became a Registered Collaborative Professional (Divorce Coach) in Edmonton. Dori is the first coach to enter Collaborative Practice through a new eligibility pathway that recognizes specialized divorce coaching education, including training through DCA®.
Dori shares what it was like to be “the unicorn in the room” as one of only four non-lawyers in her training cohorts, how the Edmonton Collaborative Practice board came to revise its eligibility requirements, and why divorce coaching and Collaborative Practice are natural partners.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
What it looked like to support Collaborative Divorce clients from behind the scenes, without formal recognition
Why the divorce coaching role was historically tied to a mental health background, and how divorce coaching differs from therapy
How Edmonton’s year-long process opened a new pathway without lowering standards
What Dori observed as lawyers practiced interest-based negotiation and conflict-reducing communication
The specific value a professionally trained divorce coach brings to an interdisciplinary team
How professionally trained coaches can begin building relationships with collaborative communities in their own area
About Dori Braddell
Dori Braddell is a full-time professional divorce coach, known as The Divorce Mentor, and a Director of Education and Development for Canada with Divorce Coaches Academy®. She holds six professional divorce coaching credentials and educates and mentors divorce coaches across Canada. She is now a Registered Collaborative Professional (Divorce Coach) in Edmonton, Alberta.
Connect with Dori:
https://www.thedivorcementor.ca/about-me
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dori-braddell
Read Dori’s article: The Unicorn in the Room: A New Seat at the Collaborative Divorce Table  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unicorn-room-new-seat-collaborative-divorce-table-dori-braddell-vd5uc/
Ready to build the skills behind this pathway?
The next ADRDC (ADR Divorce Coach) certification cohort with Divorce Coaches Academy® begins January 10, 2027. Learn more at https://www.divorcecoachesacademy.com/divorcecoach
If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a colleague in Collaborative Practice.

Conflict Resolution Week usually spotlights processes: mediation, negotiation, collaborative practice. But every process depends on the people in it. In this episode, Tracy Callahan, MA, ADRDC, founder of Divorce Coaches Academy®, celebrates the professionals who work with the individual inside the dispute: divorce coaches.
In this episode:
Why divorce coaching is conflict resolution work, not “just emotional support”
How coaches help clients recognize, regulate, and engage conflict
Why coaching strengthens the work of attorneys and mediators
Four signals that it’s time to refer a client to a divorce coach, and when coaching isn’t the right fit
Stop, Drop, and Roll: a simple approach for interrupting conflict patterns in divorce and co-parenting
A thank-you to the divorce coaches doing work no court record ever shows
Cases close. The skills stay.
Learn more about the ADR Divorce Coach (ADRDC) certification at Divorce Coaches Academy
Find an ADR trained Divorce Coach for you or your clients

A disagreement about pickup times, schedule changes, or activities can become a position a parent defends for years. What can divorce coaches do earlier to help parents navigate those moments more thoughtfully?
In this episode, Tracy Callahan draws on her work in divorce coaching and parenting coordination to explore how unresolved concerns become entrenched positions—and how coaches can help clients examine what those positions protect, what they cost, and whether they still serve the parent and child.
Through practical examples and coaching questions, Tracy discusses how to help parents distinguish facts from interpretations, evaluate requests, practice clearer communication, and maintain effective boundaries. She also explores how to keep children’s needs visible without making them responsible for adult disagreements.
This is central to the work of ADR divorce coaching: supporting clients in navigating current conflict while preparing them for the difficult conversations and decisions ahead. By helping clients understand their concerns, examine their assumptions, and practice useful skills, coaches support more thoughtful participation in the divorce process and the parenting relationship that continues afterward.
Continue the learning
Our new six-week live course, Coaching Parents Through Conflict: Reducing Escalation, Strengthening Parenting Plans, and Keeping Children at the Center, brings this work into practice through case examples, discussion, and applied exercises. Designed for divorce coaches and related family dispute resolution professionals, the course explores escalation patterns, parenting triggers, entrenched positions, communication, boundaries, and parenting-plan details that can become recurring sources of conflict.
Classes meet live online on Mondays, November 9–December 14, 2026, from 1:00–2:30 p.m. Eastern, for nine instructional hours. This is professional development and does not confer certification or an additional credential.
Register before October 26 and use code GROW to receive $100 off.
Visit DivorceCoachesAcademy.com to learn more about the course and our work preparing divorce coaches to support clients in navigating conflict with greater clarity, skill, and purpose.

Knowing you need to handle conflict differently doesn’t always mean knowing how.
In this episode of the Divorce Coaches Academy® podcast, Tracy Callahan explores how divorce coaches help clients develop practical skills for navigating conflict, from pausing before responding and examining assumptions to making clear requests and evaluating difficult decisions.
Through relatable examples and thoughtful coaching questions, Tracy examines how professionals can help clients apply these skills when emotions run high, decisions need to be made, and participate more deliberately in the divorce process.
At Divorce Coaches Academy® (DCA®), skill development is central to our approach to professional divorce coaching grounded in dispute resolution. This episode brings that approach into practice, with insights for divorce coaches and ADR professionals who want to help clients build capacity they can carry into their next challenging interaction.
Learn more about DCA® and our professional training programs at https://www.divorcecoachesacademy.com