Advance Praise for Making Divorce Work by Diana Mercer and Katie Jane Wennechuk

Making Divorce Work is an absolutely essential work. This is the book everyone getting divorced needs to get through the difficulties of breaking up and going on with your life.  Divorce clears the way for a new beginning, but it is too often a bad beginning unless people make use of the wise and practical advice this book contains.  And this book is especially a must read for people with children.  I am thrilled to be able to recommend this book to people who need it."  
-- Mira Kirshenbaum, author of ten books including Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay and When Good People Have Affairs

Making Divorce Work translates Diana and Katie’s unique mediation model into skills anyone can use and that will revolutionize the way people get divorced.”
--Len Jacoby, founder, Jacoby & Meyers Law Offices

“Imagine a world in which instead of ruining your life your divorce could help you redefine your goals for yourself and your family. Now there is a book which shows you how to make this happen in 8 simple steps:  Making Divorce Work.
-- Nell Merlino, author, Stepping Out of Line:  Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way in Life, in Love, and at Work and CEO and Founder, Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence and the creative force behind Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

“One of the saddest episodes we ever go through in life is to engage in pitched battle with someone to whom we once said adoringly, “I do.”

Divorce is agonizing enough for many of us, without the added heartbreak of venom and hatred spewing into the lives of family and friends—especially children, whose stability is being ripped apart and whose loyalty may be torn between mom and dad.

Here now comes a book that is chock full of simple, everyday, practical steps that can ease our way through a minefield so we come out not just with our sanity intact, but actually far more conscious as individuals. Its countless insights show how a breakup—whether we want it or wish to God it weren’t happening—can end up actually advancing our wellbeing.

You’ll use Making Divorce Work as a daily manual, shoring up every facet of your life from emotional to financial. Save yourself a lot of pain—and share it with friends who are already in pain.”
-- David Robert Ord, author of Your Forgotten Self and Lessons in Loving—A Journey into the Heart

“Divorce professionals must teach clients how to be effective informed clients and Making Divorce Work should be the foundation  of client learning. Building on her reputation as a leading client educator as established in the bestselling Your Divorce Advisor, Diana Mercer and her co-author Katie Jane Wennechuk have written the book that every person facing a divorce must have. Many divorce books can be read---this book must be studied. The authors not only intuitively and insightfully understand what people going through divorce need and how they feel,  they also offer self-help tools such as writing a Divorce Mission Statement to help  readers prepare for success through this life challenging event. I predict that in the future, people will select their professionals, in part, as to whether this book is front and center in their client libraries and whether the divorce professional can use Making Divorce Work as a client guide to supplement their competent advice and expertise.” 
-- Forrest (Woody) Mosten,  Collaborative Lawyer and Mediator and author of Collaborative Divorce Handbook, Mediation Career Guide, Unbundling Legal Services, and Complete Guide to Mediation.  

“It is said the emotional impact of divorce is up there with traumas such as a death of a loved one and moving house. It is also likely there only few other human experiences guaranteed to bring out the worst in us. There are many who today live with ongoing regret and shame for the unconscious reactive behavior they entered because of a disastrous divorce experience – not to mention the amount of children emotionally scared because of it. This gloomy scenario is no longer necessary. Making Divorce Work brings consciousness, clarity, practical applicable wisdom, and common sense insight into what is undeniably one of the most heart-wrenching experiences any human being may have to face. In Making Divorce Work, authors Diana Mercer and Katie Jane Wennechuck skillfully provide us with a practical, conscious, creative, and healing tool to support not only those moving through this experience, but also those wishing to be of greater support when their loved ones are faced with such an extreme life change. Divorce no longer has to be the emotional tsunami we have been programmed to anticipate – now it can serve as an opportunity for experiencing profound growth in personal relationships, emotional development, and as a platform from which to creatively initiate a transformed life experience.”
-- Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process and Alchemy of the Heart

As someone who educates future lawyers, I was deeply humbled by the wisdom, practical insights, and compassion of Making Divorce Work.  Making Divorce Work is the product of Diana Mercer’s 25-years of experience and, more importantly, her persistent desire to promote the best interests of her clients during the dark and turbulent days of divorce.  Mercer’s focus on her clients eventually produced a collaborative multidisciplinary practice with non-lawyer professionals like her co-author, Katie Jane Wennechuk.   I am convinced this approach is the future of family law practice.  Anyone who has ever been in a longterm relationship will have a hard time putting this book down.  My students now have at least one clear guidepost for how an observant and thoughtful lawyer can have a profoundly positive effect on the lives of her clients. Law can indeed be a vocation—something much more than a career. 

I am going to give a copy of Making Divorce Work to any friend or family member who is confronted with this situation.  And I am most grateful to Mercer and Wennechuk for showing me how to make my own marriage stronger and more fulfilling. 
-- Wiliam D. Henderson, Professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Making Divorce Work is a fresh approach to a topic that has received much attention but continues to be a significant transition and painful process with long term implications for the health of all family members.  With all the self help books that have been written about divorce, what possibly could be new to say? These authors offer practical and down-to-earth advice for managing difficult feelings and cultivating the co-parenting relationship so that you can live with yourself –and your ex-- during and after the divorce. The authors’ emphasis on finding inner peace, and turning that peace outwards gives the message that you can divorce in a way that facilitates learning about yourself, taking responsibility for your actions, dealing peaceably with your ex-,  and liking who you are even better at the end of the day.  This is no easy feat to accomplish, but Making Divorce Work will make you feel like it is truly an attainable goal.”
-- Marsha Kline Pruett, Ph.D., M.S.L., co-author of Your Divorce Advisor

“Read this book before you talk to a lawyer! You will save yourself tons of heartache, talk and money. 
If you already have a lawyer, read this before you utter another word to them. 

Share this book with a friend or family member who is divorcing, it will be the kindest, most generous thing you could ever do for them.  They will thank you and their children will thank you -- for years to come. This book is a game changer!” 
-- Lisa Earle McLeod, author of The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Resolving Conflicts Large and Small and Forget Perfect

“Mercer and Wennechuk have written a wise and thoughtful book that will spare anyone going through a divorce much trauma.  This is how law ought to be practiced---with compassion for the lives of those going through a major life change, and pragmatic and grounded advice for making life on the other side not only possible, but powerful.”
-- Lauren Robel, Dean and Val Nolan Professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law

“When I studied law nearly 50 years ago divorces were granted on the basis of “fault.” Today fault is no longer a legal issue, but cultural influences still bring fault into the dissolution process which is too often filled with disappointment, anger, and grief.  This book walks the reader through the various provocations and events which can take place in the dissolution process and provides common sense, helpful suggestions on how to envision and pursue a successful life during and after the dissolution. The purpose of this book is not to reduce the divorce rate, which has been steady at 40%, but to “reduce the negativity and recovery time associated with it.” 
-- Gerald L. Bepko. Chancellor Emeritus, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Former Dean, IU School of Law Indianapolis

“In Making Divorce Work: 8 Essential Keys for Resolving Conflict and Rebuilding Your Life, Diana Mercer and Katie Wennechuk offer a practical, realistic and helpful guide for making the best of divorce.  Mercer and Wennechuk make a compelling case for those getting divorced keeping control over their family by avoiding "scorched earth" approaches to divorce.  Best of all, the authors offer a structure and set of specific approaches and techniques to make the best of divorce.  As so many families know, divorce does not end the family, but calls for re-definition and re-building of a new family understanding.  Hats off to the authors for this valuable and timely guide to making the best of divorce.”
--James C. Melamed, J.D., CEO Mediate.com

“This book teaches divorcing spouses the crucial non-legal lessons they need to learn in order to weather the storms of an acrimonious divorce.  It provides focused insights, useful strategies, and wise counsel -- from the perspective of mediators who have witnessed the dangers of ignoring the truth of their advice.  Buy it and keep it by your bedside throughout your dissolution process!”
-- Frederick Hertz, lawyer/mediator, author of Making It Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Partnerships & Civil Unions

“Even without experiencing it personally, one need only look around to see how devastating epic divorce court battles are to the physical, emotional and financial health of the parties and to those around them. Making Divorce Work is an approach to divorce whereby thoughtful people can choose not to do further damage to one another.  Easy to read and engaging, the book is helpful even if both parties are not committed to a peaceful divorce and also in times when committed people lapse into unhealthy behaviors and familiar but unproductive conflict patterns and have to start all over again trying to have a peaceful divorce.  The authors, Diana Mercer and Katie Wennechuk, deal honestly with complex and intense emotions like the desire to punish, feelings of betrayal, anger, contempt and grief.  They acknowledge the prevailing view that divorce is supposed to be an extension of the unhealthy marriage that gave rise to it.  They understand the reality that once engaged, typical advocates will litigate until their clients literally have nothing left to fight over.  The 8 Essential Keys help make the trauma of living in a marriage that did not meet basic needs and the additional trauma of having to end that marriage with the blunt force tool of the ‘legal divorce’ into necessary first steps toward a new life.”
-- V. Michelle Obradovic, owner of Wise Resolution, LLC and professor of law at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law

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