Episode 42: Mediation: Divorce in a Better Way with Susan Guthrie
The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast
Kate Anthony
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2019
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week's episode is a companion episode to my last episode with Rebecca Zung (which you can find here). This week Rebecca's partner, Susan Guthrie, is my guest. Susan is the Chair of the American Bar Association's Mediation Committee and founded, along with Rebecca Zung, Breaking Free Mediation which provides mediation services across the country through an online platform. If you've listened to their podcast, Breaking Free: A Modern Divorce Podcast, then you know that Susan and Rebecca are a super badass team of divorce legal professionals. I'm honored to be collaborating with them on our podcasts—and beyond.
In this episode, Susan and I dig into mediation and divorce. While we've said it before, it's worth mentioning again: divorce is a time when you are making emotional, financial, family, parenting and other important decisions for your future. You should not be making them in a turmoil of negative emotion, which litigation often brings. With their online mediation platform, Susan and Rebecca bring mindfulness components to the mediation process so that you can think responsibly when making these tough life-impacting decisions.
We also discuss the difference between litigation and mediation, what to do if your partner isn't on board with mediation, and more. While mediation isn't the only way to do divorce, it can definitely be a better way.
Show Highlights
- Susan's experience being a litigator, litigation as the institutional conflict cycle and and why she made the switch to mediation practice (4:11)
- How mediation differs from litigation and understanding that both parties need to agree to the mediation process (10:49)
- Why most people avoid mediation and the benefits of virtual mediation (13:00)
- The importance of going through a cooling off period before deciding between mediation or litigation, plus combining a mindfulness practice with the practice of mediation (19:00)
- What to do if you really want to mediate, but your partner won't agree to it, and how understanding the benefits of mediation may help motivate them (28:30)
- Walking through the "I want a divorce," conversation and allowing the other party time to process everything before moving forward (36:00)
- The mindfulness component of Susan and Rebecca's Breaking Free Mediation platform (40:29)
- Susan's legal coaching practice, what it is and how she helps clients (43:24)
Learn More Susan:
Susan Guthrie, honored as one of the top family law and mediation attorneys in the country, has been helping families to navigate the process of divorce for 30 years. She is the current Chair of the American Bar Association's Mediation Committee and founded, along with her business partner and fellow top attorney, Rebecca Zung, Breaking Free Mediation which provides mediation services across the country through an online platform. They are the first mediation service to offer a mindfulness track for their clients to help them to manage the difficult emotions of divorce. Susan and Rebecca are also the co-hosts of the iTunes Top 10 podcast, Breaking Free: A Modern Divorce Podcast which recently surpassed 1.3 million listens in less than a year and is one of the top divorce podcasts in the world.
Links:
Breaking Free: A Modern Divorce Podcast
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to another episode of the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have real, honest, smart, |
| 0:11.6 | and sometimes even hilarious conversations about co-parenting, separation, and divorce, and all that goes along with that. |
| 0:18.9 | I'm Kate Anthony, your Divorce Survival Guide, certified life and relationship coach, |
| 0:23.7 | and happily divorced mom who helps women decide if they should stay in or leave their marriages |
| 0:28.0 | and then guides them through the process one step at a time. |
| 0:34.1 | Hey, everyone, welcome back. |
| 0:41.0 | Today's episode is a bit of a companion episode to last week's episode with Rebecca Zung, because today I have Rebecca's partner, Susan Guthrie, on the show. |
| 0:48.3 | If you heard me on the Breaking Free, a modern divorce podcast last month, then you know that Susan and Rebecca |
| 0:56.0 | are a super badass team of divorce legal professionals, and I am honored to be collaborating |
| 1:02.2 | with them on our podcasts and beyond. Susan and Rebecca have created an amazing online mediation |
| 1:10.7 | platform. Yes, that's right, online mediation. |
| 1:14.7 | And one of the most unique things about this, their platform, is that it has a mindfulness |
| 1:20.9 | track in it, which makes it the only online divorce platform of its kind. Now, you know, I'm a life coach, so this is all up in my alley, |
| 1:31.3 | but it is actually particularly timely for me because while I'm a life coach, if I'm being |
| 1:37.3 | perfectly honest, I've never been all that into mindfulness other than in theory. Like, I know how it works. I know it works. I know the |
| 1:49.7 | brain science behind it. I advocate for it. But I have, I used to teach it, sort of, you know, |
| 1:56.7 | vaguely surfacing, teach it in corporations. But I haven't really put it into practice in my |
| 2:03.9 | own life in any really meaningful and consistent way until recently. And I got to say, |
| 2:10.2 | they're all right. It is a total game changer. So these days, I have been spending my mornings |
| 2:17.2 | in deep journaling, meditation, and even working |
| 2:22.3 | with tarot cards, which if you know me, you know is totally out there on the woo wagon for me. |
| 2:29.2 | But the effects of just slowing down and spending each morning in self-reflection, meditation, |
... |
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