Practical support for the part of family law that does not fit neatly inside legal advice.
Divorce and Co-Parent Coaching with Alaina Patterson, CDCP, is designed for people who feel overwhelmed, emotionally flooded, stuck in conflict, or unsure how to move through separation and co-parenting issues without losing themselves in the process.
Supportive Divorce Services is a department of Herrman Law, LLC. Mediation, divorce coaching, and co-parenting coaching/strategizing with Alaina Patterson are nonlegal services; they do not include legal advice or representation and do not create an attorney-client relationship with Herrman Law, LLC or Lynnette Herrman. Current Herrman Law legal clients, including limited-scope clients, are not eligible for Alaina's mediation or coaching services.
Divorce and Co-Parent coaching is not legal advice, therapy, or mediation. It is skills-based, non-legal support that helps clients slow down, get organized, think more clearly, and approach divorce with more steadiness and intention.
Sometimes clients do not need another opinion. They need a place to sort through the noise, identify priorities, prepare for hard conversations, and create a plan they can actually follow. That is where coaching can be especially valuable.
What coaching can help with
Clarifying goals, values, and priorities before the next major decision.
Preparing for conversations with a co-parent, attorney, or other professional.
Reducing reactive communication and learning more effective ways to respond under stress.
Creating structure around parenting issues, boundaries, scheduling, and everyday logistics.
Separating emotional pain from practical decision-making so the legal process is not driving every part of life.
Rebuilding confidence, steadiness, and a sense of direction after separation.
Who this should speak to
The overwhelmed parent who is emotionally exhausted and cannot see how to organize schedules, finances, legal appointments, and the next several weeks without shutting down.
The professional trying to stay composed while protecting privacy, reputation, and everyday functioning during a major personal disruption.
The stay-at-home spouse rebuilding independence and needing structure, confidence, and practical planning while stepping into unfamiliar financial and legal territory.
The person recovering from betrayal and wanting support separating pain from decision-making so the next chapter is not built entirely from hurt and panic.
What divorce and co-parent coaching is not
Not legal advice and not a substitute for an attorney.
Not therapy, counseling, psychological services, or mental-health treatment.
Not mediation, parenting coordination, domestic conciliation, or case management.
Not a court-appointed role and not a source of recommendations or reports to the Court, except basic verification of attendance if separately appropriate.
How it works
Private sessions focused on your situation, priorities, and goals.
Action-oriented support designed to create clarity and movement, not just conversation.
Phone or Zoom delivery can be utilized to match your current workflow and your convenience.
With your specific written authorization, Alaina may coordinate appropriate nonlegal coaching goals with your independent attorney outside Herrman Law or another qualified professional. This coordination does not include legal advice from Alaina, create a Herrman Law attorney-client relationship, or guarantee a privilege for coaching communications.
About Alaina
Alaina Patterson serves in two separate roles at Herrman Law, LLC. She assists the firm's legal clients as a legal assistant. Separately, through the Supportive Divorce Services department, she provides nonlegal coaching to eligible people who are not current Herrman Law legal clients. The roles are not combined for the same current legal client.
Certified Divorce Coach Professional training through IAP Career College / IAPO.
AFCC training on parent-child contact problems and parenting-plan related issues.
Additional recent training includes mandated reporter education, dispute-resolution education, mediation-related coursework, and core mediation training.
Alaina Patterson has received Kansas approval to provide mediation for family law matters.
FAQs
-
No. Divorce and co-parent
coaching is non-legal support and does not replace legal advice from an attorney.
-
No. It is practical, skills-based support and is not mental-health treatment.
-
No. Alaina does not decide legal disputes or change orders, and attendance does not automatically satisfy a mediation, evaluation or parenting-education requirement. Discuss any required service with your independent attorney and the court.
-
No. It can help with overwhelm, planning, communication, preparation, and post-separation adjustment across many kinds of cases.
-
No. Our firm maintains a firm separation between legal representation and Alaina's mediation/coaching services, including for limited-scope legal clients. Alaina can continue assisting you as a legal assistant. We may provide information about outside support resources.
-
We do not accept an SDS engagement when the firm represents the other side in the same dispute. All requests are conflict-screened, and we cannot discuss another person's relationship with the firm.
-
Not in the same dispute. We keep coaching and neutral mediation roles separate and use outside referrals when a different role is needed.
-
Do not assume they are. Coaching is not legal representation, therapy or mediation. SDS uses privacy safeguards, but applicable law may require disclosure. The agreement explains the service's confidentiality limits.
Supportive Divorce Services is a department of Herrman Law, LLC. Mediation, divorce coaching, and co-parenting coaching/strategizing with Alaina Patterson are nonlegal services; they do not include legal advice or representation and do not create an attorney-client relationship with Herrman Law, LLC or Lynnette Herrman. Current Herrman Law legal clients, including limited-scope clients, are not eligible for Alaina's mediation or coaching services.