MARY STODDARD PHD, Coach
Throughout her 23 years as a licensed clinical psychologist working in private practice with children, adolescents, and adults, Dr. Stoddard has witnessed first hand the incredible pain and long term damage that bitter court divorce battles have created for all family members. The recent emergence of the collaborative divorce process offers a positive, powerful, effective, and rewarding option in this regard. Dr. Stoddard has embraced this opportunity to channel her professional training, experience, knowledge, and clinical skills into empowering couples and families to preserve their relationships, dignity, and financial resources through the process of collaborative divorce. In this process, when children are involved, decisions can be made creatively to protect and address their individual and developmental needs as a priority throughout the divorce process. Through the collaborative divorce model, Dr. Stoddard assists and guides couples who seek fairness and equity as the prevailing, pivotal values in their decisions for the entire family. She also serves as the voice for children’s needs and concerns for parents who strive to prioritize their children’s well being and future adjustment. In addition to serving as a coach, child specialist, and case manager on collaborative divorce teams, Dr. Stoddard works with children, adolescents, and adults in therapy to resolve issues related to depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, parenting, relationship difficulties, attention deficit disorders, and learning disabilities. She also provides thorough cognitive, psychoeducational, and social/emotional assessments to provide understanding and practical recommendations regarding learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and emotional struggles. Finally, Dr. Stoddard has been characterized as a “charismatic, inspirational speaker” when addressing both professional colleagues and the general population regarding the above issues. As the coach of a woman who was a fulltime mother and homemaker in a recent collaborative divorce case, Dr. Stoddard empowered this woman to return to work to begin to fulfill her earlier dreams in life. The attorney representing this woman characterized her when beginning the collaborative divorce process as feeling helpless and worthless as a parent, wife, and woman. However, as a result of working with Dr. Stoddard, at the end of this divorce case the same woman represented herself as an assertive, self confident, and effective person, her representing attorney observed with amazement. While serving as the coach for a man in a collaborative divorce case that involved limited financial resources, Dr. Stoddard enabled him to identify and represent his emotional issues, needs, and concerns effectively. As a result he was empowered to resolve issues in a clear, cooperative, and effective manner that honored his personal values, mutual co-parenting goals, and financial resources.
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