Kathryn Bonach, Ph.D., L.S.W., L.P.C., N.C.C.
One challenge for former partners who are co-parenting after a divorce is maintaining civil, supportive interactions in their parent roles while they are going through an intense internal process of relationship recovery. The Forgiveness Model for Co-parenting synthesizes previous theoretical and empirical work to develop a new application from the scholarship of forgiveness. The intervention model is introduced as a three-stage conceptual framework, each stage having cognitive, affective, and behavioral tasks. The therapeutic goal is to assist former partners to move beyond initial hostilities and resentment to more civil and mutually supportive interactions as post-divorce co-parents.