Nobody prepares you for the first night your kids are not there. The house is quiet, their rooms are empty, and you are sitting with a grief that almost nobody warns you about.

In this episode of Divorce Discussions, host Angie Weber sits down with Nora Marcus, LMSW, a New York based licensed social worker, certified divorce mediator, and certified co-parenting specialist who builds child-first parenting plans and stays with families long after the decree is signed.

Nora starts where most conversations skip ahead: the loss itself. She explains why our brains fight this so hard, why the sadness of sharing your children is not a problem that needs solving, and why divorce is not one event you get through but something that keeps resurfacing at holidays, school conferences, and the first week of summer. Then she gets practical. What a developmentally appropriate parenting plan actually looks like and why a fill-in-the-blank form fails most families. How to handle a new partner entering the picture, including the one thing she asks parents never to say to their kids. What you can and cannot do when your co-parent breaks the agreement. And why the small wins you keep skipping past are the ones that matter most.

Whether you are handing off your kids for the very first time or you are years in and still bracing for the drop-off, this conversation will meet you exactly where you are.

Connect with Nora:
www.noramarcus.com
https://www.instagram.com/noramarcusconsulting

This is Episode 17 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.

You could name the thing that set it off. The pickup time, the tone of a text, who was supposed to handle what. So how did it turn into something so much bigger than either of you meant it to be?

In this episode of Divorce Discussions, host Angie Weber sits down with Adya Riss, MSW, a family mediator at Riss Mediation who spent years as a therapist before moving into mediation and who specializes in helping parents guide young children through divorce. Adya takes the conversation all the way back to the root of personal conflict, and his answer surprises most people. Conflict does not escalate because two people disagree. It escalates because someone does not feel heard.

Adya explains why you can win the argument and still walk away angry, how poor listening turns an ordinary sentence into a demand, and why couples in his office regularly spend an hour arguing for the exact same thing without realizing it. He also talks about what constant conflict does to children even when parents are certain they are hiding it, and he leaves listeners with one thing they can do in their very next hard conversation to bring the temperature down.

Whether you are mid-divorce, deep in co-parenting, or just tired of having the same fight on repeat, this conversation will change how you listen.

This is Episode 16 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Connect with Adya:
https://rissmediation.com
https://www.instagram.com/rissmediation/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rissmediation/

Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.

You did everything right. You ran the numbers, you talked to the bank, and you qualified for the mortgage. So the house is yours, right? Not necessarily.

In this episode of Divorce Discussions, host Angie Weber sits down with Mitch Irwin, a loan officer and divorce mortgage specialist at Bell Bank Mortgage and a member of the Divorce Support Collective, to talk about the gap between qualifying for a mortgage and actually affording the house you live in.

Mitch has spent 25 years in mortgage lending, and more than half of his business is helping people navigate home decisions during divorce. He explains why lending guidelines let you borrow far more than most budgets can absorb, what it actually takes to keep a low interest rate after divorce, and the single most overlooked line in a divorce decree: a deadline for getting your name off the loan.

He also shares his Mitchisms, the plain language rules he has built over two decades of watching these decisions play out. The one paycheck test. Borrowing no more than two to three times your income. Sleep at night money.

If the house is the decision keeping you up right now, this conversation could save you from one of the most expensive mistakes people make in divorce.

Connect with Mitch:
www.mitchirwin.biz
https://www.instagram.com/mitchirwinmortgagemn/

This is Episode 15 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.

Mitch Irwin, Bell Bank Mortgage, NMLS #451627. Equal Housing Lender. This episode is for general education and is not financial or legal advice.

At some point after a divorce, someone is going to ask if you are ready to start dating again. And even if the answer is yes, there is often a quieter question sitting underneath it: what if I miss the signs again?

In this episode, Angie sits down with Justin Smith, a Tampa-based entrepreneur and the founder of Cray, a dating and relationship safety app built around more than 70 research-backed red flags. Justin created it after his own eight-year relationship ended in a way he never saw coming, and after doing the long, unglamorous work of figuring out what he had missed.

This conversation is less about apps than it is about awareness. Justin walks through the two red flags he says show up fastest and matter most, why you are dating someone's representative for the first six to twelve months, and the question he keeps coming back to when words and behavior do not match. He and Angie also get into how long to wait before introducing a partner to your kids, how the same red flag framework applies to a co-parenting relationship, and why walls up after heartbreak tends to attract exactly the wrong people.

There is also a clear-eyed caution in here that we think matters. Understanding red flags is not the same as diagnosing someone, and Justin is direct about the difference.

Get the app now: https://cray.app

This is Episode 14 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.

Who gets the house? It is one of the first questions that comes up in a divorce, and one of the hardest to answer, because a house is never only a house. It is the kitchen, the pencil marks on the door frame, the first Christmas. And it is also, for most families, the single largest financial asset on the table.

In this episode, host Angie Weber sits down with Kimberly Reeves, a real estate advisor and the founder of Reeves Advisory Collective, who helps people make smart real estate decisions during life's biggest transitions. Kimberly walks through how she actually starts the conversation, beginning with the value of the home, then moving into upkeep, school districts, community, and what the monthly payment would really look like for one person.

She also gets specific about the things people miss. Capital gains exposure drops from five hundred thousand dollars for a married couple to two hundred fifty thousand for a single filer, which matters enormously in a gray divorce where a home has appreciated for thirty years. Refinancing costs that never get factored into the split. Creative options like renting a room or renting short term while life settles. And the questions to ask any real estate agent before you hire them.

If you are staring at this decision and feeling frozen, this conversation will give you a next right step.

Connect with Kimberly:
Reeves Advisory Collective: https://reevesadvisorycollective.com
Kimberly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyreeves11/

This is Episode 13 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Note: this episode is general education, not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Kimberly is a real estate advisor and is not a CPA or a financial advisor. Please work with your own licensed professionals on your specific situation.

Have you walked past a mirror lately and not quite recognized the person looking back?

Long before the papers, before the hard conversations, something in your body was already bracing. In this episode of Divorce Discussions, host Angie Weber sits down with Romy Limenes, a trauma-informed coach, breathwork facilitator, and former nurse who found her way back to herself after her own marriage ended.

Romy shares what actually happens in your body when a relationship comes apart, why divorce can feel so disorienting on every level, and how we slowly lose ourselves inside relationships without even realizing it. Drawing on both her science background and her lived experience, she explains how your nervous system learned to protect you, and how it can also learn to undo that pattern one small practice at a time.

You'll learn the difference between thinking your way through pain and actually feeling your way through it, why breathwork is the fastest way to shift your physiology, and simple tools like notice and name that you can start using today. If you've been running on fight or flight for longer than you can remember, this conversation is an invitation to come home to yourself.

Connect with Romy:
www.breathworksimple.com
https://www.instagram.com/breathscapeswithromy/

This is Episode 12 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.

For many women, divorce isn't just the end of a relationship. It's the beginning of taking full ownership of their financial life, sometimes for the very first time.

In this episode of Divorce Discussions, DSC Director, Angie Weber, sits down with Donna Cates, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA), wealth builder, and founder of Money Matters Wealth Solutions and Navigating Divorce, to talk about how women can move from overwhelmed to empowered when it comes to their money.

Donna explains the biggest mistake she sees women make in divorce (rushing decisions while deep in their emotions), why a settlement that looks equal on paper often isn't actually fair, and the three first steps every woman should take: gather your financial data, understand what it truly costs to live your lifestyle, and define your real priorities.

She shares why a CDFA sees your finances through a different lens than a traditional financial planner, how to handle a high-conflict spouse who won't share information, and why it's never too late to get help as long as you're still negotiating. Whether you're just starting to think about divorce or you're already in the thick of it, this conversation will help you feel less overwhelmed and more in control of your financial future.

Connect with Donna:
www.moneymatterswealth.com
instagram.com/donnacates/
facebook.com/MoneyMattersWealth/
facebook.com/DivorceDivasAlabama/
linkedin.com/in/donnacates/

This is Episode 11 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support.

New episodes drop every Wednesday. Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support

Divorce doesn't just end a relationship, it completely reshapes your finances. And most people don't realize that until they're already in the middle of it, making fast decisions about income, assets, and their long-term security without really understanding how it all fits together. This episode is here to create some clarity.

Angie Weber sits down with Melissa Murphy Pavone, a certified financial planner and certified divorce financial analyst (CDFA) with over a decade of experience and the founder of Mindful Divorce Partners. Melissa is also the author of Divorce by Design: A Practical Guide to Building the Right Divorce Team and Protecting Your Financial Future, and her whole philosophy centers on one powerful idea: you shouldn't do this alone, and you shouldn't call the financial or legal people first.

In this conversation, Melissa explains why emotional support should come before the finances, the difference between a financial neutral and a financial advocate, the biggest financial blind spots she sees (including why $250,000 in one account is not the same as $250,000 in another), the social media divorce myths worth ignoring, and how to rebuild your financial confidence after the decree is signed.

Whether you're quietly wondering what divorce might look like or you're already post-decree and figuring out your next chapter, this episode will help you feel more grounded and a lot less alone.

Connect with Melissa:
www.mindfuldivorcepartners.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissamurphypavone/
https://www.instagram.com/mindfuldivorcepartners/

This is Episode 10 of the Divorce Discussions Podcast by the Divorce Support Collective, where we seek to reimagine the process of divorce through collaboration and support. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Follow the show, leave a review, and visit thedivorcesupportcollective.com for resources and support.