For more than forty years, Barbara has specialized in helping clients resolve conflicts and navigate transitions in their lives. She works primarily with couples. She strives to help struggling committed couples to understand each other and develop compassion for their differences, and to assist divorcing couples to work towards an amiable separation. She is committed to helping divorced parents become positive co-parents so their children can thrive.

As a Couple and Family therapist, Barbara helps people work through emotional challenges. Being part of a couple is both the most natural and often the most difficult relationship a person can have. The old saying that “opposites attract” is really true. The task of mastering a positive long term relationship is based on accepting differences and learning to tolerate what is not always comfortable. We are all products of our past and we bring our childhood parental relationships into our adult couple relationships. We give our partners our best and our worst. When the roots of our behavior become clearer, we can untangle the difficult dynamics.

When working as a family therapist, Barbara sees all members of the family together to sort out problematic issues. Anger between parents and children can erupt easily and impact the couple relationship. Understanding the developmental stages of children is important to sort out the issues.

Barbara specializes in working with adult children and their parents, working to mend the ruptured bonds between generations. Sometimes this necessitates inviting in new spouses and/or step-parents, to provide a complete perspective of the situation.

As a Divorce Coach and Child Specialist, Barbara helps customize solutions in a respectful manner, emphasizing the best interests of the child. She counsels parents on the different aspects of parenting plans, helping them develop the best one for their situation and needs. In addition, she helps parents deal with issues relating to their children and their separation. As a Coach, she supports parents through the emotional issues of divorce.

As a Mediator, Barbara functions as a neutral and uses her skills to assist each person in being heard and understood, enabling them to arrive at a fair and equitable settlement. She helps each party express their interests and develop options which can lead to positive solutions.

As a Parent Coordinator she works as a neutral, with separated and/or divorced parents helping them to be good co-parents. She works on developing good communication and helping them to establish rules and boundaries while assisting them to move on in their separate lives. Barbara makes recommendations to co-parents based on the best interests of the child. It’s important to remember that a couple may divorce as spouses, but are parents forever.