Whether you’re divorcing because of adultery, irreconcilable differences, or simply because you want to, divorce can turn your entire life upside down. During the divorce process, you’ll experience a wide range of emotions — from denial to anger, hurt, sadness, hope, desperation, and much more. It’s important that you don’t bottle up or suppress these emotions, but rather that you healthily address them.

Here at The Fairell Firm, we provide divorce help to clients throughout Atlanta and Tucker — and we know that the divorce process is more than simply signing papers and reaching a divorce settlement. We see the emotional toll it can take on clients, so we teamed up with Kim Lee-Okonya , a psychotherapist and licensed specialist clinical social worker (LCSW) with more than 10 years of experience. Watch our video below to learn more about how to cope with the emotions you experience during divorce, and then contact our firm today to get divorce help in Atlanta.

Divorce will bring about a lot of change in your life, period. Lee-Okonya has noticed many clients who experience fear of the unknown, fear of judgment, and fear of “I told you so” when they first begin the divorce process. According to her, they don’t know how to process all of these fears and concerns, and they often hold it all in. This leads to anxiety and depression, which can then drastically affect sleeping and eating habits and lead to isolation.

Enlisting the help of a professional — such as a therapist — can help you to process all of these emotions. The best divorce lawyers, in fact, will recommend this rather than having you speak about your feelings only with them; a licensed therapist will simply be able to help you much more effectively than a local divorce attorney or even your friends will be able to.

Lee-Okonya likens the grieving that takes place in a divorce to that of a butterfly’s life. Just like the life of a butterfly, divorce is a grieving process .

She is careful to note that grieving is not just for death. Grieving, Lee-Okonya says, is for any type of loss; it’s when something is no longer a part of your world as you once knew it to be. She provided the example of her puppy to illustrate this. Work was picking up and Lee-Okonya was getting busier and busier — and she didn’t feel she was providing the puppy with the attention it deserved. She found a wonderful family to raise the puppy and even gets to communicate with them, but she still, at times, feels sad about it.

Elizabeth Kubler Ross researched what we now know to be the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. According to Lee-Okonya, these five stages will vary in length and order for everyone who goes through the divorce process — sometimes taking years to reach acceptance. She said that however long you were with someone, it generally takes at least half that time to fully get over them, though that can vary for everybody.

Here at The Fairell Firm, we aim to provide divorce help for you both in our law office and on our blog. From understanding alimony to legal separation vs. divorce , divorce basics , social media and divorce , and many other topics, we hope you find the divorce help you’re looking for. Contact The Fairell Firm today to work with a team of female divorce lawyers in the Atlanta and Tucker areas.