Traumatic Divorce and Separation

by Lisa Fischel-Wolovick (Author)

Traumatic Divorce and Separation integrates the conflicting mental health perspectives concerning trauma theory and the study of divorce, in what the author has termed "traumatic divorce" – that is, divorce complicated by the high-risk factors of domestic violence, mental illness, and/or substance abuse. The text's interdisciplinary discussion examines issues of financial disparities for women following divorce, traumatic symptoms in children and adults, and the legal controversies about the admissibility of psychological theories related to abuse. The author also addresses: domestic violence as a gendered crime against women; the need for a trauma-informed judicial response; and the need for a systemic judicial response that incorporates an understanding of domestic violence and child maltreatment to provide services and protections. The book is an invaluable resource for professionals and academics in social work, forensic psychology, law, and related mental health fields, as well as academics interested in gender based discrimination in the courts.

Review

"Traumatic Divorce and Separation moves to the head of the class. In chapters studded with examples, Lisa Fischel-Wolovick covers the nuts-and-bolts of negotiating an orderly exodus from an abusive relationship. It's all here: the history of divorce law; recognition of abuse as coercive control; documenting trauma; how to access and assess experts, evaluators, mediators, psychologists and law guardians; and the types of courts and court orders most likely to protect children and deter further abuse. Laid out in accessible prose with the authority only long experience in the trenches affords, this is the single volume every practitioner, litigant, and student of family law should have at their side."
Evan Stark, PhD, MSW, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University

"In this academically rigorous yet eminently readable book, attorney Lisa Fischel-Wolovick compellingly demonstrates that the severe life stressors, injustices, and adversities endured by women separating from or divorcing an abusive partner are best encapsulated in the term 'traumatic divorce.' Free of impenetrable legal terminology, this book is the essential guide for battered woman who expect to receive justice from our nation's divorce courts, but are instead confronted with the shocking reality that the system is decidedly stacked against them. This thundering indictment of our nation's divorce courts also serves as a beacon of hope for survivors, equipping them with the knowledge and thus the power necessary to navigate safely across the terrain of traumatic divorce to achieve the freedom and safety they seek."
Mo Therese Hannah, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Siena College; Chair, Battered Mothers Custody Conference

"Clinicians who find themselves in family court are often shocked to discover that basic research about attachment, trauma, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and substance abuse seems to be absent from the working knowledge of many forensic evaluators and judges. The gap between the base of knowledge relied upon in family court and the base of knowledge employed in a trauma-informed clinical practice is huge. Lisa Fischel-Wolovick steps in to fill this gap with Traumatic Divorce and Separation. This well-written book is essential reading for both court-involved mental health professionals and clinicians so that decisions affecting the welfare of children can become increasingly more evidence based."
-Joyanna Silberg, PhD, author of The Child Survivor: Healing Developmental Trauma and Dissociation

About the Author
Lisa Fischel Wolovick, JD, MSW, is an attorney who has represented battered women for almost thirty years. She helped to organize the first Criminal Court in New York State that specialized in domestic violence. Before becoming an attorney, she obtained her masters in social work and worked as a hospital social worker. She is currently teaching family violence and child abuse and neglect at the City University of New York, John Jay College's Graduate Program in Forensic Psychology, and has published and been a panelist in domestic violence, child custody, and trauma.