In the News

Just published - new resource for healing

portrait and book cover

Support group alumna and board-certified art therapist Jennifer Kramer has recently published The Uncommon Guide to Healing from Narcissitic Abuse, a guide to breaking patterns of behavior and redefining one's identity after leaving an abusive relationship. The book is available on Amazon, and more information about her practice can be found on Facebook at Jennifer Kramer Art Therapy.

New links

Moving Guide for Domestic Violence Survivors

There are several barriers for domestic violence victims attempting to move into a new home, including financial dependence, impact on children, lack of resources, and immigration status. For DV Awareness Month, the team at MyMove.com interviewed multiple experts in the field to create a moving guide resource for those who may be struggling with these silent battles alone. Check it out here: Moving Guide for Domestic Violence Survivors.

Guide for children during a divorce

The good people at Milavetz Law in Menneapolis have put together an extensive guide about helping children through a divorce. It's at milavetzlaw.com/children-and-divorce/. Good stuff.

Guide to affordable health insurance

A very inclusive state-by-state summary from Affordable Health Insurance of what is available -- Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, market plans like Anthem, etc. -- and how to get it. Includes options for the at-risk and homeless.

If at first you don't succeed...

Nobody gets married planning to get divorced. Maybe there is still hope? Here's an article from The Atlantic about couples who remarried each other -- some times several times: Second-Chance Couples

Purpose

Whether you are the one who left
or the one who got left,
divorce is a painful experience,
evoking confusion, anger, fear, guilt, and grief.
It is a profound human crisis.


What we do

In the midst of this crisis, Divorce Recovery Louisville welcomes, inclusively, anyone who faces the end of a committed relationship. We meet every week to offer emotional support, share practical strategies, and provide a sense of community for people considering divorce, going through it, or rebuilding a life afterwards. We help each other pick up and reassemble the pieces of our lives through a supportive, non-faith-based approach to divorce recovery.

For more information about how the group works, use the About link above. For one person's experience of the group, look at this appreciation by a former group member.

Not sure what you'd get out of a support group? A brief, useful overview of how support groups work, and how they differ from group therapy, is on the Mayo Clinic's website.

(To be absolutely clear, Divorce Recovery Louisville is not a dating group -- think of it as an undating group, where you learn to live comfortably with yourself before you even think about living with someone else again. If you are looking for hook-ups or romance, keep looking. Elsewhere.)


Meeting time and location

door to use

We meet every Sunday evening from 5:00-6:30 in the education wing of Crescent Hill Baptist Church, 2800 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40206. Please use the lobby entrance on Birchwood Avenue (pictured). There is ample free parking in the lot next to the Crescent Hill library across the street, as well as on Frankfort Avenue. Click for a map. on-line.To join the group, or for other information, email DivorceRecoveryLouisville@gmail.com.


"When does the next class start?"

We get calls and emails asking that question all the time. We don't have top-down classes where a curriculum is taught on a schedule; we have peer-led groups where we learn from each other and the topic is what is most important to you that day. Everybody in the group started as a walk-in, so just show up and we'll find you a place, too. (The answer to the question above is always "This coming Sunday evening at 5:00.")


Resources for you

The purpose of this web site is to provide a curated collection of some of the many services and resources available to people in divorce within the greater Louisville area and online. Whether you need to

- Get Help with immediate needs and crisis management

- Find Information about legal issues, or see our book list

- Seek Support as you move through divorce, or

- Start Anew with parenting, finances, jobs, or relationships,

the pages under the menu tabs above will show that there is a lot of help out there. While we can't guarantee any of these resources (see the disclaimer), we trust that they will lead you to information you can use.

We don't provide listings for individual therapists, law firms, etc.; we do provide ways for you to find them, but there are simply too many to keep up with, and we also don't want to seem to be endorsing some rather than others. So we primarily list volunteer, non-profit, and governmental organizations, but do include, for instance, local law firms as providers of online information rather than as providers of legal services.

Resources

Essential resources

Please explore the tabs at the top of the page to explore many more resources available to you, but here are a quick top four to get started with:

1. An exceedingly well-organized site called How to Divorce is at Findlaw.com. No matter what your role or stage in the divorce, this is information you will need.

2. For a thorough, reliable, and well-organized site specific to Kentucky, try the Legal Aid Network of Kentucky's section on getting divorced here at http://kyjustice.org/node/610.

Cover of Divorce Wisely book - interlocking gold wedding rings, one broken 3. If you are only going to read one book about the divorce process, make it this one: Marriages End. Families Don't. Divorce Wisely.: The essential handbook for navigating the process of divorce by Suzanne E. Grandchamp, Esq. IngramSpark, 2015. Kindle and paperback, 200+ pages, under $20. Available on Amazon.

4. We are pleased to provide a 30-page PDF version of Divorce Manual - A Client Handbook, formatted for printing, from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Its primary purpose is to explain the general process of divorce in American courts and to explain the lawyer-client relationship. It answers questions ranging from "How long will my divorce take?" to "May I spend money on my lover?" The on-line version is at AAML.org


image of woman holding hand out to protect herself Getting Out - leaving an abusive relationship

One of our support group members recently wrote on Facebook about recognizing and leaving an emotionally abusive marriage. She has given us permission to publish the post here.

And here's a link to What is Considered Sexual Assualt? A Guide on Sexual Assault.

And last but by no means least: The National Domestic Violence Hotline which can be reached by phone, chat, or text.


Name Change

We are now Divorce Recovery Louisville. We had been the Louisville Divorce Recovery Support Group since 1982, and did not make the change lightly, but needed a clear, consistent identity for...

our name
    Divorce Recovery Louisville
Facebook
    fb.com/DivorceRecoveryLouisville
the web
    www.DivorceRecoveryLouisville.org
email
     DivorceRecoveryLouisville@gmail.com
and introducing...
     www.meetup.com/DivorceRecoveryLouisville
So... shorter name, same reliable and confidential support. See you Sunday evening!