Seth Nelson is a Tampa based family lawyer known for devising creative solutions to difficult problems. In How to Split a Toaster, Nelson and co-host Pete Wright take on the challenge of divorce with a central objective — saving your most important relationships with your family, your former spouse, and yourself.
Pete Wright:
Welcome to How to Split a Toaster, a divorce podcast about saving your relationships from True Story FM. It's time to learn how to live with your toaster once again.
Seth Nelson:
Welcome to the show everybody. I'm Seth Nelson. As always, I'm here with my good friend, Pete Wright. Today we're talking about reunification therapy. What is it? Who needs it, and how does it help families rebuild healthy dynamics? Gina Aguinaga is a psychotherapist who specializes in helping children, adolescents, and adults go through difficult divorces and separations joins us today to educate us on the role reunification therapy plays in the divorce process. Gina, welcome to the toaster.
Gina Aguinaga:
Thank you.
Pete Wright:
It's good to have you here, Gina. And let's start off with a table setting question. What gets us to the point that divorcing couples need your services?
Gina Aguinaga:
Typically, I work with families who are in a high conflict divorce, and it's usually when there's a fracture in the relationship between one parent and the child or children. And sometimes kids are not even visiting. Oh, not visiting, I'm sorry, going to the other parent's home. They're not doing the time sharing that's outlined in the parenting plan.
Pete Wright:
I think that's such an interesting perspective that I, wonder, I mean, Seth to your background, how often do you see scenarios in which the kids and parents, one parent or another are estranged to the point that they can't communicate
Seth Nelson:
Too often? Really, there is always strange communication during the divorce process, in my view, with everybody involved. People are, as we say, their personality traits are heightened in my view. And one of the things that got people to where they are is that they weren't communicating well. And when you're going through a dissolution of marriage and you're worried about when are you going to see your children or even your children adjusting, you might be saying things, and I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt here. You might be saying things to your children that are negatively impacting their relationship with your co-parent, I.E. their parent, right? It could be something as, and Gina, you can correct me if I'm wrong because Pete loves that. Let's be very clear. Okay.
Pete Wright:
It doesn't happen often enough.
Seth Nelson:
They could literally say something like, oh, I'm going to miss you when you're at dad's because I'm going to be all alone and I won't have anybody here and just know that I'm thinking about you and I love you and I'm going to watch that movie that we watched together, but I'll do it by myself because you'll be with dad right now. Maybe this person is trying to say how much I'm going to love you and I'm going to miss you, but that's probably not the way to say it. What do you think Gina?
Gina Aguinaga:
I actually tell parents, not even to say, I am going to miss you, because it tends to make kids feel guilty and then they worry about their parent. They think their parent is going to be all alone at home and they really need them. So I just try to ask parents, can you tell them to have a great time, have a great time with the other parent. I'll see you on Monday.
Pete Wright:
It seems like there's, the way you're describing it, there's this sort of unintentional bouquet of parental behaviors that can start to drive a rift in one of the complicated sort of vectors of their relationship. Is it always a similar bouquet that leads folks to needing reunification therapy or support?
Gina Aguinaga:
I think there are a lot of reasons. Sometimes parents are purposely saying things and they're trying to get the child to side with them. It's referred to as alienation. So sometimes they are alienating directly or indirectly. And there's also, there are other cases where something has happened at the other home and kids don't want to go. And then also they have a preferred parent. I think all kids have a preferred parent or sometimes it switches. You can see that throughout their childhood. They might prefer mom when they're younger and then dad later and then no one when,
Pete Wright:
I don't know that they remember my name from day to day at this point.
Seth Nelson:
Well, I think the point about that too, Pete is that when kids are also going through this divorce, right? We talk a lot about, oh, the parents shouldn't do this. The parents shouldn't do that. But you got to focus on the kids. And it's not always easy. It should be easy in my view, but it's not always easy and people's feelings get hurt. And to Gina's point, sometimes people do it intentionally. And I have clients tell me all the time that the other parent is alienating me. And then I say, well, they're saying bad things about me. They're doing this, they're doing that. And I'll say, well, how's your relationship with your child? Well, they're good. What did you do with them this weekend? And they tell me and I said, so it's not working right? It's just because they're saying things doesn't mean that it's working.
I said, they might be trying to, but I believe that kids are going to evaluate you based on how you treat them when they are with you. I also think they evaluate you because they see how you treat their other parent. And if you're talking bad about the other parent and then you go to the other parent's house and the other parent is doing nice things for you and for being a good parent and setting boundaries and consequences and reinforcing positive behavior and doing whatever, I think that's really important. But I think alienation comes in a lot where like, oh, I can't afford that. Ask your dad. He doesn't give me any money. Right? There's stuff like that.
Pete Wright:
Is he wrong yet, Gina? Is Seth wrong about anything yet?
Gina Aguinaga:
No, he's not wrong.
Pete Wright:
Okay. I've got a little thermometer and I kind of like to watch it go up when he gets closer to wrong. Let's approach this case. This is the one that I, the kind of case that I have in my head because everything I've learned about the law and families going through divorce is from movies. How do you approach a case where it is, as Seth said, the child who adamantly refuses to reconnect with an estranged parent? What is your general approach in helping them, helping a family rehabilitate from that sort of a scenario?
Gina Aguinaga:
Well, typically when I first get a case, I try to review all of the information that I have and talk to other professionals who might be in the case on the case because I'll talk to the lawyers and there might also be a guardian involved or the child might have an individual therapist. I talk to everyone and then I meet with each parent separately to get background information, find out what's going on and hear their version of what's happening. And then I meet with a child alone. And then sometimes it might be more than just one session with a child alone and then kind of assess what's going on and try to figure it out.
And then we'll start having joint sessions. But with reunification therapy, even though the problem is with the child and it looks like the problem is with the child and the rejected parent, it really is a family problem. And the favored parent is also included in this therapy. So they're not on the outside. It's not just the child and the rejected parent. It's everyone because this wouldn't be going on if they weren't divorced. This is a problem resulting from the divorce.
Pete Wright:
And so when you talk about the roles that each of the parents play in reunification, what role does that favored parent play in the process?
Gina Aguinaga:
Well, it's really important for them to support the relationship between the rejected parent and the child. They might be saying things that they might not even realize is alienating like Seth had said originally. And I try to help them with those things and to encourage them to have the child have visitation with their parent. At least go to dinner or go to lunch or something or return unblock them. Sometimes they block the rejected parents, so unblock them, send text messages, call. We try to start off, I try to start off small. They're not having time sharing, they're not going. We need to start off small, start with some phone calls, time in my office. And then I try to work towards the original time sharing plan.
Seth Nelson:
And part of this Pete can be, I don't want to say orchestrated because that's too clinical. What you can do is, for example, and these are parents that aren't communicating well, they wouldn't be here, but if they have a shared calendar on Google for example, and they're putting the child's homework stuff on there, they're putting the child's soccer practice or they're in a play at school, there's information on the calendar. It can give the rejected parent something to talk about. Like, "Hey, I noticed on the calendar that you had auditions for the school play. How did they go?" Or, "Hey, I already know that you're in the school play. How's rehearsal going? Is it coming together the way you, do you like the role that you have? Are you at tech week? Do you know what your costume is going to look like?"
So it's all about the kid, not what's going on at mom's house or I miss you or whatever. It's going on and open-ended questions are better than yes or no, especially if they're teenagers. But that's a way to get something going really small and you don't have to be on the phone with them for 20, 30 minutes. Right. It's not about the amount of time. It's about a quality conversation and that's that. So Gina, any thoughts to add to that?
Gina Aguinaga:
No, I don't think so.
Seth Nelson:
Look at that, Pete.
Pete Wright:
I know, another one. Where's the bell? So you mentioned some of the consternation that can happen in these relationships and if a child has blocked the parent, the alienation angle is interesting to me. How do you approach the idea of this, a parent not unintentionally alienating the child, but intentionally sort of weaponizing the divorce by causing sort of emotional sabotage? How do you approach that? And I think there's the legal question too. Is there a legal remedy or an escape that you can pull to get the parents addressing their stuff before you address the child's stuff?
Gina Aguinaga:
And I can address what I see. If I see some alienating behaviors, I can confront them on that. We can talk about it. Maybe they need their own therapy and sometimes people-
Pete Wright:
Probably do. Yeah.
Gina Aguinaga:
Yeah, definitely. And I would recommend that. And that's if they do have a therapist that I can also work with that therapist. The reunification therapist can work with all of the therapists and the parent coordinator.
Pete Wright:
But when you see it, I think this goes to Seth too. When you see it, how do you address it therapeutically or when does it go to Seth?
Gina Aguinaga:
I try to address it therapeutically and then if we can't, then it goes to Seth,
Seth Nelson:
Then it goes to me because solving this problem in the courtroom is really the best place to do this.
Pete Wright:
Well I understand it's very efficient,
Seth Nelson:
Right? Yes, exactly. So that's the thing. And lawyers I think have a really heavy responsibility in family law that is not there in other areas of practice. If it's a criminal case, you're the state attorney, you're the prosecutor, your job is to prove in court that a crime happened on a certain day and this person could be going to jail. You can't make that decision based upon that. They're not going to see their child for five to 10 years where in family law we're required to think about the child in this scenario. And that's one of the should be in the forefront. So what happens is when we have difficult cases, which is usually high conflict, we try to get Gina involved early and make progress along the way because ultimately what is a court really going to do? Is the court really going to say, mom, bring the child and if you don't bring the child, I will lock you up. That is an extreme, extreme outcome which has happened.
Pete Wright:
It gets to, I sort of feel like if a family's struggling and in need of therapy, there are two potential paths that they could end up in. One is the court could say, you need to go through this process. Or they could voluntarily say, we're in trouble. We need to go through this process and fix our stuff before we can lead to a healthy divorce. How effective is court-ordered reunification therapy when really we're just looking at, it almost feels punitive to me at that point. Am I misconstruing that point?
Gina Aguinaga:
I think probably some people see it that way, but it really is important and I think that's where I need to do my job to help them understand this is really important. And it is really important for your child to have a relationship with both parents as long as they're not abusive or have addictions. Right? It's so important. And that's my job to help them understand that and to help the child understand that.
Seth Nelson:
And that's kind of the whole point. The judge can literally force people to go, but this is like Gina's magic, right? Is once they're there, how does she relate and connect in a professional therapeutic session with a child? How does she work with the parent that is purposely sabotaging this? How does she work with the rejected parent to focus on the kid and stop talking about the parent that's alienate them? Because their kind of view is, well, if mom would just stop this, everything would be fine.
And that's not necessarily true. It will help, but you still have work to do because let's just say mom's poison the well, okay, well you have work to do to un-poison it though it wasn't your fault, even if it stops or you have to show up and go to the games. And if that means you show up and you go to the games and you don't see your kid afterwards to say goodbye because it's going to be a scene, but your kid knows you were there. So there's a lot of things you can do as a parent that just showing up and cheering them on and not creating a scene but clapping appropriately and all that. And you go from there.
Pete Wright:
So let's just say I am talking to you Gina, as somebody who needs reunification therapy and who are we kidding? I'm probably the favorite parent in this hypothetical. How do you frame what is happening when you are working with the child alone? Right? Set me at ease to understand the kind of work you're going to be doing with my kiddo behind the scenes. What does your process look like?
Gina Aguinaga:
Okay. Well, I think it's different case by case and depending on the age, but I think it's really important for me to build a relationship with a child, well actually with everyone in a case. And I was a child, just a child therapist for years. And so I feel like I do a good job connecting with kids and that's my goal, just to hear them, let them know that I understand what's going on. I hear them and validate them. And I talk about a lot about the high conflict divorce and them being stuck in the middle because I don't think people really address that so much with them. It's your mother's fault or it's your father's fault. So I talk about that and their feelings and I ask them them why they don't want to go and we'll talk about the past, but then we have to figure out how to move forward.
Pete Wright:
Because I look at this and I, Seth has told me so much about the process. And again, as efficient as the divorce process is, how do you make the connections efficiently enough given the time you have with families? You don't have a lot of time with families, do you, over the course of a divorce, how many times are you meeting with a kiddo?
Gina Aguinaga:
Usually weekly. We're meeting weekly.
Pete Wright:
Oh, okay.
Gina Aguinaga:
Yeah. And there've been times that I've actually met more than that. And sometimes throughout this whole process I'll have a joint session, but then I also might meet with a kid individually. And I do communicate a lot with the parents. Either they're coming for a session or I, will talk to them throughout.
Seth Nelson:
Fascinating. And what's really interesting about it, Pete, when you see it work, it's pretty amazing because Gina connects with where they start opening up and it's a balancing act because the kid's going to say, well, here's why I don't want to go. Which of course now Gina has to talk about the past, address it, move forward, but might have to address that issue with the rejected parent and basically tell the rejected parent, here's one of the reasons, here's the behaviors you need to change. So these aren't repetitive. And that's hard when that rejected parent is like, it's not me, it's just mom. So Gene is magic is she gets everyone to look at themselves and focus on themselves and live in the moment and let's just, the most important interaction you're going to have with your kid is the next one and the one that you're currently having, that's where we are. Just one step at a time. And when it works, it's pretty powerful. It's really amazing.
Pete Wright:
How often does it work? Is it a slam dunk? Is it more successful than it is not?
Gina Aguinaga:
I had a feeling you were going to ask me this question, and I'm not great with remembering numbers, but I feel like I've been pretty successful with reunifying families and sometimes it's very surprising to me and I do not ever say, oh, this one is going to be easy. I think I'm going to be, and because they tend to be the hardest ones. So I have reunified families and I think it's more, I've reunified more families than I haven't.
Seth Nelson:
And that's why she's busy. But to answer the legal aspect of that, because Jean is playing the long game, you need the relationship now. So you have the relationship in the future and in the future you don't come back and say, it was horrible. I don't have a relationship with my dad. It doesn't necessarily in a legal sense, change an outcome of a case because the case may already be over. You might already have a court order, a final judgment that says 50 50 and the child stops going. And so instead of going to court and just pointing fingers and blaming mom, or you just start with Judge, we got a final judgment. Child's not coming or isn't communicating, so we just want some reunification therapy. We want to get in there and see what's happening so we can really come back and solve this problem and it will get solved, judge, and we'll never see you again.
That's a whole lot different than going to court and filing a motion for contempt enforcement because mom is not bringing the child over to dads or mom continually picks up the child on dad's days and dad's like, well, I don't go anymore because the kid never got in my car. Right? Let's solve a problem here. So from a legal sense, maybe in the court file everything's the same. It's 50 50, right? But we're going to get them back to that. And sometimes maybe the problem might be, well, dad's dating somebody and I don't really like the child says, I don't really like the person dad's dating. So how do we deal with that? And so Gina, do you ever bring in those kind of collateral people in as well?
Gina Aguinaga:
I do.
Seth Nelson:
You got to talk to them. Whoever's around that kid. Pete needs to be involved if it's part of the problem.
Pete Wright:
How does your work extend to extended family? Are we talking aunts, uncles, grandparents? I can see a situation where a kiddo doesn't want to go to a holidays, family dinners, those sorts of things. Does your reach extend into those relationships too? I
Gina Aguinaga:
Don't think I've done that so much. There have been times where I've been in a session and a parent will want to FaceTime grandma or the grandfather to see the child, but I haven't had them in a session. Just usually like the step parents.
Seth Nelson:
And part of that too, Pete is people tend to get in their minds that grandparents go with the side of the parent and it's up to that parent to tell grandpa and grandma, stop doing that. Stop saying bad things about their dad, right? Because it's not good for the kid. If you want to feel that way, that's fine, but you can't say that stuff in front of them and I would prefer you not say it at all. Right. So that's where that kind of plays into it.
Pete Wright:
When you're thinking about the harder cases, the alleged abuse cases for example, how do you balance the push for reunification in a way that balances a kiddo's safety and wellbeing?
Gina Aguinaga:
Most of my reunification cases aren't really abuse. I don't really have cases where there's abuse, not physical or abuse, but I have had some where there was abuse in the past and the parent has taken anger management or has taken a parenting class or has their own therapy. And that definitely is needed because I'm not going to try to reunify a child with a parent who abused them and hasn't gotten any treatment.
Seth Nelson:
And that's really critical Pete because when you're doing that, obviously it just doesn't make any sense to try to reunify anybody that's doing that. But if they do the work and can come in and say, I made a mistake, here's what I'm doing to correct it and not to make it happen again. And just showing the child that acknowledging that you've made a mistake and you're sorry is a huge, huge step because how often do parents really apologize to kids?
Pete Wright:
Probably not all that much. Probably not as they should.
Gina Aguinaga:
And I've had that in those cases where the parent will come in and apologize. It's part of it. They have to do that, even if it's a case where there's not abuse and maybe the parent yelled too many times or yelled a few times and they apologize for that.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. What's the balancing act between, let's say it's not necessarily abuse, but I think my former spouse is a danger to my child because of alcohol, drug abuse, whatever, and the former spouse says, I'm doing the work, I want to be reunified. I mean, is there a sort of consideration from the court's perspective that maybe reunification therapy has to go long enough so that we know that you are okay? You're safe to be with the kid to everybody's agreement?
Seth Nelson:
Well, in the statute, nowhere in the law does it say as long as the other parent thinks it's just okay. Right. That's not the standard. But your point is, and your question and your point is a good one. The courts in Florida check your local jurisdiction has to make a decision at trial. At the time of trial, you don't get to look in the crystal ball and they don't say, you know what, go see Gina. And if Gina says it's fine after however much time, then Gina can award more time sharing. We'll start with just reunification therapy and in three months you can have your first overnight. That's not happening. The judge cannot delegate Gina to be that ultimate decision maker. But what the judge can do is say, you know what? I'm going to enter a temporary parenting plan and I'm going to keep this case open for the next six months and you guys are going to go reunification and we're going to see where we're at that time.
Because ultimately the judge, and people don't realize this, the judge does not have to accept the parent's parenting plan. The judge can reject it and say, here's what we're doing, and if you don't like it, then you can dismiss your case. But as long as you're getting a divorce with this child, here's what we're doing. So that can be very powerful and it kind of puts people on notice. Now the other thing the judge can do is like, all right, we're going to do every other weekend, and if it's not working, go to Gina and Gina is going to get you back to every other weekend. But you go from there.
Pete Wright:
I'm trying to think through some of the questions that we've had in the past of divorce cases where things get more complicated. And one of them that has come up is, look, we've got one spouse who needs, we know has been rejected, but the kid has rejected them, but the spouse has just gotten relocated across state lines no longer in Florida. Is there an accommodation? Is there a path forward for distance reunification? Is there a choice for parents who want to try to rebuild a relationship? How do you work when, I presume you can't work across state lines,
Gina Aguinaga:
But the child is in Florida or the children. So I can, and I have done that and I am not a fan of virtual reunification therapy. It's hard. I've had a parent,
Seth Nelson:
She also doesn't like virtual podcasts. When Gina agreed to come on, she goes, we're all going to be in the same room and someone's going to be on the couch. And I promised her that and I did the old bait and switch. It's a hornswoggle we call that.
Gina Aguinaga:
That's funny. Yeah, it is really difficult. And I've had some sessions where a parent is out of state and I have the kids usually in my office, so at least someone is in my office and it will do it that way. Or when that parent comes into town, it's very hard.
Pete Wright:
That seems very challenging.
Seth Nelson:
It's so hard.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. What have we missed any other hot items? We've just been kind of poking holes at this particular monster, but is there anything in particular you feel like parents need to know to educate them as they embark on this journey of rebuilding a healthy relationship with their kiddos?
Gina Aguinaga:
I just think that with these high conflict, I see mostly high conflict divorces. I tend to see it the worst of this. And I think it's so important to get your own treatment for parents too, to have their own support system, to have their own therapy so their child isn't their friend or their therapist and they don't place so much pressure on them and that it's so important not to put them in the middle, but they are all in the middle.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah. Oh goodness. And you got a parent sometimes when they're, I see it a lot where a parent like Jeanne is saying, it just tries to have their new best friend because what was supposed to be their best friend and partner is no longer there and who's home, right? So you cannot make them your best friend. You have to be the parent. Also, remember where we are in this process, Pete, we're in the piece. So parenting plan, equitable distribution, alimony, child support, everything else, it's parenting plan.
That's where we're focused here. And it's always better to deal with this sooner rather than later because this is not fine wine. If you haven't seen your kid for a month, it is not going to get any easier. It's only going to get harder when you haven't seen him for six months. So don't wait. And we all know the court system is slow, so if you see anything bubbling up, you want to get into Jeanne's office and a reunification therapist as soon as possible. If the other side's not willing to do that, that's an easy motion and you set it as quickly as you can because that's the critical point and not to have it delayed, delayed, delayed,
Pete Wright:
And it's going to help the entire rest of your divorce process. There's ease is going to be helped if you just deal with it.
Seth Nelson:
That's right, right upfront. That's right. Divorce is hard enough. You don't want to make it harder. If you can get anything resolved, your other parts of the parenting, the piece outline that we talk about all the time gets easier, less to do, less fees, less money, less fighting.
Pete Wright:
All of the above. Gina. Now is the part where we ask you where people can find you. Now, I recognize you don't love them finding you online, but you'd rather them not just come to your office uninvited. So where do you send people to learn more about your work?
Gina Aguinaga:
On my website.
Pete Wright:
And what is that?
Gina Aguinaga:
Which is GinaAguinaga.com.
Seth Nelson:
Yeah, I better spell it. We'll definitely put that in the show notes. She's just known as Gina around town. She does such a great job, so makes it easy.
Pete Wright:
Outstanding. We will put the link seriously in the show notes. It's fantastic. Go learn more about Gina and her wonderful work and thank you Gina for putting up with us tonight.
Seth Nelson:
I do have one more question.
Pete Wright:
Oh, okay.
Seth Nelson:
I feel like our listeners aren't allowed to see Andy, so is there reunification with our listeners and Andy, because we don't let him talk, we alienate him. He's
Pete Wright:
Totally alienated. That's exactly right.
Seth Nelson:
Right.
Pete Wright:
Is there such a thing as voluntary alienation on both parts? He doesn't want to see us. We don't really want to see him. Maybe it's just fine.
Seth Nelson:
Maybe it's just fine. All right, we'll deal with that on the next show. Okay.
Pete Wright:
Ongoing drama here at the toaster. Gina, in all seriousness, thank you so much for hanging out with us today. We appreciate you doing this with us.
Gina Aguinaga:
Okay, thank you.
Seth Nelson:
Thanks Gina. Thanks
Pete Wright:
And thank you everybody for downloading and listening to this show. We appreciate your time and your attention. Don't forget, you can ask us a question. We went through our listener questions and they're starting to stack up again. I'm very excited about some of the questions that are building up. You can find those at howtosplittatoaster.com. There's a button. Just click the button and you'll be able to submit a question. You can submit anonymously, you can tell us your story and we will get it on the show in an upcoming episode. Thanks everybody. On behalf of Gina Aguinaga and Seth Nelson America's favorite divorce attorney, I'm Pete Wright and we will see you next time right here on How to Split a Toaster a Divorce Podcast about saving your relationships.
Outro:
How to Split a Toaster is part of the True Story FM Podcast Network, produced by Andy Nelson, music by T. Bless and the Professionals and DB Studios. Seth Nelson is an attorney with NLG Divorce and Family Law with offices in Tampa, Florida. While we may be discussing family law topics, How to Split a Toaster is not intended to, nor is it providing legal advice. Every situation is different. If you have specific questions regarding your situation, please seek your own legal counsel with an attorney licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. Pete Wright is not an attorney or employee of NLG Divorce and Family Law. Seth Nelson is licensed to practice law in Florida.