Course Overview
Safeguarding the Mental Health of Tweens and Teens During Divorce
Executive Summary
This comprehensive course provides divorcing and divorced parents with evidence-based strategies to protect their tweens’ and teens’ mental health during family restructuring. Created by Kerry Stutzman (licensed marriage and family therapist) and Palmer Skudneski (her son and family therapist), this program combines professional expertise with lived experience from their own high-conflict divorce case in Colorado.
Target Audience
The course is specifically designed for:
- Parents of tweens and teens navigating divorce or separation
- Divorced parents managing ongoing co-parenting relationships
- Parents concerned about the emotional impact of divorce on their children
- Parents experiencing high-conflict custody situations
- Parents worried about potential parental alienation
Core Benefits
Participants will gain:
- A clear vision for restructuring their family post-divorce
- Practical tools to maintain healthy parent-child relationships across two households
- Strategies to recognize and address emotional challenges their children face
- Techniques to identify and counter early signs of parental alienation
- Communication skills to keep dialogue open with adolescents during difficult transitions
Teaching Methodology
This course delivers content through:
- Professionally filmed video lessons featuring both instructors
- Interactive exercises
- Self-reflection prompts and journaling activities
- Quizzes to reinforce key concepts
Unique Value Proposition and Positioning
What sets this course apart:
- Dual perspective from both a therapist and adult child of divorce
- Real-world insights from one of Colorado’s most challenging custody cases
- Integration of personal experience with clinical best practices
- Focus specifically on tweens and teens (an often overlooked demographic in divorce resources)
- Evidence-based approaches to navigating family restructuring
- Interviews with children of divorce, divorced parents, and divorce professionals in every module
Core Value Proposition
“The only divorce parenting course that combines clinical therapy expertise with authentic lived experience to protect your children’s mental health during family transition.”
This positioning statement captures three critical differentiators:
- Clinical Expertise: Professional credentials and specialized training
- Authentic Lived Experience: Personal survival of extreme high-conflict divorce
- Children’s Mental Health Focus: Primary emphasis on psychological outcomes rather than parental compliance
Positioning Matrix
When mapped against two key dimensions—Clinical Sophistication and Personal Connection—the course occupies a unique quadrant:
Competitive Differentiation
Tier 1: Sustainable Competitive AdvantagesÂ
Extreme High-Conflict Personal Experience:
The course creators’ experience with “one of the most extreme, high-conflict, and alienating divorces in the Colorado court system” cannot be manufactured or quickly acquired by competitors. This authentic experience provides immediate credibility with high-conflict parents and offers practical wisdom from worst-case scenarios.
Mother-Son Dual Perspective:
The unique combination of parent and child perspectives from the same divorce experience is extremely rare. Finding other parent-child professional teams willing to share their story publicly would be nearly impossible for competitors to replicate.
Clinical Expertise + Personal Experience:
The combination of professional clinical training with personal extreme divorce experience is exceptionally rare. Most clinicians don’t have personal high-conflict divorce experience, and most divorce survivors don’t have clinical training.
Tier 2: Moderate Competitive Advantages
Parental Alienation Specialization Dedicated focus on recognizing and preventing parental alienation addresses a significant gap in current programming, though other providers could develop similar content with appropriate expertise.
Children’s Mental Health Primary Focus Explicit focus on children’s psychological outcomes rather than parental behavior represents a paradigm shift that could be adopted by competitors but requires significant content redevelopment.
Premium Specialized Provider
Position as the advanced, clinical option for parents dealing with complex divorce situations and concerned about children’s mental health. This strategy involves:
- Premium Pricing: 3-5x higher than basic compliance programs
- Clinical Credibility: Emphasize clinical training in working with families, parents, youth, and divorce
- Authentic Authority: Leverage lived experience for credibility
- Outcome Focus: Prioritize children’s mental health over compliance w/taking the basic level court-mandated class
Module Breakdown
Module 1: Our Story and The Parents’ Creed: Protecting Kids Starts Here
Before diving in, we want you to know who we are and why this matters so deeply to us by sharing a glimpse into what the impact of divorce was for our family. We’ve lived through the upheaval of divorce, felt the confusion, watched our family struggle, and learned firsthand what genuinely helps or harms kids through the process. This module shares our story and then goes through a set of values and commitments that we call the Divorcing Parents Creed. It outlines practical principles to guide your actions and decisions, helping you protect your kids’ emotional well-being as your family navigates these challenging waters.
Module 2: Understanding Your Child’s Emotional Landscape
Kids feel divorce differently than adults. What you see on the surface: anger, withdrawal, acting out, or it can look like increased compliance, silence, and fear they may add to your emotional burden – It’s only the tip of the iceberg. This module helps you look beneath the behavior and understand what’s really going on inside your child. When parents learn to attune to these deeper emotions, they can provide the kind of support that changes a child’s trajectory for the rest of their lives.
Module 3: Two Homes, One Consistent Life: Practical Ways to Support Your Child
Managing life across two homes isn’t just about coordinating schedules and logistics – it’s about giving your children a sense of stability, safety, and predictability during a time of major transition.
When routines are unclear or transitions between homes feel chaotic, kids often carry the emotional burden, even if they don’t talk about it. Structure and consistency are essential for healthy development, especially in the face of change.
In this module, we’ll explore both the practical and emotional challenges of living in two households. You’ll learn how to:
- Build consistent routines across both homes
- Reduce your child’s stress during transitions
- Support your child’s sense of security and emotional wellbeing
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Because kids don’t just need two homes—they need two safe, predictable, and connected homes.
Module 4: Caught in the Middle: Helping Your Child Navigate Parental Tension
Conflict between parents, even when it’s subtle, can be one of the hardest things for children to navigate during and after divorce. While some disagreement is inevitable, how you manage that conflict profoundly shapes your child’s emotional wellbeing.
At its most damaging, ongoing tension or badmouthing can lead to parental alienation, where a child pulls away from one parent – sometimes emotionally, sometimes entirely – not because of their own feelings, but because of pressure or influence they don’t yet know how to resist.
This module isn’t about blame; it’s about protection.
You’ll learn how parental conflict and alienation affect kids, and how to keep your child out of the emotional crossfire. We’ll give you clear, practical tools to:
Reduce their exposure to conflict
Shield their emotional world
Build their resilience to badmouthing and one-sided narratives
Support healthy relationships with both parents
Because no child should have to choose sides—and every child deserves the chance to love and be loved by both parents.
Module 5: Keep Your Child Talking When It Matters Most
When parents separate, communication between parent and child often becomes strained – right when it’s needed most.
You’re suddenly seeing your child half as often, but still expected to carry the full weight of parenting. Meanwhile, your child may pull away, act out, or go silent – not because they don’t care, but because they don’t know how to navigate the emotional storm they’re in.
This module is about keeping the door of communication open by creating the kind of connection that makes your child want to keep talking – with you, with trusted adults in your community, or with professionals who can help.
Even when it’s hard. Even when they’re hurting.
Because the single most protective factor for your child’s mental health is a connected relationship with someone they trust.
Module 6: Beyond Survival: Defining Who Your Family Will Become
After divorce, it’s easy to slip into survival mode – just trying to keep up with stress, schedules, and the endless demands of daily life. But your family isn’t over. It’s evolving. And what it becomes from here forward is something you have the power to shape.
Whether you realize it or not, your children are looking to you for a sense of direction. When that direction is unclear, kids often feel adrift – unsure where they belong or what their family stands for anymore.
This module is about pressing “pause,” lifting your gaze from the chaos, and intentionally shaping what comes next. You’ll learn how to:
Clarify your family’s core values
Create meaningful rituals and rhythms
Build emotional stability and connection
Help your children feel grounded, safe, and part of a family with purpose
Because a strong family vision isn’t about pretending things are perfect—it’s about giving your kids something solid to hold onto as you all move forward together.
Care for the Kids
Safeguarding the Mental Health of Tweens and Teens During Divorce
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the format of the course and how much time will it take?
The course includes 6 modules with video lessons, downloadable resources, and interactive exercises. Each module takes approximately 30-45 minutes to complete, and you can work through the material at your own pace.
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Why does this course cost $137?
We are pricing our class as a “premium” class relative to the standard, court-ordered classes that are cheaper. A pricing psychology section might be a good idea. Here are words for it:
We know that going through a divorce is already stressful—and adding one more expense can feel like a stretch. So why $137?
Because this class isn’t just information. It’s a roadmap for protecting your child’s mental health at one of the most vulnerable times in their life.
Here’s how we think about it:
- One hour of therapy typically costs between $120 and $200.
- A single session with a parenting coach? Often $150 or more.
- The emotional cost of getting it wrong? It’s not one we’re willing to leave to chance.
This course brings together decades of professional experience, hard-earned personal wisdom, and tools you can put into action right away – at a fraction of the cost of traditional support.
We chose a price that makes this course accessible to as many families as possible while honoring the value of what’s inside.
And if you’re someone who really wants this course but genuinely can’t afford it, we invite you to [link: apply for a scholarship or reach out to us privately].
Because your kids’ wellbeing is worth it. And so are you.
Can I access the course on my phone or tablet?
Yes! The course is fully accessible on all devices – computer, tablet, or smartphone. This makes it easy to fit learning into your busy schedule, whether you’re at home or on the go.
Is this appropriate for high-conflict divorce situations?
Absolutely. In fact, this course was developed based on Kerry and Palmer’s experience with their own high-conflict divorce case in Colorado. The strategies we teach are specifically designed to help parents maintain strong relationships with their children even in the most challenging circumstances.
How does this complement court-mandated parenting classes?
Court-mandated classes typically cover basic child development and co-parenting concepts. Our course goes much deeper, focusing specifically on the mental health impacts of divorce on tweens and teens. Many parents take our course after completing their required class to gain more in-depth support.
What if my ex won't participate - is it still worthwhile?
Yes! While it’s ideal if both parents participate, the reality is that many families don’t have that option. One parent implementing these strategies can make a significant difference in their children’s adjustment and wellbeing. We have specific modules addressing how to be effective even when co-parenting cooperation is limited.
How long will I have access to the course materials?
Once you enroll, you’ll have six months of access to all course materials, including any updates released during that time. Many parents revisit modules as they encounter new challenges in their co-parenting journey.
What specific topics does the Care for Kids class cover?
The class addresses a range of topics crucial for co-parenting during and after divorce. These include effective communication strategies, managing stress and emotions, conflict resolution, and fostering a stable, supportive environment for children during these changes.
Is this course recognized by courts for divorce proceedings?
No, this course is not currently court-approved. But it was never designed to check a box—it was created to meet a deeper need. Care for the Kids: Safeguarding Your Tween and Teen’s Mental Health During Divorce fills a critical gap in the online parenting education space by combining clinical therapeutic expertise with lived experience from a high-conflict divorce.
While many parents come to us looking for help with a court requirement, what they often find is something they didn’t know they needed: a trauma-informed, evidence-based approach that puts their child’s emotional wellbeing front and center. This course is valuable for parents navigating amicable as well as high-conflict dynamics who want more than surface-level guidance—they want tools to truly protect their kids’ mental health.
Growing awareness of childhood trauma and the youth mental health crisis is pushing more parents—and professionals—to look beyond basic compliance and toward real change. This class exists to support that shift.
Will I have access to the course materials after completing the class?
Absolutely. Participants have access to the course materials for 6 months after completion. This allows for ongoing reference and reinforcement of the concepts and strategies learned during the course.
How does this class benefit my child during the divorce process?
The course is designed to equip parents with skills and knowledge to create a less stressful and more supportive environment for their children. It helps in reducing the emotional impact on children, aiding in their adjustment to the changes brought by divorce.
Are there any prerequisites for enrolling into Care for the Kids?
No, there are no prerequisites. The class is designed for any parent undergoing a divorce or separation, regardless of their prior knowledge or experience with co-parenting courses. The content is accessible and beneficial for all parents in this situation.
