Collaborative Divorce makes use of a team approach to help the couple make fully-informed, carefully considered, settlement decisions. When appropriate, the group brings in outside consultants to help resolve the conflict. Typically, this will include, a collaboratively-trained financial specialist. Financial specialists help by efficiently and thoroughly providing a financial analysis of assets, debts, and budgets for the couple, to allow the couple to do informed future planning. Some of the ways a financial expert helps are to model alternatives for dividing the assets or retirement funds, flagging possible tax implications, and help explore possibilities to ensure financial security for the parties. A financial specialist may also help educate a party who needs more education on finances, and who may need extra support to learn the necessary information in order to make decisions that meet that person's needs. Other financial experts may be hired, for example to value a couple's business.
Where the couple has minor children, a mental health professional (generally a child or family therapist ) may be brought in as "child specialist" to educate the parents as to the developmental needs of children, and to explore ideas for parenting plans/schedules. A divorce coach (typically also a mental health professional) can also be important in a case without children. Divorce is an emotional process and having a coach can help clients more efficiently reach resolutions, and can help attorneys better facilitate. Attorneys are trained to deal with legal issues, but they may not be trained to deal with the emotional aspects of divorce.
In Collaborative Divorce, the services of divorce coaches or communications coaches are sometimes used in to help the participants clarify their needs, listen to the other's needs, and stay focused throughout the negotiations, all of which substantially reduce the normal anxiety often experienced in the divorce process and helps allow the co-creation of a resolution. Depending on local protocols, there may be one or two coaches used in cases in any locality. The coaches focus on supporting the needs of one or both clients; the child specialist and financial specialist are neutral, which saves each party hiring his or her own .