Online Divorce and Separation Counseling in Raleigh, North Carolina
Online therapy for Raleigh women & Moms who are separated, going through the legal divorce process, or adjusting to life post-divorce
Photo Credits: Valeris Nikitina; Unsplash
Online individual therapy for separation and divorce
You’ve got the parenting-plan draft open beside your work laptop. You’re supposed to be finishing a presentation, answering emails, or joining a meeting in ten minutes. Instead, you’re reading the same paragraph again.
Your ex wants to switch weekends. The change doesn’t work well for you, but before you’ve asked yourself what you want to do, you’re already calculating how to make it happen. You’re thinking about your child’s schedule, your work calendar, whether your ex will be angry if you say no, what your mother would say, and how the change might look if it ever ended up in front of an attorney.
You rewrite the response three times. You close the document without sending anything. Then you open it again after your children are asleep.
You’re used to making difficult decisions. You’ve built a career, managed a household, figured out school schedules, insurance, appointments, money, and the hundred small things that keep family life moving. You can gather information, compare options, and make a plan.
But separation and divorce have made every choice feel loaded.
You’re trying to find an answer that protects your children, prevents conflict with your ex, makes financial sense, works with your job, reassures your family, and doesn’t leave anyone disappointed. When no choice can do all of that, you start to wonder if you’re the problem.
I’m Dr. Emily Fornwalt and I provide online individual divorce and separation counseling for professional women and mothers in Raleigh. I work with women who are considering separation, moving through divorce, or adjusting to life after divorce and want to make decisions without carrying responsibility for everyone else’s reaction.
→ Read more about my approach to working with separated and divorcing women here.
How I help my Clients during separation and divorce
Divorce requires decisions you never expected to make alone, from the immediate questions about schedules and appointments to the larger choices about housing, work, money, and your children’s future.
You’re deciding where your children will be on holidays, who’ll take them to the dentist, whether you can afford to stay in the house, how to respond when your ex asks to switch weekends, what to tell your child’s teacher, and whether the job opportunity that requires more travel is worth taking.
Even after you’ve made a decision, it can remain open in your mind for days or weeks.
You might sit in the car after a custody handoff and wonder whether your child’s sad face means you chose the wrong schedule. You might agree to a change that doesn’t work for you because you don’t want another argument, then feel resentful when you’re rearranging your workday to make it happen. You might make a choice about housing, school, or money and spend the next several nights looking for evidence that you made a mistake.
Your ex may be frustrated by a choice you make, while your child’s disappointed by the same choice and your parents have their own opinions about what you should do. A friend’s well-meaning question can leave you feeling as though you need to explain the whole history before you’re allowed to stand by a decision.
So you build a case for every choice. You collect information, explain more than the situation requires, and keep searching for the answer that’ll feel fair to everyone involved. The conversation follows you while you’re brushing your teeth, driving to work, or lying in bed with your phone facedown beside you.
While you’re trying to make a decision that protects your children, works financially, fits your work life, and doesn’t create more conflict, you’re also trying to prevent everyone else from feeling disappointed, angry, or inconvenienced, and no decision can reliably do that.
What We’ll Work On in Counseling
Intellectually, you understand that you can’t control how your ex responds, that your child is allowed to have feelings about the divorce, and that you’re allowed to have needs and limits of your own. That understanding can disappear quickly when the text arrives, your child’s crying, or someone questions a choice you’ve made.
Your ex sends a text asking to switch a weekend, and your stomach tightens before you’ve finished reading it. When your kid says, “I don’t want to go,” heat rises in your face as you search for an answer that’s honest, reassuring, and age-appropriate. A family member asks why you made a particular choice, and you find yourself explaining every detail before you’ve even decided whether an explanation is owed.
In counseling, we’ll take a closer look at the sequence that unfolds in those moments. We’ll notice the physical pressure that shows up first, the fear or guilt underneath it, and the story you begin telling yourself about what you have to do next.
From there, we can understand why you move toward the responses that’ve become familiar: explaining at length, apologizing, researching until you’re exhausted, accommodating a request that doesn’t work for you, or trying to make another adult’s disappointment go away.
During the marriage, managing other people’s emotions may have felt necessary. You may have learned to anticipate tension, make yourself easier to deal with, and adjust your plans before anyone could object. Those habits don’t disappear simply because the marriage ended.
They often continue through co-parenting, family relationships, work decisions, finances, and the choices you’re trying to make about your future.
Counseling gives you room to separate caring about another person from taking responsibility for how they feel. You can take your child’s needs seriously without reading every hard feeling as proof that you failed. You can communicate clearly with your ex without spending the entire day trying to make sure your message can’t be misunderstood. You can make a decision that someone else dislikes without assuming you’ve done something wrong.
About dr. emily fornwalt
Therapist for women in Raleigh, nC
I'm a therapist licensed in North Carolina (LCMHC-S; #S6459), and I have a PhD in counseling from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
I work primarily with professional mothers who are managing work, parenting, co-parenting, and the practical decisions that come with a changing family life. They’re used to being capable, responsible, and prepared. They don’t need another checklist or someone to tell them to work harder at managing a situation that already asks too much of them.
My work is emotionally focused and direct. I help clients understand what happens when pressure, conflict, guilt, or another person’s disappointment starts to override their own judgment. We’ll look at the habits of explaining, accommodating, overthinking, taking on more, or trying to prevent someone else from being upset, then create more room for decisions that reflect what you think, need, and value.
If you’d like to learn more about me than can fit in a short blurb, please click the link below.
How to Get Started in Counseling
I provide online individual counseling for adult women during separation and divorce in Raleigh and all of North Carolina.
All sessions take place by secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth. You’ll need a private place where you can speak freely and a reliable internet connection.
Your first session is a 90-minute paid intake appointment and it costs $450. A paid 90-minute appointment gives us both enough time and information to know if working together will be the right fit long-term.
Ongoing sessions are 45 minutes weekly, and cost $225 per session.
Please note, I don’t bill insurance or provide Superbills.
Choose a day and time for your first 90-minute online session on my secure calendar by clicking the button below. Once you choose your date and time, I will approve your request and email you the new client forms within 1 business day. You’ll review and digitally sign the forms, and then we’ll meet for your scheduled intake session.
FAQs About Counseling During Separation & Divorce
Questions About Online Divorce Counseling in Raleigh
f you are separated, considering divorce, going through the divorce process, or adjusting to life after divorce, you may have practical questions about working together.
Don’t see your question listed? Please see my full page on working with women during separation and divorce here.
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No, I do not provide discernment counseling or couples counseling.
I provide individual counseling for women. You may be considering separation, in the middle of divorce, or adjusting to life after divorce. Our work focuses on your experience: the decisions in front of you, the emotions and reactions that arise, your parenting and co-parenting concerns, and the life you are building now.
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No. I provide individual counseling by secure video only to women in Raleigh and throughout North Carolina. You can meet from a private place that works for your schedule without driving across town, sitting in a waiting room, or adding another office visit to your week.
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No. I provide individual online counseling to clients located anywhere in North Carolina. You don’t need to live in Raleigh or travel to an office to work with me.
You do need to be physically located in North Carolina at the time of your appointment. If you travel or move, let me know before we meet so we can determine whether we can continue working together.
Have a practical question before scheduling?
If you have a brief question about scheduling, online sessions, or whether I’m licensed to see you where you live, use the form below or email me at: emily@alignedcounseling.com
Online Counseling Throughout Raleigh
I provide individual online counseling for women throughout Raleigh and the surrounding area. You don’t need to travel to an office, but you do need to be physically located in North Carolina when we meet.
I work with women in Downtown Raleigh, North Hills and Midtown, Five Points, the Village District, Cameron Park, Mordecai, Hayes Barton, Oakwood, Boylan Heights, Brier Creek, North Raleigh, West Raleigh, East Raleigh, and South Raleigh.
I also work with women throughout the Triangle, including Cary, Apex, Chapel Hill, Durham, Morrisville, Garner, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Knightdale, and Rolesville.
Sessions take place by secure video, so you can meet from a private place at home, work, or another location where you can speak freely.
→ Read more about online divorce and separation counseling throughout North Carolina.