Meet
Dr. Lauren
Founder of Parenting Marriage
Hello,
I’m Dr. Lauren
I’m Dr Lauren, a clinical psychologist with qualifications in behavioural science, sport and exercise psychology, and clinical psychology, with a PhD in the trauma space. As well as running a well-established private practice working with adults who present for a variety of reasons, I also love training and supervising graduating psychologists, and I’m a multi-published author in my field.
All of that is a fancy way of saying I really love what I do … helping people. Oh, and yes, I have been divorced. I’ve walked in your shoes. I get it.
Personally, I am a single mum with the most perfect daughter and two fur babies. I love sharing a wine on my back deck with girlfriends, chatting about life and supporting each other. That’s where the idea of www.parentingmarriage.com.au came from.
I was inspired to create this space to help couples navigate the transition from their love/romance-based marriage to one focused on happy and healthy co-parenting from the stories of my friends, my own experiences, and my professional work.
The narrative was consistent … there has to be a better way than this. And I believe there is. So, I did some research, chatted to friends, family and patients, and saw an opportunity to help Australian couples to navigate this relatively unknown world.
For some time, society has considered marriage a ‘success’ based on length of time … the classic line of “till death do us part” comes to mind. Reflecting across our life, how many marriages have we seen that lasted until death that were knowingly miserable – why is that deemed successful?
The irony is that as a society we seem to be more comfortable with expecting couples to fake happiness rather than trying new approaches – and being more authentic within a parenting marriage. This concept goes against what some parts of our culture suggests is ‘acceptable’, but if two people can be respectful, get along and provide a safe space for themselves and their children, why can’t we celebrate them staying together in this way?
www.parentingmarriage.com.au was created to help couples who previously may have felt hopeless and like they would never find a sense of peace or fulfilment until their kids had ‘left home’ explore a sense of individual freedom and enrichment, while also avoiding some of the social, financial and familial stress that can be associated with more ‘traditional’ separations.