Co-Parenting and Divorce | Couples Therapy | Regina Abayev, JD, LMFT
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Co-Parenting and Divorce

Putting your children
first

Ending a romantic relationship does not end a parenting one. For parents who are willing to prioritize their children's wellbeing, co-parenting counseling builds the structure to make that possible.

Let's Work Together
Co-parenting counseling Hermosa Beach
Who This Is For

Parents who choose
to show up

Co-parenting counseling is for parents who want to prioritize their children's wellbeing regardless of how they feel about each other. The relationship between the adults is not the focus. How they function as parents is.

Sessions combine individual time with each parent and joint meetings. I work with each person on their own communication, triggers, and parenting approach, then bring both people together to build agreements that can actually hold.

Children do not need their parents to love each other. They need their parents to function together.

What Brings Parents Here

"We cannot be in the same room without it turning into a conflict, and our children are watching."

"We are using the children to communicate with each other and we know it has to stop."

"We need consistent rules and expectations across two households and we cannot agree on anything."

"We just separated and want to get ahead of the damage before it affects the kids."

"I need help talking to my co-parent about something difficult without it becoming a fight."

What We Address

Building a parenting
partnership

Co-parenting counseling is practical and structured. Each area below is worked through directly, with both individual and joint sessions depending on where each parent is and what the situation requires.

Communication between parents
How parents communicate with each other directly shapes what children experience. We develop a communication framework that reduces conflict, limits unnecessary contact in charged moments, and creates clear channels for the decisions that have to be made together.
Consistency across two households
Children do best when the rules, expectations, and routines in their two homes are as consistent as possible. Significant divergence creates confusion and is frequently used as a point of conflict between parents. We work toward a shared framework that both parents can sustain.
Keeping children out of the middle
Using children as messengers, making negative comments about the other parent, or drawing children into adult conflict causes real and lasting damage. We address this directly and develop clear agreements about what children are and are not exposed to.
Navigating major decisions together
School, healthcare, extracurricular activities, travel. Parents who are in conflict find every shared decision becomes a battleground. We build a structure for making those decisions that reduces the need for direct negotiation in charged moments.
Managing transitions
Pickups and drop-offs are among the highest-conflict moments in co-parenting. They are also the moments children observe most closely. We work on making transitions as clean and low-conflict as possible for the children's sake.
Responding to children's needs
Children going through a family separation have their own emotional needs that require both parents to be present and attuned. We address how each parent can support their children through this period, individually and together.
What Children Need

Children absorb
what parents carry

Children do not need to be told there is conflict between their parents to feel it. They read tone, body language, and the atmosphere in a room. When adult conflict is chronic and unmanaged, children carry the weight of it in ways that show up in their behavior, their relationships, and their sense of security.

Parents who are willing to do this work give their children something significant: two parents who can be in the same space without it becoming a crisis, and a childhood that is not organized around adult conflict.

Stability and predictability
Children need to know what to expect. Consistent routines, clear rules, and reliable transitions across both households give children the stability to function. Instability between parents translates directly into instability for children.
Permission to love both parents
Children should never feel that loving one parent is a betrayal of the other. When parents speak negatively about each other, or use children to carry messages or emotional weight, children internalize that conflict as their own. They need explicit permission to love both parents freely.
Parents who are present
Children need parents who are emotionally available to them, not consumed by the conflict with the other parent. Each parent's ability to regulate their own experience during this period directly affects how present and attuned they can be for their children.
Age-appropriate honesty
Children need honest, age-appropriate communication about what is happening in their family. Not more than they can hold, and not less than they need to make sense of their experience. We work on how to talk to children about the separation in ways that are truthful without being damaging.
Experience That Matters Here

Experience that spans
more than one room

Years practicing as a lawyer and trained mediator shaped how I approach co-parenting work. I understand the legal and financial complexity that often runs alongside separation: custody arrangements, asset division, the practical logistics of building two separate households. I am not a divorce attorney and do not give legal advice, but I bring a level of fluency with that landscape that helps parents navigate the full picture of what they are managing.

In sessions, that background means I can hold both the emotional and the practical dimensions of what parents are working through. The goal is a co-parenting structure that works in the real world, not just in the therapy room.

Two parents who can function together is one of the most important things a child can have.

Begin the Work

Your children
come first

This practice serves co-parents in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, the South Bay, and across California via telehealth.

Let's Work Together

Other areas of couples work

Communication and Conflict Lack of Intimacy Betrayal and Infidelity Discernment Counseling Pre-Marital Counseling High-Conflict Couples Substance Use Separation