Doctors and divorce – let mediation be your medication

Working in the medical profession has its own challenges – long hours, high stress levels, and often a relatively high income compared to other jobs.

The last of those is a perk most of the time, but when going through a divorce it can increase the chance of arguments over who gets what, and how much of it they get.

Combined with the stress of the job itself, this can make acrimonious divorce proceedings especially hard for those working long hours in high-stakes and even life-saving roles.

Mediation can act as an analgesic to take the sting out of divorce for medical professionals, whether you and your partner are both in the healthcare sector, or only one of you.

Your mediator can help to find a mutually agreeable way to divide assets and finances – helping the higher earner to protect their income while ensuring the partner with the lower individual income does not face undue hardship.

With mediation, divorce proceedings overall typically take less time to complete, which again is ideal if your career requires you to work long hours.

And by maintaining a greater level of civility between the separating partners, mediation helps to make sure there is no unnecessary extra stress to add to the psychological burden of a high-pressure job.

This is especially important if you are both employed by the same NHS Trust or similar organisation, and are likely to encounter one another in a professional capacity in the months or years following your divorce.

Mediation cannot guarantee that you will agree on every issue – some couples divorce amicably, while others need a little more negotiation – but it can help to resolve problems as they occur.

As a result of this, issues can be handled one by one, rather than mounting up into a seemingly insurmountable pile of disputes.

This allows you to tackle the symptoms of your separation individually, just as different medications target different illnesses, while numbing the worst of the pain and emotional heartache you might otherwise face.

Mediators and doctors have plenty in common – both work in people-facing roles and there is a large dose of ‘bedside manner’ involved in both disciplines too.

If you were facing illness, you would go see a specialist for the best possible advice on how to come through it without permanent injury – so diagnose your divorce in the same way and engage the services of a mediator to cure the symptoms as quickly and amicably as possible.