My pal and super real estate broker, Harlene Cohen Bernstein, has written an article about her adventures with avaricious divorce attorneys and what she did about it.

The article is called “Up Against the Wall” and it’s posted on a new website, Exon/Exoff.

The site is for and about “ex’s”.  It says if you have an ex, then you are an ex.  There are other articles, a forum for discussion, and resources for health, counseling, real estate, financial and legal services.  Check it out.

WUSA TV News Anchor, Andrea Roane, interviewed TGC Attorney, Jill Breslau, today about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s marital difficulties.

“Right now it appears that Governor Sanford is more intent upon self-justification than he is on changing himself,” said Breslau.   ”His behaviors have been completely inconsistent with the values he says he holds, and he is glamorizing his relationship, and characterizing himself as a tragic hero, because he has risked everything for it—his marriage, his family, his political life, his reputation.  Only if he inflates the meaning of his affair is it worth all those potential losses.”

Regarding putting his marriage back together, Breslau, who is also a trained psychotherapist, said, “As much as the public finds it irresistible to be judgmental about Sanford’s behavior, a primary purpose of counseling is to have a private, confidential setting where the therapist is nonjudgmental.”

January is usually the month when the most divorces are filed during the year.

“It may be because the holidays are over or that people want a fresh start at the New Year,” says Dr. Barton Goldsmith, a family therapist in California.

Some people want to get through the holidays with a minimum of disruption to the families. Others are hoping their partner will change.  When nothing happens at the end of the old year or start of the new year, they view divorce as the solution.

Dr. Goldsmith has good advice on breaking the news to the children, gently and slowly.  He also tells you not to beat yourself up too much with would-a, could-a and should-a during the difficult divorce process.

“There may not be a perfect moment,” he says.

If you have tried counseling, communicating, and compromising, divorce may be your next best option.