Episode 44: Journey Beyond Divorce with Karen McMahon

Divorce coach Karen McMahon joins me on the show this week. In 2010, after discovering that the pain of dissolving her marriage had been the very stimulus for her personal transformation, she started Journey Beyond Divorce. Her practice allows her to help men and women navigate the emotional difficulties of relationships, breakups, and divorce. You must know, I am down with that story. In fact, our coaching styles, beliefs, and teachings are very much aligned, as you’ll hear in this episode.  When you’re going through a divorce there isn’t much that you can control. You can’t control the attorneys, you can’t control the court proceedings, and you certainly can’t control your ex. The one thing you do have control over is you. You can control the decisions you make, the actions you take, how you change your thought patterns, and how you change your behaviors. If you can take that kind of control over your life and your journey, holy shit, that’s powerful. That’s the kind of transformation we are talking about today on the podcast. Life-altering, life-affirming, and deeply transformational changes to help you move beyond divorce with compassion. Afterall, the only way over is through — and it starts with you.   Show Highlights Leaning into the feminine and intuitive guides (6:36) As painful as the divorce journey is, it’s more about us getting to a new place than just getting to the end of divorce (8:15) Turning “Why does this keep happening to me?” into “What is it that I continue to do to create and draw this relationship type to me?” (aka falling for the same type of man or woman you just divorced) (9:35) Looking at your part in where you are and where you want to go; it’s not about fault or blame, it’s about personal responsibility (10:11) Karen’s 12-step divorce recovery program to help men and women keep focus on themselves during divorce (12:00) Understanding resistance and suffering during divorce and how to shift away from it (12:13) The many faces of conflict and how to learn to curb the conflict (16:19) What it means to slow a reaction or put space between you and a problem (18:08) Finding the opportunity in the trigger and how to let go of what is not serving you (23:30) The importance of sitting with all the feelings, processing them and releasing them, realizing that grief is not linear and movement through denial (25:42) Success after divorce doesn’t always mean meeting someone new and getting married; instead what if your happiness was not attached to another person? (37:30) Learn More About Karen: Karen’s passion is to help men and women navigate the emotional difficulties of relationships, breakups and divorce. Your work together will open up the possibility that your current relationship challenges can lead to a rewarding voyage of self-discovery and an immensely more pleasing life experience.  Karen founded Journey Beyond Divorce in 2010, after discovering that the pain of dissolving her marriage had been the very stimulus for her personal transformation.  Karen is the mother of two emerging adults, a graduate of the world’s leading coaching institute, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) and a Certified Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).  Karen’s other accomplishments include work as a NYS Lobbyist, Health Advocate, Community Organizer, and Chairperson of a NYS non-profit organization, Director of Sales and Marketing, and successful small business owner.  Links:Karen’s websiteKaren on Facebook Karen on TwitterKaren on LinkedInKaren on Instagram Rapid Relief Call - FREE 1 hour call with one of the coaches on Karen’s team Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast Resources:NEW! The Ultimate Divorce Survival GuideShould I Stay or Should I Go Facebook Group