Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast

Whether you've decided to divorce and haven't told your spouse yet, or the decision has been made for you, the first weeks can bring a wave of fear, guilt, overwhelm and uncertainty. In this solo episode, Karen McMahon, high-conflict divorce coach and founder of Journey Beyond Divorce, explains how to prepare for divorce in a way that protects your emotional health, your finances and your children. After 16 years of coaching, Karen has seen that how you handle the emotional side of divorce shapes how well you handle the legal, financial and co-parenting decisions that follow. She explains why staying...

To celebrate a decade of Journey Beyond Divorce, we're sharing a special collection of episodes featuring Karen McMahon as a guest on some of her favorite podcasts. Over the years, Karen has joined incredible hosts across the divorce, coaching, and personal growth space to share her story and her expertise. This collection brings those conversations together in one place, offering a look at Karen's voice and message from a different angle, through the eyes of the hosts who welcomed her. Thank you for being part of this journey, and for helping Journey Beyond Divorce grow into what it is...

Changing the locks is no longer the same thing as changing the access.

In this episode, Karen McMahon sits down with Jonathan Steele, a Chicago based family law attorney and certified cybersecurity professional, for a conversation Journey Beyond Divorce has never had in over 425 episodes. Jonathan has spent more than a decade litigating high conflict, high net worth cases, and he brings a layer of technical expertise that most family lawyers simply do not have.

Karen opens with the uncomfortable truth that almost nobody going through divorce thinks of themselves as a cybersecurity target. Jonathan...

If you've ever felt like you can't think straight, can't stop second-guessing yourself, or can't figure out why you keep making decisions you regret, this episode is for you.

One of the most damaging and least talked about effects of divorce is what anxiety does to your decision making. Fear takes over, your nervous system goes into overdrive, and suddenly you're not making choices from a clear, grounded place, you're reacting. Most people don't even realize it's happening until the damage is done, and for many, anxiety and alcohol end up feeding each other during this exact...

To celebrate a decade of Journey Beyond Divorce, we're sharing a special collection of episodes featuring Karen McMahon as a guest on some of her favorite podcasts. Over the years, Karen has joined incredible hosts across the divorce, coaching, and personal growth space to share her story and her expertise. This collection brings those conversations together in one place, offering a look at Karen's voice and message from a different angle, through the eyes of the hosts who welcomed her. Thank you for being part of this journey, and for helping Journey Beyond Divorce grow into what it is...

What if divorce wasn't really about her?

That's the question Karen McMahon poses to open this episode of Journey Beyond Divorce, and the question at the center of her conversation with Geoff Laughton, a Relationship and Men's Work Coach with 33 years of experience, 300+ workshops, and thousands of clients. Geoff calls the pattern the "Masculine Dilemma," a set of unconscious traps that quietly erode men's marriages long before divorce ever becomes a possibility. He's also 44 years into his own marriage, so he's not just teaching this work, he's living it.

Karen and Geoff dig into what...

High-conflict divorce doesn't end when the papers are signed. It lives on in the next generation, and often in the very patterns adults bring into their own marriages. In this episode, Karen McMahon sits down with Dr. Sharon Martin to unpack how growing up in a dysfunctional or high-conflict home quietly shapes the adults those children become, showing up years later as codependency, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and conflict avoidance.

Karen and Dr. Martin trace how a child's instinct to stay safe around unpredictable or explosive parents can calcify into lifelong habits of self-abandonment, and why so many adults...

You've made the decision, or maybe it's been made for you. Either way, most people do what feels urgent: call a lawyer in a panic, tell their spouse too soon, move out of the house without thinking it through. Those early moves can follow you through the whole process. In this episode, Karen McMahon shares the five essentials to get right before you file, so you move forward with clarity and a plan instead of fear.

First, investigate your legal rights, talk to a matrimonial attorney in your jurisdiction before you do anything else, so you understand...

Divorce after 50 looks nothing like divorce in your 30s or 40s. Custody battles and parenting plans give way to a different kind of high-stakes negotiation, one centered almost entirely on money: retirement accounts, pensions, Social Security, and spousal support. And with gray divorce rates doubling since 1990 for people over 50, and tripling for those over 65, Karen McMahon believes this is a conversation more couples urgently need.

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, Karen sits down with Andrew Hatherly, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA), trained mediator, and founder of Transcend Retirement and Wiser Divorce Solutions...

Most people assume divorce means courtrooms, legal battles, and losing control of the outcome, but Karen McMahon knows that's not always true. In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, Karen sits down with Cary Jacobson, a collaborative divorce attorney, mediator, and child advocate, to break down every path to divorce outside of litigation and help listeners understand which one actually fits their situation.

Karen and Cary walk through the full spectrum of options, from do-it-yourself kitchen table agreements and settlement negotiation between attorneys, to mediation, to the collaborative divorce process, where both spouses commit to...

Parenting a neurodivergent or special needs child already takes constant coordination and advocacy. When divorce enters the picture, Karen McMahon believes those needs don't get simpler, they become the center of every decision.

In this episode, Karen sits down with Mary Ann Hughes, founder of Special Family Transitions and a certified special needs divorce coach, mediator, and co-parenting specialist. As the mother of sons on the autism spectrum, Mary Ann brings both lived experience and deep expertise to a conversation most divorce professionals aren't equipped to have.

Together they cover five critical considerations for parents...

Karen McMahon sits down with Brent Perkins, founder of 3x Bold and director of leadership at Front Row Dads, to unpack a pattern she sees constantly in her work with high-achieving men going through divorce: they know how to control themselves, but they were never taught capacity, the ability to stay present in emotional, messy, or uncertain moments without fixing or shutting down.

Brent built seven and eight-figure companies, led global teams, and did everything right on paper, until his marriage ended and forced him to confront the patterns his success had never solved. In this conversation...

Co-parenting is often held up as the gold standard after divorce. But that advice assumes two emotionally healthy, cooperative parents. In high-conflict divorce, and especially in situations involving coercive control, manipulation, or post-separation abuse, that assumption can do more harm than good.

In this episode, Karen McMahon is joined by AJ Gajjar, Parenting & Trauma Consultant, child development specialist, and creator of Trauma Healing Parenting, for an important conversation about what children truly need when co-parenting isn't possible.

Together, they explore why many parents feel pressured to make co-parenting work, even when ongoing conflict continues to...

If your mind won't stop spinning during your divorce, replaying the same conversation, jumping from one fear to the next, waking up at 3am convinced something urgently needs to be handled right now, you're not broken and you're not crazy. You're overwhelmed, and that overwhelm can spiral into decisions you'll regret. Karen from Journey Beyond Divorce breaks down what's actually happening in your nervous system when the spiral takes over, why you can't think your way out of it, and the one simple, science-backed shift that can steady you in real time before you send the email, make the...

You've been the good guy. The reasonable husband. The dad who kept the peace. And somewhere along the way... you lost yourself.

If that sentence just hit you somewhere quiet, this episode is for you.

Karen McMahon sits down with Ralph Brewer, founder of Help For Men and creator of Dad Starting Over, for one of the most honest conversations about men, marriage, and divorce that you will ever hear. Ralph has worked with thousands of men navigating struggling marriages, dead bedrooms, and the identity crisis that comes with divorce, and he is bringing all...

When a marriage ends, most people think the hard part is letting go of the other person. But for so many, the real work is learning how to let go of who they became inside that relationship.

In this powerful episode, Karen McMahon sits down with Dr. Kristin Davin, licensed psychologist and founder of Reflections From Across the Couch, for one of the most honest and illuminating conversations the Journey Beyond Divorce podcast has ever had about codependency. Not as a label, but as a survival strategy that once kept you safe and is now quietly keeping...

Most men enter divorce feeling like a bad person. Shamed. Labeled. Often called a narcissist.

This episode is for that man.

Because the truth is, you are not broken. You are under-resourced. And there is a profound difference.

In this solo episode, Karen McMahon speaks directly to the divorcing dad who is white-knuckling it through one of the hardest seasons of his life, carrying shame he didn't earn, fighting for children he loves deeply, and quietly wondering if he's going to make it through this.

The answer is yes. And this...

High-conflict relationships don't just end when the marriage ends. They live on in the body, the nervous system, and the way we attach, parent, and love.

In today's Voices of Celebration episode, Karen McMahon sits down with a father who made a profound shift, from living in constant relational tension to building a calm, healthy partnership and a more grounded relationship with his children.

This isn't a story about blame or breakthroughs overnight. It's about what happens when a man stops over-functioning, learns to regulate himself, and slowly moves from anxious attachment into secure connection.<...

Are you constantly putting other people's needs before your own? Struggling with people-pleasing, weak boundaries, guilt, or losing yourself in relationships?

In this powerful solo episode, Karen McMahon explores the hidden roots of codependency and how self-abandonment quietly shapes your relationships, decisions, and sense of self.

Drawing from her expertise in relationship coaching, divorce recovery, emotional healing, and personal growth, Karen unpacks why so many women become trapped in patterns of over-giving, approval-seeking, and fear-based caregiving. She explains how childhood survival strategies often follow us into adulthood — creating unhealthy relationship dynamics that leave us feeling ex...

Alimony and child support only work if the checks keep coming. And in high-conflict divorces, or honestly, in any divorce, that is a far more dangerous assumption than most people realize.

One accident. One illness. One unexpected death. And the financial foundation you spent months negotiating can disappear overnight.

Karen McMahon sits down with financial strategist and CDFA Jeff Landers to pull back the curtain on the one protection most divorce agreements quietly ignore, using life and disability insurance to secure your alimony and child support payments before the ink is even dry on your...

Every major life transition comes with a roadmap. Parenting. Career changes. Retirement. But when divorce begins, most people are suddenly making complex financial decisions alone — without a coordinated team, without a clear plan, and without any idea how those decisions will quietly shape their lives for decades to come.

That ends today.

Karen McMahon sits down with Karen Chellew and Catherine Shanahan, co-founders of My Divorce Solution, to walk you through what they call the Divorce Financial Playbook — and it is exactly what most people wish they'd had from day one. As divorced parents themselves, they...

Divorce can rattle everything you believe in. Your sense of family, your identity, and even your understanding of God's plan for your life... And for many Christians, the place that should offer the most comfort, the church, can sometimes feel like the last place they're able to be honest about what they're going through.

In this episode, Karen sits down with Bree Sullivan-Howell, divorce attorney, passionate children's advocate, and award-winning Christian author of Crush Your Divorce & Keep Your Faith and Crush Your Comeback, for a conversation that brings together sharp legal wisdom and deep spiritual grounding in...

Most men are never taught how to fall apart. They're taught how to push through, provide, and stay in control, but not how to process loss, ask for help, or stay emotionally present when their world is coming undone.

When a marriage ends, those unspoken rules about what it means to be a man don't disappear, they just get louder. And for so many men navigating divorce, the result is isolation, overwhelm, and a kind of silent struggling that nobody talks about and nobody sees.

In this episode, Karen McMahon sits down with Todd Adams...

In this episode, Karen explores a powerful and often misunderstood emotion: anger—and how to navigate it during divorce without shutting down or exploding.

Anger is a natural and expected part of divorce, yet many people were never taught how to work with it in a healthy way. Instead, they may react impulsively, suppress their feelings to avoid conflict, or carry lingering resentment long after the divorce is final.

Karen is joined by Michelle Farris, a psychotherapist, codependency expert, and anger management specialist, for a grounded and insightful conversation about the role anger plays during di...

If your mind won't stop spinning during divorce... replaying conversations, jumping from fear to fear, or waking up at 3AM with urgency... you're not alone.

And more importantly… you're not thinking clearly.

In this episode, Karen McMahon breaks down what's really happening when you spiral during divorce, and why it can lead to the very decisions you'll later regret. When your nervous system is overwhelmed, your brain shifts into survival mode, making it nearly impossible to respond calmly, communicate effectively, or make grounded choices.

You'll learn how to interrupt the spiral in real ti...

If you've been going back and forth on the "should I stay or should I go" question, you already know how exhausting it is. You try to think your way to an answer. You second-guess yourself. And still — you feel stuck.

In this episode, Karen McMahon is going to help you begin to find real clarity — not just talk you through the feelings, but give you a different way of looking at what's actually happening in your marriage and inside yourself. Because spinning in your head isn't working. And you're tired.

After years of guiding men...

In this episode of Journey Beyond Divorce, Karen McMahon sits down with Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA®, CES™, President and CEO of Francis Financial, to unpack one of the most complex and often overlooked aspects of divorce: executive compensation. When income extends beyond a traditional paycheck to include RSUs, stock options, deferred bonuses, and long-term incentive plans, the financial landscape of divorce becomes significantly more complicated—and the stakes much higher.

Together, Karen and Stacy explore how these "golden handcuffs" function and why they are so frequently misunderstood, undervalued, or even missed entirely during divorce proceedings. They dive into h...

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, I'm joined by Wendy Valentine for a really honest and uplifting conversation about something I see so often: how easy it is to get stuck after divorce and begin living smaller than you're meant to.

Wendy shares what it looked like when her life unraveled all at once. At 45, she was navigating divorce, unemployment, $150,000 in debt, chronic illness, menopause, and multiple losses. It was one of those moments where nothing looks the way you thought it would… and you're left wondering what now?

But what's so po...

n this Voices of Celebration episode, I'm sitting down with Lauren, a woman who, for years, lived in that in-between space so many of you know all too well… where nothing is fully resolved, yet everything feels like it's on the line.

From the outside, her life looked successful. She was a business owner, had two homes, and was raising three children. But behind closed doors, she was carrying overwhelming debt, navigating constant uncertainty, and lying awake at night asking the same painful questions: What if I lose everything? What if my kids blame me? What if I...

Divorce isn't just something you go through—it's something you grow through. It's an emotional reorganization of your family, and how you navigate that transition matters more than most people realize.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Sarah Bren, clinical psychologist and attachment expert, for a powerful conversation about what our kids really need from us during divorce—and how we can show up in a way that helps them feel safe, secure, and deeply supported.

Because here's the truth: when a marriage ends, the emotional bonds in a family can feel shaken… but they d...

Money has a way of stirring up a lot during divorce—fear, anger, uncertainty, and sometimes a deep sense of injustice. And when it comes to spousal support, those emotions can run even higher. Questions like Who pays? For how long? And what's actually fair? can quickly turn into battlegrounds if you don't understand how the process really works.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Anthony Diaz, also known as The Peacemaker—a family law attorney, mediator, and conflict resolution expert who has spent decades helping couples navigate divorce with greater clarity and far less conflict. Together, we u...

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, Karen McMahon sits down with relationship expert Alison Armstrong to explore how fundamental differences between men and women often fuel misunderstanding, conflict, and disconnection—both in marriage and during divorce.

Alison shares powerful insights into how men and women process the world differently, including the concept of single-focus versus diffuse awareness. She explains how testosterone supports a focused, task-oriented state of mind and why many men need transition time after work to shift from problem-solving mode into connection at home—a dynamic that is often misunderstood as distance or in...

In this powerful Voices of Celebration episode, Gail shares an honest and deeply personal journey from chronic self-doubt to grounded self-confidence.

For years, self-doubt shaped how she showed up in her marriage, her divorce, and her relationship with herself. Fear of conflict, second-guessing her decisions, and a lack of self-trust left her feeling small and uncertain about her future.

What makes Gail's story especially compelling is not just what she healed — but how she did it.

She speaks candidly about how coaching provided something she hadn't found elsewhere: practical strategies, real-time awareness, and to...

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, host Karen McMahon and guest Shana James explore the complex dynamics of masculine and feminine energies during the divorce process.

They discuss how imbalances in these energies can sabotage divorce decisions and offer frameworks to help listeners reclaim their power. Shana shares her expertise from 20 years of studying trust, connection, and emotional safety between men and women, diving deep into how these energies manifest in everyday situations.

This discussion offers insightful guidance on how to identify and balance these energies to improve confidence, boundaries, parenting, and...

When you're in a high-conflict divorce, the behaviors often feel indistinguishable. Gaslighting. Manipulation. Control. Chaos. Emotional whiplash. It's why so many people fixate on one question: Is my spouse a narcissist?

In this episode, I'm joined by licensed psychotherapist and narcissistic abuse expert Chelsey Brooke Cole to explore a deeper truth—when the impact on you feels the same, does the label actually matter?

We unpack what narcissistic abuse truly is, how it overlaps with other forms of emotional and psychological abuse, and why abusers and narcissists often behave in nearly identical ways during divorce. Es...

What is it truly like for children growing up in divorced families? In this episode, I sit down with Bella Duncan, creator of A Kid With Two Homes, who gives us a rare and honest perspective on divorce from the child's point of view. Now an adult, Bella reflects on her own experiences and sheds light on the challenges kids often navigate silently when moving between two households.

We dive into the real, everyday experiences children face, including why birthdays and holidays can feel complicated, the pressure of loyalty conflicts, adjusting to different rules and routines, and...

As we close the chapter on 2025, I want to offer you something different than the usual New Year's resolutions. Not another list you'll abandon by February, but a blueprint. One that gently, intentionally reshapes who you're becoming.

This year changed me. I was deeply impacted by Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning, Mike Drinkhahn's unwavering optimism, Gay Hendricks' transformational work in The Big Leap, and Ryan Holiday's timeless reminder that obstacles aren't detours. They're the way forward. Together, these ideas helped me make simple shifts that led to my most aligned year yet.

In this short episode...

🔥 Our Most-Viewed Episode of the Year! Lundy Bancroft Exposes Abuse in Family Court ⚖️🧨

As we close out this year, we're bringing back the conversation that struck the deepest chord with our audience — the episode that sparked hundreds of messages from listeners who finally felt seen.

In this powerful, eye-opening discussion, Lundy Bancroft — internationally recognized authority on narcissism, coercive control, and the family court system — reveals how abusive partners continue their dominance long after the relationship ends. With three decades of working directly with abusers and training legal/mental health professionals, Lundy breaks down the subtle psychological ta...

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, Karen McMahon sits down with divorce attorney Andrea Vacca, Esq. to explore the unique pressures of the holiday season when you're considering divorce. This is the stage where uncertainty weighs heavily, information is still being gathered, and you may not be ready—or safe—to share your plans with anyone. Family gatherings, traditions, and expectations continue around you, even as you quietly wonder what the new year will bring.

Karen and Andrea bring compassionate clarity to this "secret season," discussing how to stay grounded, make strategic decisions, and appr...

In this episode of the Journey Beyond Divorce Podcast, I'm speaking directly to the men who are walking through the intensity of high conflict divorce — the pressure, the triggers, the confusion, and the deep internal unraveling that often comes with it. Men in high conflict divorce are asked to hold an extraordinary amount: to respond instead of react, to stay grounded when provoked, and to lead even when everything around them feels uncertain. And while I coach men through these challenges every single day, I also know that some truths land more powerfully when they come from another man wh...