Divorce Happens

Fresh Starts
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Welcome to Divorce Happens, the podcast where we inspire, educate, and support you through divorce and beyond so that you can start fresh on the next phase of your journey. Produced by Fresh Starts Registry, the only divorce registry platform for everything you need to begin again, including home items, hype team, and everything in between. Remember, divorce happens...and then, we start fresh. We're here to support you before, during, and after divorce. Hosted by Olivia Dreizen Howell, the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Starts Registry.

  1. 29 APR

    You Are Not Failing at Spring: A Real Check-In for Anyone Going Through Divorce Right Now with Olivia Howell

    Spring has a way of being quietly cruel when you're in the middle of a divorce. The world turns bright and blooming and annoyingly beautiful, and you're still just trying to get through the week — maybe the day, maybe the hour. The flowers don't know your timeline. The Instagram farmers market hauls don't know you're rebuilding from the ground up. And somewhere in that gap between what the season looks like and what your life feels like, there's a pressure that settles in: the sense that you're supposed to feel renewed because the calendar says so, and if you don't, that's one more thing you're failing at. In this tender, honest solo episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell is here to say, loudly and clearly: you are not failing at spring. You are not failing at anything. Unlike the show's expert-driven episodes, this one is something different — a direct, from-the-heart check-in from Olivia herself, without a clinical framework or a listicle in sight. Just one woman who has been through it, speaking directly to another. Olivia opens with a truth that doesn't get said enough in the divorce recovery space: grief and transition don't bloom on schedule. The emotional weight of divorce — whether you're in it, coming out of it, or standing at the edge trying to decide — doesn't take a season off just because the days are longer now. And that moment of noticing the contrast between the world outside and how frozen you feel inside? Olivia reframes it entirely. That's not you being broken. That's you being honest. And honesty with yourself, she says, is the first thing that has to bloom before everything else can. It's a mindset shift that is simple, grounding, and quietly powerful for anyone in the thick of starting over after divorce. The episode closes with three gentle, specific encouragements that feel less like advice and more like a hand on the shoulder. First: you don't have to be further along than you are. There is no finish line you're behind on. Second: give yourself actual credit for what you're doing every single day — the getting up, the showing up, the holding it together on willpower and a good playlist. It counts. All of it counts. And third: spring really is for you. Not the Instagram version of new beginnings, but the real one — slow and muddy and mostly invisible until one day something quietly blooms and you realize it was happening all along. If you know someone navigating divorce this season, this episode is the thing to send them. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for each other is just say: I'm thinking about you. You're not alone. And you're going to be okay. 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    6 min
  2. How to Survive (and Reclaim) Mother's Day After Divorce with Dr. Elana Hoffman

    29 APR

    How to Survive (and Reclaim) Mother's Day After Divorce with Dr. Elana Hoffman

    Nobody warns you that your first Mother's Day after divorce might be the hardest Sunday of your year. You might have your kids — and still feel completely alone. You might be kid-free for the holiday and have absolutely no idea what to do with yourself. You might scroll through social media, watch the flower deliveries and the brunches and the gratitude posts, and feel something you can't quite name — something between grief and relief and guilt all braided together. In this warm, honest, and genuinely helpful episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell opens the conversation with a confession of her own: on her first Mother's Day as a newly divorced woman, her girlfriend sent her flowers. And it was sweet, and she was grateful — and it was also one of the most emotionally awkward days she'd ever had. If you've been there, or you're about to be there, this episode is your company for that day. To help make sense of it all, Olivia sits down with Dr. Elana Hoffman, a licensed clinical psychologist and divorce coach based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hoffman runs a fully telehealth practice, working with clients in PSYPACT states across the country, and specializes in the emotional and psychological dimensions of divorce — from contemplating the decision all the way through to rebuilding life on the other side. With the kind of clinical clarity and human warmth that makes hard conversations feel manageable, Dr. Hoffman walks through what makes Mother's Day so uniquely tender for divorced moms: the visibility of other people's families, the absence of a partner to plan the day, the strange loneliness of being the only witness to your own extraordinary effort. She validates that it can feel like grief and like freedom at the same time — and gently reminds listeners that you are allowed to feel exactly what you feel, without performing anything for anyone. Single parent mental health, she reminds us, starts with giving yourself permission. But this episode doesn't stop at validation — it offers a real mindset shift for divorce recovery and single mom life. Dr. Hoffman's most powerful message is both simple and quietly radical: you don't have to wait for someone else to celebrate you. You can ask your kids what they're grateful for. You can decide the day is just another Sunday — and that's fine. You can build community with friends and family who show up for you, and you can let them. And if this is your first Mother's Day after divorce and it feels impossibly heavy, Dr. Hoffman has three words for you: you are doing great. Single parents hold more than they're ever recognized for. The work they do — the dinners made, the tantrums absorbed, the bedtimes held — happens largely in invisibility. This episode is a reminder that you are seen, you are enough, and the hard days do eventually pass. Monday will come. And you'll still be standing. 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    9 min
  3. Nobody Taught You This in Sex Ed — And It Might Be Holding You Back After Divorce

    29 APR

    Nobody Taught You This in Sex Ed — And It Might Be Holding You Back After Divorce

    Nobody tells you that divorce can feel like a second puberty. Suddenly, after years of being someone's partner — someone's spouse — you're standing in your own skin again, sometimes for the first time in decades, asking a question you were never really taught to answer: What actually brings me pleasure? In this illuminating, permission-giving episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Myisha Battle, clinical sexologist, certified dating coach, and author of the brand-new book Sexual Pleasure for Dummies. This isn't just a conversation about sex — it's a conversation about reclamation. About what it means to rediscover your own body, your own desires, and your own standards after divorce. Myisha brings equal parts clinical expertise and radical warmth to a topic that most divorce support spaces completely ignore: the connection between sexual self-knowledge and your ability to build a new, fully embodied life after a marriage ends. What makes Myisha such a revelatory voice in the divorce recovery and dating-after-divorce space is the way she reframes experiences we've been taught to see as losses. She introduces the concept — shared by Olivia's network of divorce professionals — of "cougar puberty": the phase many women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond enter after a major relationship ends, where hormonal shifts, hard-won self-knowledge, and freedom from the pressure of family planning converge into something unexpected and powerful. Where perimenopause is often framed as decline, Myisha insists it can be the beginning of a woman's most liberated, most pleasurable chapter yet. She talks about the women she works with who are energized, curious, and finally ready to explore — women who look back at their earlier selves with compassion and look forward with genuine excitement. Myisha also digs into why so many people — especially women — feel like they're "dummies" about their own pleasure, tracing it back to the shame-based, biology-only sex education most of us received, and the gendered expectations that have quietly shaped our experiences (and our orgasm gaps) ever since. The conversation closes with something both practical and profound: a roadmap for anyone who wants to start, or restart, their sexual self-education — whether they're newly single, years into co-parenting, or simply ready to stop putting their own pleasure last. Myisha walks listeners through what to expect from her book, from anatomy chapters that treat pleasure as a birthright rather than a bonus, to sections on pain during sex that so many women have silently normalized, to chapters on how to communicate about desire in any relationship, including the one you have with yourself. For divorced women navigating starting over after divorce, dating after divorce, or simply the deeply personal work of figuring out who they are outside of a marriage, this episode is both a permission slip and a practical guide. You are allowed to want more. You are allowed to feel good. And you are absolutely allowed to start right now. 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    15 min
  4. From Role Model to Soul Model: The Spiritual Dimension of Divorce Nobody Talks About with Lisa Lisser

    17 APR

    From Role Model to Soul Model: The Spiritual Dimension of Divorce Nobody Talks About with Lisa Lisser

    There is a dimension of divorce that nobody warned you about — one that has nothing to do with lawyers or custody schedules or dividing furniture. It goes much deeper than any of that. Divorce goes to the heart of your identity. And when the role you built your life around — wife, partner, the person in that marriage — is suddenly gone, the question that surfaces isn't just "what do I do now?" It's "who am I without this?" In one of the most soulful and quietly transformative episodes of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Lisa Lisser — divorce and life transition coach, former litigator, nonprofit leader, spiritual counselor, and holder of two master's degrees — to explore the spiritual dimension of divorce that most people only recognize in hindsight. Lisa has lived it herself, rebuilt herself from it, and now dedicates her practice to helping others do the same: move through divorce while holding onto their soul. At the center of this conversation is one of the most powerful reframes you will hear on this show: the shift from "role model" to "soul model." Lisa explains that when we define ourselves by our roles — wife, mother, career woman — and one of those roles collapses, we collapse with it. But the soul model is different. It's the thread beneath all the roles, the one anchored in your values rather than your titles. And it is that thread, Lisa argues, that becomes your compass through divorce. She walks through how this plays out in the messiest, most emotionally volatile moments — the impulse to blast your ex on social media, the urge to say the second half of that sentence, the moment you feel like you have to choose between being fierce and being strategic. Her answer is "strategic empathy": the practice of stepping just far enough into your ex's perspective to remove yourself from the fight and redirect your energy toward the outcome you actually want. She also shares a deeply personal story — the time she donated her ex's clothes the night before his ski trip, and the lawyer meeting the next day that did not go her way — as honest, hard evidence that feeling righteous in the moment and serving your long-term interests are not always the same thing. The most immediately usable tool Lisa offers in this episode is something borrowed from Brené Brown: the SFD, or Shitty First Draft. Write everything you want to say — every angry, hurt, furious word. Get it out. Then don't send it. The energy is released into the universe, the feelings are real and witnessed, and you haven't handed your ex a weapon. Lisa invites her own clients to send those drafts to her — because the goal is always the same: make sure you stay in control of yourself, even when nothing else feels in control. She closes with a reminder that will stay with you long after the episode ends: "If you see it, you can be it." You are not broken. You are searching for purpose and meaning — and that search, she says, is the most spiritual thing a human being can do. This episode is a hand extended across the dark. Take it. Learn more about Lisa Lisser: https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/resourceguide/lzl-coaching 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    22 min
  5. A Map of Every Mistake You're About to Make at the Start of Your Divorce — and How to Avoid Them with Lyerly Spongberg

    17 APR

    A Map of Every Mistake You're About to Make at the Start of Your Divorce — and How to Avoid Them with Lyerly Spongberg

    You've made the decision. Maybe it took months — maybe it took years. But you've finally arrived at it, and now your brain is telling you: move fast, do something, protect yourself. And that instinct, as understandable as it is, might be the very thing that costs you the most. In this indispensable episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Lyerly Spongberg — certified ADR divorce coach, pre-mediation coach, and co-parenting specialist — to walk through the most common and costly mistakes people make in the early stages of the divorce process. Lyerly brings years of front-line coaching experience to a conversation that is equal parts educational and deeply compassionate, pulling back the curtain on why even intelligent, capable people get derailed right at the start — and exactly what to do instead. The first thing Lyerly wants you to understand is that when the divorce decision finally lands, your nervous system is not your friend. What looks like urgency is often dysregulation — a survival-mode brain that is neurologically incapable of making clear, future-focused decisions. From that dysregulated state, people make the same predictable mistakes: they call the most aggressive attorney they can find, they ask their hairdresser and their college roommate and their coworker what they're "entitled to," and they latch onto other people's divorce settlements as a blueprint for their own. Lyerly dismantles all of it with precision. Every divorce is different, she explains. The laws vary by state. The finances vary by marriage. And perhaps most crucially, the person across from you is not your aunt's ex-husband. What worked — or didn't — in someone else's divorce has almost no bearing on yours. The second major pitfall she unpacks is what she calls the four-letter word of divorce: "fair." Few things derail the early divorce process more reliably than the obsession with getting a fair outcome — and Lyerly reframes it beautifully, shifting the question from "what's fair?" to "what do I actually need, and who do I want to be when this is over?" What makes this episode truly standout is the humanity Lyerly brings to the hard stuff. She talks about working with women who can't imagine not being a mom 24/7, who have built their entire identity around being the primary caregiver, and who face the co-parenting schedule as one of the most disorienting losses in their entire divorce. She is both honest and hopeful: she has seen enough to know that many of those same women, once the dust settles, find that those solo days look a lot different than they feared. Her practical tools — journaling, exercise, naming your fears so you can find the right expert to address them, breathing exercises before high-stakes meetings, setting firm boundaries with well-meaning friends who make things worse — are immediately usable and grounded in real coaching experience. If you are standing at the very beginning of your divorce and you feel the panic rising, this episode is the steady hand on your shoulder you didn't know you needed. Lyerly's parting message says it all: take one baby step today. That's enough. Learn more about Lyerly Spongberg: https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/resourceguide/step-up-with-lyerly 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    19 min
  6. Stop Chasing Balance After Divorce: A Work-Life Harmony Coach Explains What to Do Instead with Amy Pierre-Russo

    17 APR

    Stop Chasing Balance After Divorce: A Work-Life Harmony Coach Explains What to Do Instead with Amy Pierre-Russo

    You were so close. The kids were finally sleeping through the night. You'd found a rhythm at work. You were starting to feel like yourself again — like balance was actually possible. And then divorce happened. And the scales didn't just tip — they crashed. If that sentence made you exhale, this episode is for you. In this conversation on Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Amy Pierre-Russo, a work-life harmony coach who has built her entire practice around one radical reframe: stop chasing balance, and start designing for harmony. Because balance, Amy argues, is a trap — a pressure-cooker concept that sets us up to feel like we're always failing. Harmony, on the other hand, is a flow state. It's abundance instead of scarcity. And it's something you can begin to cultivate even in the middle of the most destabilizing season of your life. What Amy brings to this conversation is both clarity and compassion for what divorce actually does to a person's sense of self and direction. She talks about what happens when an unexpected life event — divorce, job loss, a new baby — strips away the systems you had built and leaves you scrambling to figure out what you even want anymore. Her answer is not to grind harder. It's to get small and get clear. She guides her clients to start with just 10% — 10% closer to the version of their life when they felt most supported, most connected, most themselves. She also opens up an often-overlooked dimension of divorce recovery: the community loss. When a marriage ends, it's not just a partner you lose. It's friendships. Social circles. Decade-long relationships. And rebuilding that web of connection — intentionally, even with limited time and energy — is one of the most essential and underrated parts of starting over after divorce. The most quietly powerful moment of this episode is when Amy names something that so many women navigating divorce quietly feel but rarely say out loud: the fear of getting swept up in somebody else's plan for you. Her tools — breathwork between hard meetings, reflective journaling, visioning the future life you actually want — are all oriented around the same north star: making sure you stay the author of your own story, even when the plot has gone completely off-script. She closes with five words that land like a hand on the shoulder: "You are worthy of this." Worthy of the harmony. Worthy of the life you're designing. Worthy of support. If you are in the middle of divorce chaos and can't see the other side, this episode is a reminder that harmony isn't something you achieve once the dust settles. It's something you can begin — right now, in small steps — from exactly where you are. Learn more about Amy: https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/resourceguide/amy-pierre-russo-coaching 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    12 min
  7. Nobody Talks About Divorce During Pregnancy. Dr. Gertrude Lyons Just Changed That.

    17 APR

    Nobody Talks About Divorce During Pregnancy. Dr. Gertrude Lyons Just Changed That.

    Nobody tells you that pregnancy can be the moment everything becomes clear. Not the nursery colors or the baby name — but something far bigger, far more quietly devastating: the realization that the relationship you're in is not the one you want to raise a child inside of. In this profound episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Dr. Gertrude Lyons — author, life coach, podcast host, retreat facilitator, and the powerhouse behind the book Rewrite the Mother Code: From Sacrifice to Stardust — to explore one of the most taboo intersections in modern womanhood: divorce during pregnancy or in the postpartum period. Dr. Lyons has worked with women at every stage of this threshold and brings both clinical depth and soulful clarity to a conversation that has the potential to crack your heart open and set it free at the same time. What makes this episode so extraordinary is the reframe Dr. Lyons offers around what she calls "the double threshold" — the understanding that when you become a mother, you don't just birth a child. You birth a new version of yourself. Add divorce to that equation, and yes, the weight is immense. But Dr. Lyons makes a radical and deeply compassionate case: this is actually the ripest moment for transformation. When we are raw, open, hormonally and emotionally stripped to our foundations, we are also the most available we will ever be to do the real work of becoming. She speaks directly to the thousands of years of patriarchal wiring that makes a pregnant woman leaving her partner feel shocking — when in reality, Dr. Lyons argues, the more evolved response is: thank god she figured that out now. Let's rally behind her. Her framework, the "PACT" — Patience, Affirmation, Compassion, and Trust — offers something every woman navigating divorce, single motherhood, or major life transition can carry with her like a compass. Dr. Lyons also introduces one of the most quietly revolutionary ideas in Rewrite the Mother Code: that we are always rewriting our mother code. Whether you are navigating postpartum divorce, newly separated, rebuilding as a single mom, or simply stepping into a new chapter of yourself, the invitation is the same — go inside, get clear on what you value and what you desire, and let that be your rudder. Olivia shares her own emotional aha moment: that becoming a single mother required her to rewrite her mother code entirely, a realization she describes as "spiritual." If you have ever wondered whether you are allowed to want something different for yourself during one of the most vulnerable seasons of your life — this episode is the answer. You are not falling apart. You are in the middle of becoming. And Dr. Gertrude Lyons is here to hold you through it. 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    24 min
  8. National Association for Single and Divorced Families (NASDF): The $19 Lifeline: Free Therapy, Childcare Discounts & Real Support for Divorced Families

    16 APR

    National Association for Single and Divorced Families (NASDF): The $19 Lifeline: Free Therapy, Childcare Discounts & Real Support for Divorced Families

    When you're going through a divorce, the world doesn't stop spinning — but it can feel like everyone else's resources did. Therapy is expensive. Childcare is exhausting and often unaffordable. And the practical realities of building a new life on one income, while co-parenting, grieving, and showing up for your kids, can feel completely overwhelming. In this episode of Divorce Happens, host Olivia Howell sits down with Joy Read, co-founder of the National Association for Single and Divorced Families (NASDF) — a nonprofit membership organization built from the ground up to close the resource gap for families navigating divorce and single parenthood. Joy and her co-founder Ron modeled NASDF after AARP: a bundled benefits platform that gives members access to real, practical support — mental health care, child education discounts, financial advisors, mediators, and more — all for just $19 a month. What Joy brings to this conversation is more than organizational expertise — it's personal conviction rooted in watching women she knows leave jobs because daycare was too expensive, then find themselves suddenly divorced with no financial runway. The mental health benefit alone is a game-changer: NASDF members can access free therapy sessions through Rikiro, a national telehealth platform, and Joy's vision is to expand that to up to eight free sessions per presenting condition — meaning a member struggling with both anxiety and depression could access sixteen free sessions for themselves, and more for their children. In a world where therapy routinely falls off the self-care list because it's simply unaffordable, NASDF is quietly building infrastructure to make it non-negotiable. Other benefits include 10% off tuition and priority registration through Learning Care Group, discounts on technology, school supplies, and even a mechanic hotline — everything a single parent scrambling to keep the household running actually needs. At its heart, this episode is about one radical idea: that single and divorced families deserve a seat at the advocacy table. Joy talks about NASDF's 501(c) nonprofit arm and their long-term mission to combat intergenerational poverty through two-generation programming — addressing the needs of both parent and child simultaneously. She closes with words that feel like a gift: "Grief comes in waves. When one knocks you down, just wait. When it recedes, stand up, gather your breath, and know that none of it is going to drown you." If you are in the thick of divorce recovery, overwhelmed by single parenting, and wondering how other people are affording their lives right now — this episode is the answer you've been looking for. And the best part? It only costs $19 a month to get started at nasdf.org. Lean more and sign up here: https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/resourceguide/national-association-for-single-and-divorced-families-nasdforg 🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry: The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/ 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry 🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/ 📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/

    16 min
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About

Welcome to Divorce Happens, the podcast where we inspire, educate, and support you through divorce and beyond so that you can start fresh on the next phase of your journey. Produced by Fresh Starts Registry, the only divorce registry platform for everything you need to begin again, including home items, hype team, and everything in between. Remember, divorce happens...and then, we start fresh. We're here to support you before, during, and after divorce. Hosted by Olivia Dreizen Howell, the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Starts Registry.

Information

  • Channel
    Fresh Starts
  • Creator
    Fresh Starts Registry
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    230
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Fresh Starts Registry
  • Show Website
    Divorce Happens

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