Treatment of divorcing fathers: social and psychotherapeutic considerations.

The author summarizes the psychotherapeutic issues most frequently encountered in his crisis treatment of 16 divorcing fathers for whom divorce was fundamentally a child-centered crisis. Fear and guilt over separation from children and wife, outrage and disappointment with the legal system, anxiety about the social and sexual readjustment to single life, and the need to develop strategies for continued child contact were most prevalent. The author's suggestions for the management of these issues include the therapist's familiarization with divorce as it affects and is influenced by intrapsychic, interpersonal, familial, and legal systems.