Divorce Counseling in Salt Lake City, UT
Divorce can feel like a failure. The next chapter of your life doesn't have to be one.
You probably didn't think you'd be here.
Maybe you're the one who decided. Maybe your spouse did. Maybe neither of you can pinpoint when the decision was made — just that the relationship you thought you'd have for the rest of your life isn't the one you're going to have.
Whatever brought you here, you're probably carrying some version of:
grief that doesn't make sense to the people around you
anger you didn't know you had
fear about what your life is going to look like, and
a low-grade sense that you've somehow failed at something you thought you’d be able to figure out
You're in the middle of one of the hardest experiences a person can go through — and you're trying to do it without losing yourself, your kids' stability, or your sense of what's possible after.
You don't have to white-knuckle this. The next chapter can be one you're proud of. That work starts here.
Signs divorce counseling might help
Some of what you're experiencing comes with the territory. Some of it may be a sign that the territory is bigger than what you can navigate alone. People who benefit from counseling for divorce tend to recognize themselves in some version of this:
Sleep that won't come, or comes in three-hour stretches
Emotions that arrive in the wrong order — relief before grief, rage before sadness, numbness when you expected to feel something
A short fuse with people who don't deserve it — your kids, your colleagues, the cashier
Difficulty making decisions you used to make easily
Replaying conversations with your spouse over and over without resolution
Avoiding texts or emails from your spouse because opening them sets off a cascade you can't control
A sense that you've failed at something fundamental, even when you know intellectually that you haven't
Wondering who you are without this marriage — and not liking the question
Worry about your kids that you can't put down
Hopelessness about ever feeling like yourself again, or trusting yourself in another relationship
If you recognize yourself in several of these, you're not falling apart. You're responding normally to one of the most disorienting experiences a person can go through. Therapy for divorce gives you tools and structure so the response doesn't run the rest of your life.
What we'll work on together
Divorce is three different problems happening at once: an emotional problem, a relational problem, and a practical one. Most people try to solve all three at the same speed. That's how you end up exhausted at the end of every week without much to show for it.
In our work together, we'll separate them.
The emotional work: grief, anger, fear, guilt, relief — usually arriving in the wrong order and all at once. We'll work on DBT-informed skills for managing them so they stop running your day.
The relational work: communication with your spouse (or soon-to-be-ex), what to say to your kids, what to say to extended family, and how to handle the inevitable questions from people who mean well and ask anyway.
The practical work: I don't give legal advice or recommendations — that's your attorney's job. What I do is help you show up to the legal process in a way that protects your interests and your sanity. I've supported dozens of clients through depositions, mediations, custody evaluations, and court dates. We'll work on how to communicate with the legal team, how to manage the conflict that comes up between you and your spouse during the process, and in many cases, how to reduce that conflict so the legal process moves faster and costs less.
We'll also talk about what you want the next chapter to look like. That part shows up earlier than most people expect — usually around the time you stop being purely reactive and start being able to imagine forward again.
How DBT skills help you stay clear-headed through divorce
Divorce hard not only because of the size of the emotional response, but because of how long it lasts. The grief is often bigger than you expected. The anger comes from nowhere. The fear shows up at 3 a.m. and stays. The shame whispers that this is somehow your fault, even when you know it isn't, or that other people will see you differently now.
I work with divorce clients using Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills — a research-backed approach built specifically for moments when emotions are too big to think through. DBT gives you three sets of tools that map onto exactly the parts of divorce that feel uncontrollable:
Mindfulness skills help you notice what you're feeling before it takes over. When you're approaching divorce, this is what keeps you from making impulsive decisions you'll regret later. We'll work on practical mindfulness — not meditation cushions and incense, but the kind that helps you pause for three seconds before sending the text you'd unsend if you could.
Emotion regulation skills give you concrete ways to bring intensity down when grief, anger, or anxiety spike. These are the skills that make counseling during divorce different from just venting about it. You'll learn how to name what you're feeling, check whether the feeling fits the facts, and reduce the suffering on top of the suffering — the part where you feel terrible about feeling terrible.
Distress tolerance skills are for the moments you can't fix or escape — the court date, the hard conversation with your kids, the holiday that used to be a family event. These skills don't make the moment less painful. They make it survivable without doing something that makes it worse.
Interpersonal effectiveness skills help you navigate the conversations divorce forces you into — with your spouse, your kids, your in-laws, your attorney, your friends who don't know what to say. You'll learn how to ask for what you need without escalating, how to say no to what you can't take on, and how to hold your ground in a conversation without burning the relationship down (when the relationship is one you want to keep) or losing yourself (when it isn't).
DBT skills are concrete, teachable, and you take them with you. They keep working long after therapy after divorce has wrapped up — when you're dating again, parenting solo, or navigating the next set of curveballs life decides to throw.
Beyond DBT, our work draws on what fits — Gottman tools for communication with your spouse or co-parent, CBT for the thought patterns that keep you stuck, and trauma-informed care for the parts of the experience that need it. The work is paced to where you are. Some weeks we'll move through a lot. Some weeks we won't. Both are right.
Counseling for Divorce in Salt Lake City, Sandy, and across Utah
I provide divorce counseling for clients in Salt Lake City, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Midvale, South Jordan, West Jordan, Draper, and the rest of the SLC metro. Since I see most clients via telehealth, I can work with you even if you're in Park City, Provo, Ogden, Logan, St. George, or anywhere else in Utah. Counseling is provided over a private, HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform.
This page is for people who know where things are headed with their marriage. If you're earlier in the process — if you're still trying to figure out whether divorce is the right call, or your spouse is the one leaning out and you're not sure where you stand — that's different work. I do that too, through a structured short-term process called Discernment Counseling.
I'm a Certified Discernment Counselor trained through the Doherty Relationship Institute. It's a 1–5 session process designed specifically for couples on the brink of separation — one leaning toward divorce, one leaning toward staying. The point isn't to decide for you. It's to get you clear on what you'd be deciding.
If that sounds closer to where you are, start there: discernment counseling →
If you're not sure whether you want a divorce
About Kenny Levine, LCSW
I'm Kenny Levine, LCSW. I've been a licensed therapist for 25+ years and in solo private practice since 2003. Divorce, co-parenting, and high-conflict family work have been the center of my practice for most of that time.
I'm trained in DBT, CBT, and the Gottman Method. I'm a Certified Discernment Counselor through the Doherty Relationship Institute. I'm a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) at the national level and the Utah chapter. I've worked alongside attorneys, custody evaluators, guardians ad litem, and judges — and I know how to support you through the legal process without becoming part of the legal process.
I'm licensed in Utah (LCSW #11015346-3501). I’m based in Sandy and see clients via telehealth across the state.
Schedule a free divorce counseling consultation
The first conversation is a free, 15 minute consultation. You can ask questions about the work. You can describe where you are and see whether I'm the right fit. You can decide what you want to do next.
If we're a fit, we'll schedule from there. If we're not, I'll point you toward someone who is. Either way, you'll leave the call with a clearer next step than you came in with.
Frequently asked questions about divorce counseling
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No. You can start divorce counseling before you've filed, during the process, or any point after. If you're still on the fence about whether to divorce at all, see my discernment counseling page — that's a different process designed for that question.
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hat decision is yours and your spouse's. My job is to help you think clearly so the decision you make is one you can stand behind. If you want a structured process for the should-we-or-shouldn't-we question, that's discernment counseling.
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No. Divorce counseling at my practice is individual work. You're the client. Your spouse may be in the conversations we have, but they won't be in the room.
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I work with high-conflict divorce regularly — it's part of why I'm a member of AFCC and have spent so much of my career adjacent to family courts. If the central issue is co-parenting communication specifically, I have a dedicated co-parenting therapy page where that work is laid out in detail.
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No. I'm not an attorney. I won't tell you what to settle for, whether to take a deal, or how to argue a custody position. I will help you think clearly enough to work effectively with the attorney you do hire.
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Depends on where you are when we start and what you want to work on. Some people come for a focused 8–12 sessions through a specific stage. Others stay longer because the work keeps revealing what's underneath. We'll talk about it directly and you'll know what you're getting into.
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I'm out of network with insurance. I can provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Court-involved work (which sometimes overlaps with divorce counseling) is not covered by insurance under any circumstance, and is billed at a higher rate.
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Initial Intake appointment (60 minutes): $215
Individual Divorce Counseling Session (50 minutes): $195