Divorce is hard enough. Making life-changing decisions while your body is in survival mode can make it feel almost impossible.

In this episode of Dishing on Divorce, we welcome Mardi Chadwick-Balcom, a Massachusetts divorce mediator, longtime family law attorney, and founder of Integrative Divorce Mediation, for a powerful conversation about how nervous system regulation can change the way people move through divorce.

After nearly 30 years working in family law, much of it in high-conflict and crisis cases, Mardi saw firsthand how the traditional legal system can intensify fear, stress, and emotional overwhelm. Her own divorce experience, combined with her training in mediation, nervous system regulation, somatic healing, yoga, and mindset work, led her to develop a more grounded, human-centered approach to mediation.

Mardi’s work is centered around one core belief: people cannot make clear, lasting decisions when they are dysregulated.

In this conversation, Mardi shares why court can feel so emotionally draining, how simple tools like breathwork, grounding, tapping, and intentional pauses can help people gain clarity, and what it means to create a meditation environment where difficult conversations can happen with more dignity and care.

We also talk about protecting your peace, your children, your financial future, and your sense of self during divorce.

This is a thoughtful, hopeful conversation about doing divorce differently.

Connect with Mardi: https://www.integrativedivorcemediation.com/

Check out her Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-regulated-lawyer/id1890253072

Connect with Deanna and Mandy: [email protected]