He lost control of you when you left. Now he uses the court to get it back.
If he keeps filing, asks for things he doesn't actually want, or drags out every decision until you're worn down, that has a name: litigation abuse. Year One™ is 10 weeks of group coaching for women in the first year of it. You'll learn how to calm your body when a filing or message hits, which messages need an answer, and how to give your attorney what she needs without spending your retainer on the parts that aren't legal.
I'm Stacy Bednar, MA, LPCC. I've been a licensed psychotherapist for 20 years, and I spent seven years in high-conflict family court myself.
Founding cohort begins Spring 2027. Six to ten women. Enrollment closes when the cohort fills.
You're in the right place if...
You left, or you're in the process of leaving, a high-conflict or emotionally abusive relationship.
His behavior didn't stop when you left. It moved to the courts, to the kids, and to your inbox at 11pm.
You leave attorney meetings without the answer you went in for, and you're not sure why.
You're trying to parent consistently while the other household works against you.
Your dates, screenshots, and documents are scattered across three phones and a junk drawer.
You're exhausted from holding everything together, and you need more than emotional support. You need a plan.
Your attorney handles the law. Your therapist handles the trauma. Nobody is handling the space in between.
Your attorney is skilled at legal strategy, but she can't help you calm your body before a deposition or explain why you can't retain what she told you an hour ago.
Your therapist understands trauma, but may not be equipped to walk you through how family court works or how high-conflict litigation keeps you on alert.
That gap is where women fall apart. It's where credibility gets damaged, decisions get made in crisis mode, and kids get caught in the crossfire.
Year One™ works in that space. Your attorney keeps the legal strategy. Your therapist keeps the clinical care. You get the structure that makes both of them more effective.
Regulate. Organize. Prepare and follow through.
What Year One™ covers.
Regulate
Why your body still reacts as if you're under threat, what chronic stress does to memory and decisions, and tools for before court, after a hostile message, and when the kids come home dysregulated.
Organize
How family court works, what to document and how to keep it in order without living in it, and how to turn a long story into the facts and dates your attorney can use.
Prepare and Follow Through
When to respond and when not to, brief child-focused replies, how to stop agreeing just to end the conflict, and how to bring focused questions to your attorney and act on what's decided.
What to do when a message lands.
The RISE method
I built the support I needed when I left.
I created Year One™ after living through high-conflict divorce and litigation abuse while working as a licensed psychotherapist. I knew the clinical language for stress and coercive control, but I still needed help making sense of the messages, filings, and parenting decisions in front of me. Mostly, I needed a way to regulate my own body so I could keep doing everything the case required of me. I bring that lived perspective and 20 years of clinical practice to this coaching program.
I lead Year One™ as coaching and psychoeducation. It is not psychotherapy, legal advice, or crisis care. Your attorney directs legal strategy, and your therapist provides clinical care when you need it.
Your 10 weeks
Every week answers one question: what happens in a high-conflict case that doesn't happen in a regular divorce, and what do you do about it? You walk away with a one-page account for your attorney, a record system you can keep in minutes, your RISE response guide, and a written prep plan for your next legal event.
Week 1: This isn't a normal divorce. Why "just stay calm" fails when the threat is ongoing, and a regulation plan built around your specific triggers.
Week 2: Recognizing the pattern without diagnosing anyone. Baiting, shifting demands, rewriting history, blame reversal, and why you start doubting your own memory.
Week 3: When the court becomes the weapon. Repeated filings, emergency motions, false allegations, and your first 24 hours after being served.
Week 4: Every message is evidence. Brief, child-focused replies, when silence is the right answer, and co-parenting apps without getting baited.
Week 5: The credibility trap. How reactive responses get used against you, and why the calm, charming party often looks more believable.
Week 6: Documentation that serves your case. What your attorney can use, a timeline that holds up, and records that stop eating your evenings.
Week 7: Working with your attorney in a high-conflict case. Why these cases burn through retainers, and how to separate emotional calls from legal ones.
Week 8: Evaluators, mediators, and the room. Custody evaluations, guardian ad litem interviews, depositions, and hearings, and staying steady when the other party is composed.
Week 9: Children in the crossfire. Parallel parenting, loyalty pressure, kids used as messengers, and transition days.
Week 10: The long game. Post-decree conflict, financial control, smear campaigns, and a plan for the next flare-up.
Plus two bonus live sessions: a family law attorney Q&A, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst on financial control and stalling.
Is Year One™ the right fit?
You're in the first 12 months of a high-conflict separation or divorce, or you've recently filed or are about to.
Your separation involves coercive control, narcissistic behavior, or post-separation abuse.
You're co-parenting with a high-conflict person.
You're working with a family law attorney, or about to hire one, and want to get more out of that relationship.
Not the right fit if your separation is low-conflict, you haven't filed and aren't planning to, or you're looking for therapy or legal advice.
Founding cohort begins Spring 2027. Founding pricing and payment options are covered on the discovery call. Women in high-conflict separation often spend $300 to $600 an hour on legal fees. Year One™ is designed to make those hours count.
Built for women in active cases: group discussion is never recorded, there is no member directory, you never share names or case files, and billing appears under a neutral descriptor.
For attorneys: supporting a client through high-conflict separation?
Year One™ is designed so clients arrive at your office regulated, organized, and with focused questions, which means less time untangling and more time on strategy. I also work with family law firms in defined, nonlegal coaching roles. Legal advice and strategy remain with counsel.
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