Our presenters are available to provide you with expert advice to guide you and your family through this confusing transition. Each presenter brings extensive professional experience assisting with the financial, legal and emotional challenges of the separation and divorce process.
Financial Planning
Robert T. Watral, CFP®, CMFC®, CDFA™, APMA®
Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner
Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™
(919) 539-5468
Robert Watral (Bob) is a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™. He brings specialized expertise that will help you to rebuild your financial foundation after divorce. He will also be your seminar facilitator.
Click here to read more about Bob’s inspiration for bringing this workshop to the Triangle.
Jessica M. Garcia, MBA, CDFA™
Our presenter, Jessica M Garcia has spent over 20 years in financial services. Half of those years were dedicated to helping clients preserve, grow, and pass on their wealth. During this time, Jessica noticed frequent opportunities to help women better understand their financial picture.
She started Brainstormingwomen, to put her experience, education, skills, and aspirations to work. Jessica is helping clients create a more active relationship with their finances. Through that work she further saw opportunity to help individuals going through divorce and completed training and testing to become a CDFA.
Family Law
Our family law attorneys will help you understand the legal processes of divorce, separation, asset division, child custody and other important considerations.
Mary Gurganus
Our presenter, Mary Gurganus, focuses her practice on litigation. Mary graduated with honors from North Carolina Central School of Law. During law school, she was the president of the law school’s Innocence Project, which investigates claims of innocence by inmates whose innocence may be proven using new technologies, such as DNA. Mary was also a member of the North Carolina Central Law Journal and Parliamentarian and National Delegate for the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. Mary completed her undergraduate degree at Loyola University in Baltimore, MD (Go Greyhounds!), where she majored in Business Management and Law. She is married and has three children.
As a teenager, I witnessed the unraveling of my family that ended in divorce. What got played out is one party was disadvantage by underestimating what the other party would do to keep all of what two people created.
Divorce Counselors/Specialists
Our divorce counselor presenters will share with you some important strategies for gaining mastery of the emotions that arise during the separation and divorce process and for years afterward. You will learn techniques for building a healthy and positive family environment after divorce.
Donna Moore, LCSW, Healthy Divorce Recovery
Our presenter, Donna Moore, understands Separation and Divorce is difficult for everyone. It is a time of great transition in all dimensions of your life. You may feel isolated and without support. The bright side of divorce is that you can seize the opportunity to make your new life a success. Divorce recovery involves healthy grieving and embracing change. Therapy can help identify new goals, work through obstacles, and move you in the right direction. You can choose to receive the support you need and create the life you want through individual, family, or group therapy. Therapy services are available for both adults and children.
Tina Lepage, Psy.D. Lepage Associates Psychological & Psychiatric Services
From the very beginning of her career with a B.S. in Child Development & Family Relationships, Dr. Lepage has been focusing on families, and she has extensive experience working with individuals, couples, parents, and children going through separation and divorce. Our presenter, Dr. Lepage, completed both her master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation in Clinical Psychology in the area of developing parenting plans. She is an expert in cooperative co-parenting and parallel parenting. Her combined experience in divorce transitions, child development, parenting plans, and conflict resolution make her highly sought out by people going through separation. She is skilled at helping within the traditional divorce model that most use, and is an advocate for the non-adversarial model of collaborative divorce.
Kristen C. Wynns, Ph.D., Wynns Family Psychology
Our presenter, Kristen Wynns, has expertise & special interests include children and teens, parenting and co-parenting, high-conflict separation and divorce, custody, forensic evaluations, family therapy, married and unmarried couples therapy, ADHD, anxiety, Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Academically Gifted Testing, Child IQ Testing, Educational Testing, Early Kindergarten Entry Testing, Learning Disabilities Testing, behavior problems, anger management, friendships, reunification therapy.
Lindsey Ohler, PSY.D., Lepage Associates Psychological & Psychiatric Services
Dr. Lindsey Ohler has a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. She has worked with children, adolescents, young adults and adults. As one of our chosen presenters, Dr. Ohler has practiced in a variety of settings including private practice, businesses and community mental health centers. Additionally, she has practiced in the juvenile court system, college counseling centers, inpatient and outpatient facilities, and a clinical research lab investigating the neurocircuitry of eating disorders.
Intervention Style: Dr. Ohler has an integrative style of therapy and individualizes treatment to meet each client’s unique experience. She utilizes a client-centered approach while incorporating Behavioral, Cognitive Behavioral, Dialectical Behavioral, and Mindfulness-Based therapies.
Lori C. Thomas
Lori C. Thomas, J.D., Ph.D. and Second Saturday Wake County Divorce Workshop presenter holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She specializes in providing individual child psychotherapy services, child assessment services, child custody services and group therapy for kids, tweens, teens, young adults, and their families.
Dr. Thomas works with parents who have made the difficult decision to separate or divorce. As a family psychologist and mental health expert, her focus is on what is best for the children involved. Dr. Thomas provides custody consultations, Custody Evaluations, custody mediation, forensic services, collaborative coparenting services, parenting plans, supervised visitation recommendations, court testimony, Reunification Therapy, and other divorce and separation services. Dr. Thomas has specialized training as a divorce and custody mediator. She has been a court-referred mediator and provided private divorce and custody mediation services through a large group practice. This includes mediating custody & support and providing couples with written memorandums of understanding (which can be used as a guide for working with an attorney to create a divorce agreement).
Michael Garner, LMFT, LPC
Mr. Garner is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and a Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC). Michael earned his Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Liberty University and his Bachelor’s degree from Southeastern University.
Mr. Garner is an ideal presenter who specializes in marriage and family therapy. This includes helping couples and individuals navigate relationships, parenting, blended family, communication and high conflict. He has extensive experience working with adolescent and parenting issues. His background includes nearly 15 years working with adolescents and their parents in several community organizations, which has provided him a great understanding of family, marriage, and parenting dynamics.
Lauren Bowman, LPCA
Our presenter, Lauren Bowman, LPCA, holds a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She specializes in providing couples, family, child, adult therapy services and social skills groups for kids, teens, and young adults.
Lauren incorporates a variety of therapeutic philosophies into her services (including family systems therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Bowenian therapy, Solution Focused therapy, and more). She approaches therapy from a hope-focused perspective, incorporating an individualized approach to the therapeutic process.
Lauren also leads social skills groups and a week-long social skills day camp for children, teens, and young adults. Lauren graduated from Liberty University with a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has a passion for healthy relationships, inside and outside the home.
Erin Ballard, LMFT, BC-TMH
Ms. Ballard is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is board certified to provide telemental health services throughout NC. Erin specializes in providing couples therapy. She works with couples in all stages of their relationship, including those contemplating or deciding to divorce. Erin supports the collaborative divorce model. Her primary focus is on helping couples make the best transition individually and for their children. This often involves creating an amicable business-type relationship. This means the family can still thrive despite the marriage ending. As one of our presenters, she also provides individual counseling. This strengthens the ability to adjust to the changes divorce brings. Erin is the practice owner at Family Solutions and Wellness Center. She and her team of therapists work collaboratively to support individuals, couples, and children facing struggles related to parenting, separation/divorce, blended families, and high conflict.
Laura Haywood, Life Coach
Laura Haywood is a Professional Life Coach. Laura is passionate about helping clients who feel stuck and overwhelmed figure out what is holding them back, so they can make choices and move forward with confidence. Laura’s specialty is working with mindset; helping clients gain clarity and re-frame their negative self-talk so they can live the life they want. Imagine More, Be More!
Laura transitioned into coaching after moving to the US from the UK, where she was a therapist for many years. After coming to the US, and much soul searching, she discovered coaching was a real ‘thing’ and trained at Raleigh Coaching Academy. She loved the program so much that she is currently the lead faculty for the program, training new coaches. She is well known for her English humor and always having an abundance of tea.
New clients are welcome to schedule a free discovery call, to see how coaching could help them, and if working with Laura is a good fit. For more information, visit:
Second Saturday Wake County
Helping families in Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest, RTP, and throughout the Triangle area, navigate the separation and divorce process with positive outcomes.