New self-study course for dealing with intercultural divorce

Every year around 14% of all divorces that take place in Finland take place in intercultural families, or families where each partner was born in a different culture. Intercultural marriages tend to end in divorce slightly more often than monocultural marriages. Intercultural divorce can also be particularly rough, especially for the spouse from abroad who may not have as strong a support system and might need special support in the practicalities as well. This reality is what led Familia to work on a new course for intercultural divorce this spring. 

Eeva Haapalinna joined Familia to complete an internship as part of her studies in January. As someone who has experienced intercultural divorce herself, she felt connected to the subject of the course. "I was far enough in my own experience that I knew how important it is to get the help when you need it", she shares.

Familia's Duo Divorce Online course is a self-study course with 5 topics. These topics cover everything from the practicalities of getting a divorce in Finland to taking care of one's own mental health to co-parenting after divorce. 

The course includes voices from people who have experienced intercultural divorce themselves, which were collected through an anonymous survey this spring. Each theme contains resources and reflection exercise to support you through the process. 

You easily feel very isolated during the process but there is help and peer support available so I felt it was very important to bring up different ways to seek for help and find support to get forward​
​- Eeva Haapalinna

The course also brings up topics of supporting children’s intercultural identity in divorce situations. For Eeva, the most challenging was narrowing down the topics to the essentials. “When I started thinking and researching and putting things on paper, it became a lot clearer what are the things that you need to think about when getting a divorce. It became easier to get past the emotions and support one’s children for example”, she shares. ​

This spring Familia is also piloting a new, online version of our divorce support group. On the 20th and 27th of May you can join Familia’s peer volunteers to share experiences and learn from others who have experienced intercultural divorce. Discussions will have a specific theme: on 20th May the theme is coping with divorce and on the 27th of May the theme is children’s well-being in divorce. You can find more information about the upcoming group on our Duo-groups website.​

The Duo Divorce Online Course is now freely available to use. You can find the course on our website.

Photo: Kelly Sikkema, Unsplash