Wendy Fisher House, Ph.D.

Wendy Fisher House, Ph.D., is a psychologist with training in both clinical and social psychology. For over forty years she met with individuals, couples and families, first at Community Mental Health and then in her full-time private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Most of the clients she had the privilege of meeting with were seeking help to deal with problems or changes in their lives. Over the years, she began to notice stories accumulating in her office alerting her to the profound effect which one particular change—parents divorcing after 20 or more years—had on the entire family system, including grown children.

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She observed this from the vantage points of parents’ accounts, adult children’s accounts and even from adults recollecting the turmoil their parents’ later life divorces had caused them, now many years ago. Few resources were available for this population then and even now. So, after she retired, she decided to write a book for families experiencing later life divorce as well as for mental health professionals working with them. This is that book and, hopefully, it puts to rest the harmful myth that this increasingly common experience is “no big deal.”