Life after love

Farhana Hussain cannot rescue her clients. But as a divorce doula, she can do something better — teach them to save themselves.

- by ANUPRABHAKAR

The London resident, who started My Divorce Doula about two years ago, equips clients with practical tools to deal with a divorce or a separation. She works exclusively online with clients who are spread across several countries, including the UAE, through private and group sessions. “Most of my Middle Eastern clients have come from Dubai in the past,” she says via Google Meet, adding that her religious and cultural background helps her to connect and work with women from the region, as they navigate unique challenges related to guilt, forgiveness, identity, family and cultural expectations.

As the name suggests, divorce doulas are modelled on birth doulas who provide emotional and physical support to women during their pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum — but while the latter help clients celebrate the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, divorce doulas help them cope with the end of one.

Dr Tara Wyne, clinical psychologist and clinical director at The Lighthouse Arabia Centre for Wellbeing, where she hosts a 'life after divorce' support group every month, understands 'divorce doulas' as “companions who support individuals contemplating, experiencing or navigating a divorce, and help them deal with it emotionally and practically.”