About this episode

Alyssa Mairanz discusses how grief affects decision-making during divorce and offers tools for emotional regulation.

Your brain on divorce doesn't always think straight. Beneath the legal paperwork and custody schedules lies a deeply physiological reality: intense heartbreak, anger, and grief can completely hijack your nervous system, driving you to make choices you’ll later regret. In this episode of Divorce Dialogues, Katherine Miller speaks with Alyssa Mairanz, owner and executive director of Empower Your Mind Therapy, about what happens in your brain and nervous system during a separation. Together, they explore how grief, anger, and shame can shape your decisions, and how to navigate these emotions with awareness and intention; offering a roadmap for emotional survival and genuine resilience. Through Alyssa's insights, learn how emotional dysregulation and the "fight or flight" response impact your ability to make clear, grounded decisions. Alyssa shares practical tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help you stop reacting out of impulsiveness and start responding intentionally. They discuss the messy, non-linear cycle of grief—including the heavy roles of anger and shame—and how to separate your ex's reactions from your own self-worth. If you are struggling to find your…

People in this episode

Host: Katherine Miller

Guest: Alyssa Mairanz

Topics covered

• grief
• divorce
• decision-making
• emotional regulation
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• self-compassion

Keywords

• divorce
• grief
• decision-making
• emotional dysregulation
• DBT
• self-worth
• resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Empower Your Mind Therapy

More episodes of Divorce Dialogues

• Reframing What “Winning” Means in Divorce with Jenny Bradley · May 21, 2026 · 33 min
• Why Emotional Regulation is Better than “Happy” for Kids During Divorce with Dr. Sasha Reiisieh · May 14, 2026 · 37 min

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