She Lift Project

We went deeper on this one. 📝

Our full written breakdown of Sara Marler's episode is live on Substack - key insights, direct quotes, and action steps you can actually use. Link in bio.

Divorce is one of the hardest things a family can go through. Sara Marler built her entire law firm around this one idea and it changes everything about how she shows up for her clients.💙

Episode 77 with Sara, our first returning guest, is out now - link in bio.

New episode out now ✨

What happens when a family law attorney spends 20 years in therapy and asks, "Why aren't we doing this in the legal field?"

Sara Marler of Marler Law Partners is back on the She Lift Project — breaking down what trauma-informed lawyering actually looks like. An on-staff therapist who can't be called to testify. An office designed for psychological safety. And one guiding goal: leave people better than she found them.

🎙️ Listen at the link in our bio.

Episode 77 | Divorce with Dignity

Most people going through a divorce are already in crisis.

They're grieving. They're scared. They're trying to hold it together for their kids while navigating one of the most adversarial systems imaginable.

And then they walk into a law office that wants them to leave their emotions at the door.

Sara Marler is doing something different.

Sara is the founder and managing partner of Marler Law Partners, and she's built her entire practice around a concept she's now teaching to other firms: trauma-informed law.

The idea is straightforward. Divorce is traumatic. The legal process shouldn't make it worse. That means understanding how trauma affects decision-making, communication, and behavior, and building a practice that accounts for all of it rather than fighting against it.

They have an on-staff trauma therapist as a core member of the legal team. For the parent, it means having someone who can help them process what they're feeling so they can actually make clear-headed decisions about their family's future. For the children, it means having a trained advocate in the room who can give them a voice in a process that usually doesn't make space for one. And for the lawyers, it means having someone who can read what's happening beneath the surface so the legal work can actually move forward.

Here's why it matters beyond just being a "nicer" law firm.

When people are dysregulated, they make bad decisions. Bad decisions in a divorce become court orders that govern the next decade of a family's life. They become custody arrangements that hurt children. They become trauma that gets passed down.

Sara also says something every divorcing parent needs to hear: it's not just until your kids turn 18. It's forever. The relationship you build with your children right now is setting the foundation for whether they choose to have you in their lives as adults.

This episode is for anyone going through a divorce, supporting someone who is, or working in family law and brave enough to ask: are we actually leaving our clients better than we found them?

Episode 77 of the She Lift Project Podcast is out now.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/iUe8HHMbb1M?si=10Pkb9N5BZihk-ka

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/69y130VYULn8w45KTtF6RM?si=f69bd91ceaa24e76

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/77-sara-marler-divorce-with-dignity/id1697334709?i=1000772967192

Website: https://sheliftproject.com/podcast/sara-marler-77/

Cynthia Marie Siess Kirkpatrick

#77 - Sara Marler: Divorce with Dignity Sara Marler is the founder and managing partner of Marler Law Partners, a family law firm in St. Louis built around a concept that is still rare in the legal profession: trauma-informed practice. By combining rigorous legal representation with healing-centered care from a licensed therapist, Sara an...