If you are thinking about getting a divorce and want to know more about the process and your options, please join us!
About this Event

The Alaska Association of Collaborative Professionals is a multidisciplinary association of family lawyers, certified public accountants, financial advisors, mediators, and licensed mental health professionals with years of experience helping their clients through the divorce process. During this workshop, we will discuss divorce and dissolution options available to you such as collaboration, mediation, do-it-yourself, and litigation and the pros and cons of each option. Come and ask all those questions burning in your mind.

There will be three speakers:

Dr. Valerie Demming, PhD (Mental Health Professional): Valerie Anne Demming is a Mental Health Professional and Child Specialist with Alaska Association of Collaborative Professionals. She is a Ph.D psychologist and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). She is an experienced therapist who has worked with children, adolescents, individuals, couples, and families for the last 25 years. She has extensive knowledge in the area of child development and behavior. She has worked in the counseling setting with numerous children whose parents are in the process of divorcing or have obtained a divorce. She has additional training from The Grief and Loss Center in Ft. Collins Colorado, which has been invaluable with her work with children, and adults who have gone through or are going through the divorce process.

Stefan Otterson (Attorney): Stefan Otterson started out as a commercial attorney, and then joined the Attorney General’s Office in 1990. There he was a child protection and juvenile delinquency prosecutor, and also represented the Divisions of Public Safety, Mental Health, and Medicaid. Since 2000 Stefan has practiced family law in courts all over Southcentral, Southwest and Northwest Alaska. Stefan is also trained in mediation and collaborative law, has been a mediator for the court system, and was a child advocate (guardian ad litem) for over 12 years. Stefan now emphasizes mediation and collaborative law in the family law context.

Rachel Bunnell, CFP, CDFA, MPAS (Financial Professional): Rachel Bunnell is a Family Wealth Advisor with The Planning Group of the Northwest at RW Baird and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA). Rachel joined the Planning Group of the Northwest in 2007. She has earned her Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) designation and Masters in Personal Financial Planning (MPAS®) from the College for Financial Planning. In 2019, she earned the designation Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®), allowing her to assist individuals and separated couples as they navigate the financial aspects of divorce; she wishes to help them make the best financial decisions possible in an already difficult circumstance.