My name is Kristen M. Ploetz and my experience with divorce is both personal and professional.
Ending a long-term marriage, especially one with children, results in a lot of emotions, and I have experienced them all.
At the age of 49, after being married to a wonderful man for more than twenty years, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life: I ended our marriage. Neither of us had done anything wrong and our marriage—our lives together—checked all the boxes. But over time I realized that my head and heart needed to be with a woman. I reached the hard truth that I needed to leave the marriage even though it would completely upend my spouse’s life, our daughter’s, and my own.
Going through the process of divorce and losing the label of “spouse” is challenging enough, but perhaps more so when you are also simultaneously coming out as LGBTQ+ because even more of your identity—the you you and everyone else thought they knew—is now also on display.
I am also a child of divorce myself: my parents separated the summer before I started college and divorced not long after. I understand what it means when parents divorce right around the time a young adult is finding their footing on the path to independence. How parents approach their divorce and any inability to manage conflict or put their children’s best interests first can often have significant negative consequences for their children, even long after the divorce is final.
Professionally, I have been a licensed attorney since 2002. Most recently, I practiced as a family law attorney and mediator. My litigation clients and their divorces ranged from amicable to high conflict, and I supported each of them in the different ways they needed as they walked the path toward their new lives. As a trained family law mediator, I have worked as a third-party neutral in several divorce mediations, assisting divorcing couples in reaching full settlement.
Bringing all of these experiences toward work that feels more fulfilling to me personally, I left family law litigation to become a CDC Certified Divorce Coach to help other women like me, those of us in midlife needing a change, no matter what the stakes may be. Additionally, because I believe so fervently in the alternative dispute resolution process as a better path to resolve most divorces, I also pursued additional pre-mediation divorce coaching training from the Divorce Coaches Academy (DCA). I’m proud to have received divorce coaching training from both CDC and DCA, two institutions that have and uphold clear ethical and continuing education standards for effective and meaningful divorce coaching, which is important for clients and other divorce professionals to understand since many divorce coaches do not have this (or any) caliber of training and professional standards.
To provide my services as a divorce coach, KMP Coaching LLC was launched in 2025. I meet virtually with divorce coaching clients from all across the U.S. It is among the most fulfilling, meaningful work I’ve ever done.
In my spare time, I am an avid reader, run a virtual short story book club, enjoy walking, love to explore bakeries and independent bookstores, and surround myself with my favorite people, including my daughter who is soon off to college. I also love to write and currently have a couple of projects in the works, including a memoir and short story collection, so that I can hopefully put my MFA in creative writing to good use with a published book someday.
If you want to work with me, please reach out here to schedule your free 30-minute consultation/discovery session.
