A Durban-born woman has written an essential guide for women who are going through a divorce.
Pratisha Sirkisson, 52, is today launching her book titled ‘EmpowerHER: A Woman's Guide to Navigating Divorce.
Sirkisson drew from her own personal experience and provides a comprehensive roadmap to manage the emotional, legal, and financial challenges with strength and confidence.
The guide addresses unique hurdles women encounter, offering strategies for legal understanding, financial management, co-parenting, and life rebuilding.
Through inspiring stories and personal advice, Sirkisson encourages women to see divorce as an opportunity for growth.
"When I started writing the book I titled it ‘Women's Survival Guide’ and as I wrote it I realised it wasn't about surviving but empowering. While going through a divorce I realised there were so many challenges because you are not just divorcing your spouse, but you are divorcing family, friends, people you thought were close to you and would support you. It made me think, how many other people are going through this and who do they turn to.
"When I started writing it was just me journalling my thoughts to help me to cope with the situation and do the healing. As I wrote the book I realised how many other people it could help," she said.
Sirkisson, a lawyer and a health and wellness practitioner, said it took her six years to write the book.
She said while going through the motions of healing she always looked for the silver lining.
"You cannot ignore or brush away the situation and pretend that you are not feeling the way you are feeling," she said.
The mother of two, formerly from Reservoir Hill and now living in Johannesburg, said it is important to have people to motivate you and support you.
She said most important was the visualisation of what you want to achieve for yourself and how you see yourself in the future.
"It's like establishing your identity and finding yourself. This book is not only for divorced women but for people whether you have a friend, family member or colleague that is going through a divorce so that you can understand how you can be of support to that person while they are going through a challenging time," said Sirkisson.
She said the transition during a divorce is tough on the children.
"I did not want my children to think they came from a divided home. I always told them to think that they now have an extended family, like two birthdays."
Sirkisson said each chapter is a standalone with a summary at the end of every chapter.
"It's not done like a novel where you have to read from beginning to end. It's easy to read. But it is good to read from beginning to end to understand the journey. If someone is worried about finances or fear they could turn to a particular chapter. A lady who read the book said she had the issue of losing her friends, not being invited and seeing your ex on social media and how it hurt and when she read the book it helped her overcome that because she understood from where it was coming and helped her in her healing.
"The whole intent of this book is to help other people overcome the situation in different ways and different scenarios that they may expect to come across," said Sirkisson.
The book is available on Takealot for R260.
