Forty people gathered virtually on April 21, 2025 to officially launch Soul Custody: Sparing Children from Divorce which released at midnight. A new legacy of lessons learned from divorce is how to make marriages stronger and help people understand why they need to stay for the children.
In her book launch party invocation, author Pamela Henry asked that each of the party attendees be blessed with a greater understanding of family, “a topic near and dear to all our hearts.” After reading from the Preface, she turned the spotlight onto her guest speaker, Dr. Anita Gadhia-Smith, a psychotherapist in Washington, D.C., and author of seven books including, “How To Stay Together Whether You Want To Or Not.”
“In today’s climate, people divorce easily because we live in a disposable society,” said Dr. Gadhia-Smith, who consults for the United States Congress. “There is very little tolerance for the normal discomforts of life and relationships, and people want everything to be easy.”
Dr. Gadhia-Smith says there are four things that destroy marriages: Contempt, criticism, stonewalling and defensiveness. Likewise, there are four things that build up marriage: safety, accessibility, engagement, and responsiveness.
The group discussion afterward affirmed the necessity in today’s political climate for families to bond together stronger than ever and not let division dictate marriage status. Henry called upon the readers of her new book to become advocates of staying for the children: “Reading this book puts you in a unique position to better help any friends, family members or co-workers contemplating divorce. Rather than innocent bystanders, we can be watchdogs for unnecessary divorces and advocates for their marriages where warranted.”
At the launch, Soul Custody Press presented its 2025 Bookmark Awards to book editor Valerie Jones, audiobook producer Jon Lobb and graphic designer Kamaruddin Ahmad. “It’s so powerful when authors narrate their own books,” Lobb said. “In Pamela’s case, it’s the raw, honest emotion the reader will feel.”
Henry recognized family members in attendance. “To my children, may this new legacy of learned lessons be stronger than the legacy of divorce.”
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