About Our Divorce Support Group
NEW BEGINNINGS® offers a divorce support group and an essential structure and the crucial community of others to heal the pain, speed recovery and move beyond the hurt toward a better future. Discussion meetings, expert speakers and social events provide a forum for coping with loss and betrayal, overcoming problems of trust and risk, and developing improved communication skills. It is not enough just to make the pain go away; the real task is to prevent the pain from happening again.
Only by sharing together--men and women, with and without children, the left and the leavers—can we ultimately understand that an end is also a NEW BEGINNING.
What We Do
Discussion Meetings
In-person meetings are held in members' homes around the DC metro area. Topics include issues specifically for people in the early stages of separation (Coping with Aloneness, Anger, The 8 Stages of Separation) as well as issues pertaining to dating, new relationships and personal growth. All meetings are facilitated by a member-volunteer trained to guide the discussion. There is never any pressure to talk.
Guest Speakers
Attorneys, psychologists, financial planners and accountants, mediators and communication skills experts offer members the opportunity to acquire necessary information and practical assistance.
Social Events
Monthly gatherings just for fun, where everyone is single, provide a friendly place to practice new social skills.
History
CAROL RANDOLPH is the Founder of NEW BEGINNINGS®. In 1979 she placed a three-line ad in Washingtonian Magazine. Nine people attended the first meeting on October 3, 1979. Incorporation as a nonprofit followed in 1980 and tax-exempt status in 1981.
Carol has served continuously as Executive Director, often as a staff of one, building on her own experience through separation and divorce to offer to others what she needed but could not find anywhere else. She has received several awards for her work and was named among Montgomery County's Women Making History in 2025.
Contributor, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Divorce & Recovery (2008)
Membership: Montgomery County Divorce & Family Law Roundtable (2016-Present)