I did one post-divorce, and it was tremendously helpful - yes, they closed my existing accounts, but once I was through the program, I didn't have problems rebuilding credit, and I've not had problems using it since. (My issues with debt were mostly situational, which is much easier to manage now.)

Delinquent accounts are much more of a hit on your credit score than a small number of accounts. And the debt relief programs (the good ones) have experience working out the details so once the debt is cleared, there's nothing on your record, usually.

And they saved me a lot of money in negotiation (lower interest rates) and a tremendous amount of stress in managing it, since once it was set up, all I had to do was make the monthly payment to the program. I could see real progress in things improving pretty quickly.