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Bookmark These Summit Links for Each Day
Tina Gilbertson
Hey everyone, Yasmin Kerkez sent me the access links for each of the four days of the Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit 2022, and invited me to share them with you. Two things: You must be registered (use the link …

Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit 2022
Tina Gilbertson
If you’ve been around here a while, you might remember last year’s wonderful Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit, conceived and hosted by Yasmin Kerkez of Family Support Resources. I was honored to be interviewed by Yasmin for that Summit, and …

Announcement: RC Podcast Schedule Change
Tina Gilbertson
Happy New Year! We have exciting plans to expand our library in 2022 by creating a variety of new resources for our members. That will necessarily mean spending more time on member-only content, and less time on the podcast. So… …

New Study Highlights Differences in Perceptions of Estrangement Cause
Tina Gilbertson
Inside the Reconnection Club, parents help each other try to understand the reasons for their adult children’s decision to create distance. The need for this kind of perspective-taking was highlighted by a study recently published in the journal Couple and …

Are You Overreacting?
Tina Gilbertson
Pain is a normal and expected reaction to the loss of important relationships. But for some parents rejected by adult children, ordinary pain is made worse by unhealed injuries from the past. (See also The Deep Pain of the Rejected …

Why “Teaching Someone a Lesson” Doesn’t Work
Tina Gilbertson
It’s so human to want to teach someone a lesson when they’re behaving badly. Maybe because of the fundamental attribution error (we attribute other people’s behavior to temperament, ours to circumstances), we tend to focus on correcting poor behavior in …

The Readiness Factor
Tina Gilbertson
In every relationship, there’s always the possibility that one of you is ready to take a new step when the other is not. As a parent unwillingly estranged from one or more of your adult children, you can do everything …

How to Make the Best of a Bad Situation
Tina Gilbertson
Hey folks, I just wanted to let you know about my latest post over on PsychologyToday.com. You know as well as anyone what it’s like to live with a situation you don’t want. And while estrangement has special challenges that …

Handling Complaints from Your Estranged Adult Child
Tina Gilbertson
If you manage to open communication with your estranged adult child, it’s good to be prepared for the crucial task of receiving complaints. Unless you have a conscious plan for your response, the rift could easily widen. Because the way …

Feeling Insecure in Relationships
Tina Gilbertson
I don’t always share my relationship-themed PsychologyToday.com posts with estranged parents. Often they’re just not relevant to this audience. But today’s post struck me as being maybe a little bit more interesting, at least to some parents. Several Reconnection Club …

Podcast Interview Re: Estrangement
Tina Gilbertson
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Las Vegas-based therapist Lourdes Viado. Lourdes hosts a podcast called “Women in Depth,” and she invited me to do an interview about my book, Reconnecting With Your Estranged Adult Child. Lourdes is …

What If Your Estranged Adult Child Just Doesn’t Like You?
Tina Gilbertson
Over the years, I’ve heard more than one parent express the concern that their estranged adult child doesn’t have reason to reconcile, because they don’t even like the parent in the first place. Recently, one of our Reconnection Club members …

Free Help Locating Relatives
Tina Gilbertson
You may be familiar with Tom Martin, P.I., from our recent interview about locating your estranged adult child. (Reconnection Club members can click here to read the transcript.) If so, you already know that as a private investigator, Tom has a …

Was Your Estranged Adult Child Adopted?
Tina Gilbertson
Adoption adds complexity to parent-adult child estrangement One of the most important tasks for parents estranged from adult children is to understand their children’s reasons for creating distance. Until parents can put themselves in their children’s shoes and see things …

Help! My Husband’s Adult Children Don’t Talk to Him
Tina Gilbertson
Your husband’s adult child or children aren’t talking to him, and he’s obviously in pain about it. Maybe it’s been years since they last saw each other. Your heart aches for your spouse. The months keep rolling by, and nothing …