Estrangement and Broken-Heart Syndrome

Sleepy dog

As if being estranged from your adult child(ren) weren’t bad enough, the stress of the emotional pain it causes could actually affect your heart. Known by various names, including Takotsubo Syndrome and stress cardiomypathy, Broken-Heart Syndrome is brought on mainly by emotional or physical stressors. Extreme emotions, such as those that may accompany an unwanted …

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Emotions of Estrangement

Do you prefer listening to reading? There’s an episode of the Reconnection Club Podcast on this same topic. Listen now: Ep 139: Emotions of Estrangement  *   *   * When you first realize you’ve become estranged from your adult child(ren), you may be shocked. Also confused, afraid, and maybe a little bit panicked. Some parents who’ve …

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Learning Pathways are here!

We’re excited to announce the first of three planned Learning Pathways to be released in 2023 for Reconnection Club members. Learning Pathways are recommended resource packages for specific circumstances. They provide a list of suggested materials to digest in sequence, along with a workbook for note-taking and review. The Green learning pathway is for parents …

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2022 MBFS Summit Interview with Tina Gilbertson

The Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit, hosted by Family Support Resources (FSR), this year featured 26 experts in the field of family estrangement, communication, relationships and personal growth. The entire 2022 Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit, including all videos and other materials, is available for purchase through FSR.  However, FSR has generously provided the Reconnection …

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Bookmark These Summit Links for Each Day

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 above or click the pic), and Each day opens at 9am US Pacific Time / …

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Moving Beyond Family Struggles Summit 2022

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 I have the honor and pleasure again this year to be part of Day 2 …

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Announcement: RC Podcast Schedule Change

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… Starting this month, new episodes of The Reconnection Club Podcast will be released every other …

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Are You Overreacting?

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 Parent) If you’ve been hurt deeply or often in your life, even a healthy response …

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Why “Teaching Someone a Lesson” Doesn’t Work

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 other people. We aren’t quite as ardent when it comes to scrutinizing ourselves. I think …

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The Readiness Factor

How long does estrangement last?

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 right, say all the right things, and still not get to reconciliation if the timing …

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How to Make the Best of a Bad Situation

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 make it ultra-painful, you might be interested in some general tips for making the best …

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Handling Complaints from Your Estranged Adult Child

If you manage to open communication with your estranged adult child, you’ll need 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 parents handle complaints makes the estrangement either better or worse. Here’s what you need to …

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Feeling Insecure in Relationships

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 members have been talking in our forums about relationships in general.  They’re sharing that they …

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Podcast Interview Re: Estrangement

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 a thoughtful interviewer. In this conversation, she highlighted some of the most important aspects of …

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