Navigating Estrangement Situations | Being Well Podcast

We’ve received a substantial number of questions from our listeners regarding familial estrangement – when one family member distances themselves from the others, or chooses not to interact with them at all. It’s a common and extremely challenging situation, and the pain related to it can be particularly intense during the holidays. Today on Being Well, Dr. ‪@RickHanson‬ and I discuss family estrangement, particularly between parents and children, and how the questions we engage in this territory apply more broadly to how we balance our own boundaries with the responsibilities we have toward other people. Subscribe to Being Well on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5d87ZU1... Key Topics: 0:00 Introduction 3:00 Our framework for discussing estrangement in this episode 6:10 Joining and distancing 9:40 Duties in relationship between children and aging parents 15:50 Parents’ behavior then vs. now 19:00 Distinguishing family systems from parents as individuals 24:40 Functional forgiveness when someone doesn’t show remorse 27:20 Choosing the kind of relationship we want to have 32:35 Parents’ pain when children distance 34:40 How parents can consider the child’s perspective 41:00 Grieving an estranged relationship internally 47:10 Approaches to interacting with estranged children 52:20 How to decide whether or not to engage in a relationship 56:00 Awareness of cultural influences 58:15 Ownership and what parents can do to repair 1:04:05 The wide range of variables influencing family relationships 1:08:25 Grieving the phantom presence 1:09:50 Recap Who Am I: I'm Forrest, the co-author of Resilient (https://amzn.to/3iXLerD) and host of the Being Well Podcast (https://apple.co/38ufGG0). I'm making videos focused on simplifying psychology, mental health, and personal growth. You can follow me here: 🎤 https://apple.co/38ufGG0 🌍 https://www.forresthanson.com 📸   / f.hanson