Holidays, birthdays and other family-oriented times of the year can be a time of heartache for parents whose adult children have cut them off — and the growing phenomenon is much more common than our idealized notions about family would have us believe.
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Estranged From Your Adult Child: The Last Thing You Ever Expected
Three Hacks to Handle the Difficult Person in Your Life
I get to spend most of my time with clients coming up with “life hacks,” those simple and deliciously clever ways to deal with life’s frustrations and without a doubt, difficult people are at the top of the list.
How to Make Peace with Your Parents — And Just About Anybody Else
“It’s always something or your mother,” as Wynona Judd is fond of saying. I guess she should know. She and her mother Naomi Judd were one of the most successful duos in country music history, and the backstory of their complicated relationship has been well documented on reality TV.
How Resilience Protects Your Heart – Inside and Out
“What’s your why?”
I knew that question would be a great ice-breaker at the American Heart Association event I was hosting.
The answers came quickly, and all of them were personal: names of relatives and friends who had survived — or not — from heart disease or stroke. Some answers struck even closer to […]
Holiday Stress? Write It Off.
The best part of showing up for the University of Louisville Depression Center Conference in November isn’t the continuing education credits. It may sound strange, but I was invigorated and […]
BUILDING RESILIENCE: How to Get a Grip, Get Back Up and Go On
I recently had my first appointment with my new primary care physician. As she scanned the medical history of my parents, she paused when she got to the cause of death. “So… your father was … murdered?” (more…)
How to Perform Under Pressure
Do you believe that you perform better under pressure? Do you do your best creative thinking under a severe pressure deadline? Do you worry about a child or colleague that chokes under pressure? (more…)
ESTRANGED: What to Do When Your Adult Child Wants Nothing To Do With You
Nothing can create more feelings of shame than to be rejected by your own child.
One parent described it this way, “It’s like she died, only worse — my adult daughter lives here in town, but she won’t have anything to do with me — and places all the blame for the estrangement on me.”