When someone does something that bothers you, it’s natural to want them to change. I want my mother to stop posting photos of my child on social media. I want my friend to stop criticizing my choices. But what if they won’t change? Where’s the line between healthy boundaries and trying to control others? Learning […]
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Self-trust is the ability to rely on your own thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and judgment. It’s the sense that you can listen to yourself, believe what you’re seeing and feeling, and handle what comes next. Losing trust in your own perceptions happens when someone you trust keeps telling you your reality is wrong. Betrayal and gaslighting
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Have you heard the term adult child or adult child of a dysfunctional family and wondered if it applies to you? Growing up, you may not have thought of your family as “dysfunctional.” It seemed normal because that’s all you knew. But the experiences you had in childhood and the ways you learned to cope
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Building a stronger, healthier, or better relationship with your adult child requires intentional effort. Like any relationship, you can’t put it on autopilot and expect it to work. Nor can you continue to treat your adult child as you did when they were younger. As children grow into adulthood, the parent-child relationship naturally changes. As
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If you were the family scapegoat, you may have spent years believing you were the problem. You may have been blamed for conflict, criticized more harshly than others, or told you were difficult, dramatic, selfish, or too sensitive. These messages shape how you see yourself and your role in the family. You become the focus
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Cutting ties with an abusive or toxic parent is never an easy choice. Navigating holidays and special occasions when you’re estranged brings its own set of challenges — sadness, guilt, anger, even longing for what could’ve been — even when you know you made the right decision. This article will help you untangle the complex
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Healing from an emotionally abusive relationship is especially hard when we don’t get closure. You may be wondering how you can heal or move forward without an apology, a final conversation, or an explanation. This article explores why closure is so hard to let go of and how healing is still possible, even when the
The death of an estranged parent is one of the more emotionally complicated losses a person can face, bringing up feelings of sadness, relief, guilt, anger, or nothing at all. Regardless of how the relationship ended and what you’re feeling right now, grieving is an integral part of healing from complex or abusive relationships. This
The death of your estranged parent can be disorienting. How are you supposed to feel? What are you supposed to do when someone you’ve cut off dies? This article will help you navigate both the emotional complexity of this loss and the practical decisions you may be facing. The Death of an Estranged Parent is
In codependent relationships, you can lose your individual identity. This occurs when the other person or the relationship defines who you are. Your focus shifts entirely to the other person, sidelining your own needs while prioritizing theirs. Your primary goal becomes ensuring their happiness, sometimes at the cost of our own emotions or sense of self. You begin
