50+ Resources For Estranged Family Members
June 11, 2025
Articles, podcast episodes, videos, worksheets, and more to help you navigate family estrangement.
I've received a lot of requests for estrangement resources lately. So, I wanted to link them all here for you. We also have a new search feature on the website.
Some of the things are paywalled (membership to The Family Cyclebreakers Club gets you access to everything), and there are a lot of free resources!
Groups:
Articles:
- This is Why Family Estrangement Happens
- How To Explain Family Estrangement To Friends, Family Members, And Children
- How To Manage Ten Common Situations When You’re Estranged
- This Is Why Family Estrangement Hurts So Bad
- Finding Peace During The Holidays: Navigating Estrangement From Family
- How To Navigate Sibling Estrangement
Videos:
- Do I Have To Tell My Family Member I Don't Want A Relationship?
- Estrangement and No-Contact Defined
- Should I try to maintain contact for the sake of family unity?
- Monthly Q&A: Family Estrangement with Whitney Goodman, LMFT
- Estrangement Isn’t A Punishment
- How To Spend Time With Your Family When You're Estranged From A Sibling
Worksheets:
- Should We Be Estranged? Checklist
- 5 Journal Prompts To Help You Process Your Estrangement
- How To Write An Estrangement Or No Contact Letter
- How To Decide If You Need A Boundary, Low Contact, Or Estrangement
Scripts:
- How To Tell A Family Member You Can No Longer Have A Relationship
- How To Respond When Someone Asks About Your Family And You're Estranged
- How To Begin Reconciliation With An Estranged Family Member
- What To Say When You Run Into An Estranged Family Member In Public
- Responding To Estranged Family About Your Pregnancy or Child
- What to Say When People Pressure You to Forgive the Dead (or the Estranged)
- How to Sit With Missing Someone Without Reaching Back Out
Podcasts:
- Is This Why Young People Are Cutting Off Their Parents?
- Grieving A Parent Who Wasn't Really There
- The Power Of Parting with Eamon Dolan
- Parenting Without A Map: Raising Kids Without Role Model
- Q&A: I'm Estranged From My Parents And My Sister Has Cancer
- You Don't Stop Family Estrangement By Saying It's Bad: How To Actually Prevent Family Estrangement
- Can Adults Abandon Their Parents?
- Nuance Needed About Adult Child and Parent Estrangement
- My Parent Is Distant. Should I Cut Them Off?
- Q&A: God Told His Parents Not To Speak To Us
- Q&A: My Estranged Parent Keeps Buying My Kids Gifts. What Do I Do?
- Q&A: Estrangement During The Holidays
- My Family and I Don't Agree Politically. Should I Cut Them Off?
- Estranged Parents Share Their Perspective
- Adult Children Share Their Perspective
- What We Know About Adult Child and Parent Estrangement
- Q&A: It's Not About Childhood. It's About How They Treat Me Now
- Family Estrangement and Going No Contact with Patrick Teahan
- Q&A: Spouse Doesn't Understand Going No-Contact
- Q&A: Guilty Over Going No-Contact
- Grandchildren Are Not A Do-Over For Parents Of Adult Children
- Grieving The Apology You Never Got
- Going No Contact
- The Missing, Missing Reasons
- Navigating Sibling Estrangement with Fern Schumer Chapman
- Reconciliation In Relationships
Therapy Guides: