We Don't Talk Anymore: Healing after Parents and Their Adult Children Become Estranged

by Kathy McCoy PhD

Overview

Understand the painful silence of estrangement and finally heal the rift

Estrangement from an adult son or daughter is one of a parent's worst nightmares. Becoming estranged from a parent can be equally painful for an adult child, who may miss the relationship they once shared. For both it can mean angry silences and anguished days and nights wondering what went wrong.

Written by Kathy McCoy, one of the nation's more revered experts on family relationships, We Don't Talk Anymore is a insightful and relevant new exploration of estrangement for both parents and adult children. Each chapter also provides compassionate, practical tips focused on what both parents and adult children can do, including:

• Finding courage to reach out to your loved one
• Understanding the conflict and discovering a new and fulfilling connection
• Letting go and rebuilding your life

Families deserve clarity and understanding. We Don't Talk Anymore will show you those first steps toward dealing with a painful topic and finally healing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492651147
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	717 KB

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/18/2017
Centered on the idea that the only person whose “perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors” you can change are your own, this practical guidebook goes through the most common conflicts between older parents and their adult children and offers the perspective of each side. Family therapist McCoy (The Teenage Body Book) goes through top stressors—such as culture clashes, “gray” (late in life) divorce, money, and sexuality—that cause breaks in familial relationships and explains the usual thought processes behind each side’s responses to these stressors, all in a format that will make it easy for readers to turn right to what they need most. McCoy condemns entitled behaviors that cause intergenerational anger and estrangement, such as millennials moving home without showing they intend to pursue their goals, with gentle firmness. She provides clear steps for both parents and children to stop cycles of blame, take responsibility, and learn to live with difference. This book is a great starting place for readers hoping to let go of long-term resentments and improve communication with estranged family members. Agent: Stephany Evans, Ayesha Pande Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"We Don’t Talk Anymore is a wise, clearly written, and helpful book for parents and adult children who are going through the trauma of estrangement. It is a great contribution to the important, but still relatively new, field of advice for families trying to reckon with this painful topic. I highly recommend it." — Joshua Coleman, PhD, author of When Parents Hurt

"A tender and practical exploration of estrangement for both parents and adult children." — The Midwest Book Review

"This practical guidebook goes through the most common conflicts between older parents and their adult children and offers the perspective of each side...a great starting place for readers hoping to let go of long-term resentments and improve communication with estranged family members. " — Publishers Weekly-STARRED

"This well-focused book addresses so well the cataclysmic schism that often fractures the unity of an intact family. Dr. McCoy gives a glimpse into very real family dynamics of broken relationships with poignant clinical scenarios. Her expertise as a family counselor and therapist provides the reader with soothing treatment and practical approaches to understand and move forward to heal and mend these now fragile relationships. The author provides up to-date-research to document current counseling techniques, including research on epigenetics. This book is a must for any parent or adult child who have lost their relationship with each other." — Charles J. Wibbelsman, M.D., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco

From the Publisher