When it comes to being trauma-informed, certain key principles arise with respect to safety, trustworthiness, freedom to choose, mutuality, empowerment and cultural consideration. These are all important elements to ensure the well-being of individuals facing trauma. Just as with trauma, estrangement can appear invisible, until it is openly shared and spoken about. What would anContinue reading “The Wisdom in being Estrangement-Informed”
Tag Archives: #family
The Inner Child and Sibling Estrangement
Our experience with sibling estrangement can leave a lasting mark on our lives. Being in an estrangement-prone family, we can be left with the experience of fear, hurt, misunderstanding, hostility, avoidance, or rigidity within us. These reactions can cause us to become something we are not, and play themselves out in unhealthy ways that driveContinue reading “The Inner Child and Sibling Estrangement”
Acknowledgment and Sibling Estrangement
As more and more of us start to name and understand sibling estrangement, we start to see the underlying elements that create suffering for us. These can include rumination, the lack of answers, the rejection of who we are, or the hijacking of a narrative about us within the family system that is false, justContinue reading “Acknowledgment and Sibling Estrangement”
Weaponizing Forgiveness
It’s often mentioned that we should forgive. Everywhere we go, we are told to turn the other cheek. That is especially true in family settings. Certain family members may well feel awkward with the idea that their offspring don’t get along with each other. So much so that undue pressure can be put on usContinue reading “Weaponizing Forgiveness”
Estranged versus Estranger
Someone recently posted in one of the estrangement pages on facebook that the people estranged couldn’t possibly be in the same group as those doing the estranging. His argument was that if you were estranged, then there must be a reason for it, of which you are responsible. Such rigid, judgmental and dismissive thinking causedContinue reading “Estranged versus Estranger”
Sibling Estrangement 