This month, I am forcing myself to write about the positives of estrangement.

Together Estranged Named Resource Organization in new book - No Contact edited by Jenny Bartoy

Healing doesn't always happen through talking, sometimes it begins through small moments of connection; spending time in nature, being creative, sharing a laugh with others, or being alongside an animal who asks nothing of us except our presence.

This month, the advice columnist answers a question about what might happen after an apology.

Press Release: Together Estranged Releases 2025 Community Needs Report, Revealing That Estranged Adult Children Face a Double Estrangement: From Family, and From Society

Sibling estrangement and abuse must be understood within the context of the family system in which it occurs. It is often not mutual conflict but one-sided, shaped by power differentials and dynamics of control.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trauma. The word has recently become more mainstream, and while it may be overused or used incorrectly at times, it’s a word people, like me, can use to describe experiences they went through and the everlasting effects. I had a traumatic childhood.

Estrangement can shape our inner world in ways that can be hard to describe, sometimes it feels loud with thoughts circling, emotions rising, a kind of internal noise that doesn’t quite settle. At other times it can feel very quiet, a flatness, a sense of disconnection, like everything has gone a bit distant and there is this humming sound of longing and loss in the background.

This month, the advice columnist addresses how to handle conversations about your estrangement with other people in your social circle.

Estrangement has a way of sneaking into your life and triggering memories. And it may come in the form of flashbacks, déjà vu, or you may just catch yourself imitating a parent even though you swore up and down that you would never be like him or her. And all this has gotten me to think about our memories. The painful ones we try to conceal that always manage to surface. Can we trust them?