Facilitated family reunion
Approaching your adult child or your parent after years of separation can feel daunting. A history of miscommunication, falsehoods, secrets, feelings of abandonment and rejection make many people separated because of family break up, dismiss thoughts of a reunion as too risky.
The individual experiences of those caught up in the heartache of family estrangement do vary, however the following circumstances are usual:
Non resident parents...
- Were a target non resident parent in parental alienation or hostile aggressive parenting cases
- Believed their child was better off without them
- Didn’t want to disrupt their child’s post-divorce family life
- Ended contact when their child rejected them
Children felt...
- Hurt that the end of mum and dad’s marriage was the end to both mum and dad as their parents
- Angry that mum or dad just walked away
- Bewildered that their parent believed them when they said they didn’t want to see them any more
- Guilty about giving their non resident parent such a hard time
Having counselled many broken hearted clients, yearning to reconnect I now offer sensitively managed reunion process, tailor made for each client.
Tailor made reunion process
A reunion should be well planned and managed with care. Both estranged parents and adult children can initiate the process. The process will be tailor made for each client but will usually include:
- An assessment session will allow the initiating party to consider fully, their motivation and expectations for a reunion. It will also allow us to discuss the practicalities of a reunion. For example, is the whereabouts of the parent/adult child known.
- An approach to the estranged party by me.
- If there is willingness for a reunion, separate one to one sessions with each party will take place before I facilitate a face to face reunion session. Further sessions can be arranged if both parties feel this will be useful.