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Artwork for Proxy with Yowei Shaw
Proxy with Yowei Shaw · Sep 30, 2025 · 40 min

An Estrangement Mystery

There's a strange pattern in family estrangement: adult children say they've explained why they need distance, while parents say they have no idea what went wrong. So where do the reasons go? In part two of our family estrangement series, reporter Kim Nederveen Pieterse talks to two therapists who work on opposite sides of the divide — one with estranged adult children, the other with estranged parents. Read more about why parents struggle to hear their estranged kids in this week's newsletter. Sign up for free at proxyhq.org.

0:00-40:10

transcript

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show notes

There's a strange pattern in family estrangement: adult children say they've explained why they need distance, while parents say they have no idea what went wrong. So where do the reasons go?

In part two of our family estrangement series, reporter Kim Nederveen Pieterse talks to two therapists who work on opposite sides of the divide — one with estranged adult children, the other with estranged parents.

Read more about why parents struggle to hear their estranged kids in this week's newsletter. Sign up for free at proxyhq.org.

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