A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children.

Finally, here's a hopeful, comprehensive, and compassionate guide to navigating one of the most painful experiences for parents and their adult children alike.--Lori Gottlieb, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Labeled a silent epidemic by a growing number of therapists and researchers, estrangement is one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. Popular opinion typically tells a one-sided story of parents who got what they deserved or overly entitled adult children who wrongly blame their parents. However, the reasons for estrangement are far more complex and varied. As a result of rising rates of individualism, an increasing cultural emphasis on happiness, growing economic insecurity, and a historically recent perception that parents are obstacles to personal growth, many parents find themselves forever shut out of the lives of their adult children and grandchildren.

As a trusted psychologist whose own daughter cut off contact for several years and eventually reconciled, Dr. Joshua Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide parents in navigating these fraught interactions. He helps to alleviate the ongoing feelings of shame, hurt, guilt, and sorrow that commonly attend these dynamics. By placing estrangement into a cultural context, Dr. Coleman helps parents better understand the mindset of their adult children and teaches them how to implement the strategies for reconciliation and healing that he has seen work in his forty years of practice. Rules of Estrangement gives parents the language and the emotional tools to engage in meaningful conversation with their child, the framework to cultivate a healthy relationship moving forward, and the ability to move on if reconciliation is no longer possible.

While estrangement is a complex and tender topic, Dr. Coleman's insightful approach is based on empathy and understanding for both the parent and the adult child.

A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children.

Finally, here's a hopeful, comprehensive, and compassionate guide to navigating one of the most painful experiences for parents and their adult children alike.--Lori Gottlieb, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Labeled a silent epidemic by a growing number of therapists and researchers, estrangement is one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. Popular opinion typically tells a one-sided story of parents who got what they deserved or overly entitled adult children who wrongly blame their parents. However, the reasons for estrangement are far more complex and varied. As a result of rising rates of individualism, an increasing cultural emphasis on happiness, growing economic insecurity, and a historically recent perception that parents are obstacles to personal growth, many parents find themselves forever shut out of the lives of their adult children and grandchildren.

As a trusted psychologist whose own daughter cut off contact for several years and eventually reconciled, Dr. Joshua Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide parents in navigating these fraught interactions. He helps to alleviate the ongoing feelings of shame, hurt, guilt, and sorrow that commonly attend these dynamics. By placing estrangement into a cultural context, Dr. Coleman helps parents better understand the mindset of their adult children and teaches them how to implement the strategies for reconciliation and healing that he has seen work in his forty years of practice. Rules of Estrangement gives parents the language and the emotional tools to engage in meaningful conversation with their child, the framework to cultivate a healthy relationship moving forward, and the ability to move on if reconciliation is no longer possible.

While estrangement is a complex and tender topic, Dr. Coleman's insightful approach is based on empathy and understanding for both the parent and the adult child.

A unique book helping parents whose relationship with their older or adult child has not turned out as they expected deal with their pain, shame, and sense of loss, and take steps toward healing.

This unique book supports parents who have lost the opportunity to be the parent they desperately wanted to be and who are mourning the loss of a harmonious relationship with their child. Through case examples and healing exercises, Dr. Coleman helps parents:

- Reduce anger, guilt, and shame

- Learn how temperament, the teen years, their own or a partner's mistakes, and divorce can harm the parent-child bond

- Come to terms with their imperfections and their child's

- Develop strategies for reaching out and for maintaining their self-esteem through trying times

- Understand how society's expectations contribute to the risk of parental wounds.

By helping parents recognize what they can do and let go of what they cannot, Dr. Coleman helps families develop more positive ways of relating to themselves and each other.

A clinical psychologist with a thriving family practice, Dr. Coleman sees the same situation again and again: Couples enter therapy on the verge of divorce and after several weeks find a renewed sense of joy and interest in their marriage. At last, unhappy couples now have a viable alternative to divorce. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Joshua Coleman reveals a revolutionary new perspective on marriage and adult happiness. By suggesting simple yet practical tools to help couples make over their lives, Dr. Coleman has taught thousands of people how to live happily together in imperfect harmony.

Featuring over 50 hand-drawn illustrations.

An engaging cast of characters and outrageous moments await. Paul just wants to be normal, but The Wasteland ain't normal, kid.

Thirty years ago, The Wasteland Star showed up and nearly destroyed the world. Paul, a traveling handyman, now struggles to survive the insanity of this devolved world. He'd much rather live the simple life.

But the simple life is hard to come by when he mistakenly introduces himself as the most hated person in the known world, a person known for destroying entire towns, a person known only as The Handyman. He manages to find a few allies, but Gearhead isn't buying Paul's supposed good-guy facade. Can Paul avoid the noose that awaits him, or will this Handyman mishap haunt him for the rest of his life, short as it could be?

If you're looking for something humorous that isn't middle-grade-simplistic, nor filled with filth you'd be afraid to tell your grandma about, and you just want to sit back and enjoy a book without dissecting every major plot line, then this book is for you. The quality of writing and editing is top-tier, with strong, believable dialogue. These days, it's easy to find a book with a cool cover and be disappointed by how poorly written it is. Yeah, your baby sister could write better. Sometimes we find guilty pleasure in reading those books (ever read a light novel?), but this isn't one of those books. This is a labor of love and editing. It's not going to blow your socks off and keep you gripped to the edge of your seat; it's a steady, enjoyable ride, one chapter at a time, with some good laughs throughout.

Oh, and book two is even funnier.

The stick-figure illustrations are full of character. There's only one good way to draw a raccoon throwing a trash can, or someone belching flames. There's an oversized bazooka in there, and someone definitely gets electrocuted. It's all drawn with as much class that stick-figures can afford. Super classy. Yeah. Totally classy.

Want a more detailed story blurb that borders on too much? Here you go:

Paul stumbles into the town of Desolation, looking to rest his tired eyes, only to be threatened by Gearhead, who thinks he's The Handyman, an infamous murderer. Janus overhears their misunderstanding, and saves the day, but Paul quickly realizes that she's unpredictable. Just what he needs: another crazy Wastelander. Despite that, he agrees to stay with her to earn a bit of money until he can move on to the next town. After thirty years of being a traveling handyman, Paul has certainly been through worse. Pinstripes, the man in charge of a chocolate factory in town, takes a liking to Paul, and Paul meets others who are equally odd, yet likeable. Gearhead, on the other hand, has no intentions of letting him leave town. A noose awaits Paul if he doesn't get out of town soon enough.

But work continues! Paul joins Janus in fixing the town's water tower, and does some odd jobs for others in town. When they help fix the chocolate factory, Paul finds great favor among the people. They assure him that Gearhead won't do anything that might leave him headless. Paul wants to believe that people are good, so naturally he gives Gearhead a chance, which definitely doesn't help his situation. Paul needs to get out of town if he knows what's good for him. He doesn't know what's good for him. He stays.

The current volume seeks to demonstrate, through myriad subject matter, the vital influence and role of aesthetics upon any collective attempt to stem the current environmental crisis. Recent writing in this area is making new inroads and this work aims to further that discussion.

After his run-in with The Handyman, Paul is in search of the simple life: simple job, simple food, simple place to stay. But the town of Deliverance is anything but simple in their attempts to be simply charming. Behind all their fancy niceties, the town harbors hate and disgust for grimy Wasteland people. They'll do anything to protect their odd interpretation of what was once a normal life thirty years ago, before The Wasteland Star wreaked havoc upon the world. But now their way of life is challenged by a string of fires. Has The Handyman come into town? Is Evil rebelling? Or have the raccoons gotten way too smart? Paul must decide whether to stay and help, or help himself to a vacation away from all this drama.