Two two-hour learning circles for helping professionals who accompany mothers navigating child estrangement—offering insight, reflection, and practical approaches that foster dignity, resilience, and hope.
Clergy · Coaches · Spiritual Directors · Holistic Healers · Chaplains · Hospice Staff
Companions Will Be Able To
Upcoming Cohort: Wednesdays, 6-8 pm CT on Zoom
September 9 and 16
Not ready to commit? Join the waitlist and you’ll be the first to know when registration opens.
Recognize ambiguous loss, identity disruption, and betrayal trauma
Understand the impact of estrangement on the nervous system
Respond to mothers without reinforcing shame, blame, or stigma
Support mothers in reclaiming a sense of personal agency
Help mothers identify pathways toward healing, meaning, and becoming
Practice witnessing as a form of sacred care
Support women in reclaiming dignity, identity, and self-worth
Hold space for love, grief, uncertainty, and hope to coexist
Integrate trauma-informed and spiritually grounded approaches into their existing work
To support meaningful conversation and connection, participation is limited to twelve companions.
Learning Circle 1
Understanding Child Estrangement:
Why This Hurts So Much
Purpose
To deepen understanding of child estrangement as a complex experience involving grief, identity, attachment, belonging, and meaning-making.
Learning Outcomes
You will leave with:
a deeper understanding of why child estrangement can be so emotionally devastating
language for discussing ambiguous loss and identity disruption
increased awareness of the cultural expectations shaping motherhood and caregiving
greater sensitivity to the shame, self-blame, and isolation many mothers experience
a framework for understanding estrangement beyond simplistic narratives of blame and fault
Mindset
We focus on:
understanding rather than diagnosing
curiosity rather than assumptions
compassion rather than judgment
Topics Explored
Why Child Estrangement Hurts So Much
Understanding Ambiguous Loss
Identity Disruption and Role Collapse
The Glass Cradle™ and the Cultural Feminine
Motherhood, Emotional Labor, and Belonging
Shame, Self-Blame, and the Internal Trial
Grief, Trauma, and Nervous System Responses
Common Myths and Misconceptions About Estrangement
Storywork Alchemy: The Narratives Mothers Carry
Child estrangement is often misunderstood. Friends, family members, clergy, therapists, and helping professionals may see a relationship rupture, yet fail to recognize the profound identity, attachment, and meaning-making challenges many mothers are navigating.
This workshop explores child estrangement through the lenses of ambiguous loss, identity disruption, caregiving culture, and the Glass Cradle™. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of why estrangement can be so devastating and why common responses often unintentionally increase shame and isolation.
Rather than asking, "How do we fix the relationship?" we begin by asking:
What has been disrupted beneath the relationship itself?
Learning Circle 2
Accompanying Mothers Through Estrangement: Witnessing, Resilience, and Reclamation
Purpose
To equip companions with frameworks, language, and practices that support healing, resilience, and identity reclamation in mothers navigating estrangement.
Learning Outcomes
You will leave with:
greater confidence supporting mothers experiencing estrangement
practical tools for compassionate listening and accompaniment
increased ability to distinguish between grief, guilt, shame, and identity collapse
a deeper understanding of the Sovereign Self framework
approaches that foster resilience, dignity, and personal agency
Mindset
We focus on:
witnessing rather than fixing
presence rather than certainty
empowerment rather than rescue
Topics Explored
What Mothers Most Need (and Often Do Not Receive)
Witnessing Versus Problem Solving
Supporting Grief Without Reinforcing Self-Blame
Shame, Rumination, and Emotional Loops
The Sovereign Self Framework
Hope Without Self-Abandonment
Boundaries, Dignity, and Self-Respect
Reclaiming Meaning, Purpose, and Identity
Accompanying Without Taking Ownership of Outcomes
Living Beyond the Rupture
Once we better understand the experience of estrangement, a different question emerges:
How do we accompany mothers with wisdom, compassion, and integrity?
Many helping professionals feel pressure to provide answers, solutions, or pathways toward reconciliation. Yet mothers often need something different: a skilled witness who can help them navigate grief, uncertainty, identity reconstruction, and the ongoing work of reclaiming a meaningful life.
This workshop explores practical approaches for supporting mothers while avoiding common pitfalls that can unintentionally deepen shame, guilt, or self-abandonment.
Program Investment
$197
To support meaningful conversation and connection, participation is limited to twelve companions.
Investment Includes
Two Learning Circles
Downloadable, Printable Companion Guide
Recordings of teaching portions of the Learning Circles
Resource List