CALLING HOME with Whitney Goodman, LMFT

Turns Out My Dad Wasn't The Bad Guy My Mom Made Him Out to Be

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of childhood emotional neglect, verbal and physical abuse, and parental abduction. How is it that your grandmother is

Is "Concept Creep" What’s Driving Estrangement?

Whitney is fed up with how the "concept creep" of estrangement gets used to shut down conversations about real family harm. She traces the term back to psychologist Nick

Believing Your Child to Break the Cycle

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse, sexual abuse of a child, infidelity, and family estrangement. A listener writes in with a lifetime of

Dealing with Your Mother’s Drama with Ashley Oerman

Journalist Ashley Oerman joins Whitney to talk about her new book, Motherf*cked: How to Stop Your Mother's Toxic Drama from Ruining Your Life, and the low contact relatio

Can Emotionally Immature Parents Change?

A listener spent years hoping her two divorced, emotionally immature parents would finally take accountability, only to watch the same excuses repeat with new partners. W

Why Does Every Dysfunctional Family Need A Scapegoat?

Every dysfunctional family needs somewhere to put the blame, and one person usually ends up holding it for everyone else. Whitney traces the history of the word scapegoat

When You're Forced to Fix What You Didn't Break

Whitney answers two listener questions this week: one from a woman who's been cut off by her parents because of her marriage and another from a woman who found her family

Raising Conscious Sons and Daughters with Dr. Shefali Tsabary

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of domestic violence, violence against women, and past abuse. Whitney talks with Dr. Shefali Tsabary, author of the t

Does Estrangement End?

Whitney answers questions from listeners. The first from a woman who despite living blocks from her aging father can’t seem to connect with him. The second question is fr

Low Effort Families with Dr. Sherrie Campbell

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of childhood physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and the death of a parent.  Psychologist Dr. Sherrie Campbell, cr

When No Contact Doesn't Stop the Contact

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of emotional abuse, ongoing harassment, and a mention of suicidal ideation. In this Q&A episode, Whitney answers a wo

Abuse and Estrangement in Christian Fundamentalism with Stephanie Warren

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse and corporal punishment.  Stephanie Warren was taught that her parents beating her was proof of their

I Asked For Space and They Sued Me

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse and domestic violence. In this Q&A episode, answers a question from a woman whose parents responded to

Why Can't I Be Me When I'm With You?

People don't walk into a therapist's office and say they're having a differentiation problem. They say they feel like a different person around their family, or that they

My Estrangement is Giving Me Migraines and Stomachaches

In this Q&A episode, Whitney answers two questions from listening asking what their responsibility is to people who aren’t going to change. In question one: a stepmom ask

The Lindsay Clancy Trial

Content warning: This episode discusses suicide, postpartum psychosis, and the deaths of children, and includes detailed discussion of the Lindsay Clancy case. The Linds

When a Parent Pulls Away

In this Q&A episode, Whitney answers questions about parents who pull back instead of facing accountability. In question one: a father goes silent for a year after his da

What it’s Like On Both Sides of Estrangment With Kreed Revere

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse and references to sexual abuse. Kreed, host of the Estranged Heart Podcast, shares her perspective as

My Parents Welcomed Their Estrangment

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of domestic violence, child abuse, and suicidal ideation. In this Q&A episode, Whitney answers questions about famili

Are We in an Estrangement Epidemic?

Rin Reczek spent two decades studying families before she turned her research toward estrangement.  What she found in the data took her by complete surprise. In this conv