{"id":9492,"date":"2024-07-14T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2024-07-14T09:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T09:24:22","slug":"no-contact-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=9492","title":{"rendered":"No Contact America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As she struggled through her sophomore year in college, Zhenzhen spent hours in therapy, but it hadn\u2019t addressed the central strain in her life: her parents.<\/p>\n

They called her at her Midwestern campus again and again, badgering her to fulfill their expectations \u2014 to study business, and to return to China, marry a wealthy man and raise children near them, she said. When she pushed back, her father screamed, she said, and her mother wept.<\/p>\n

The pressure made it hard to function, and Zhenzhen fended off thoughts of suicide. But when she brought this dynamic up with her therapists, she said, \u201cthey would always stand by reconciliation, and \u2018family is everything.\u2019 They would always look at the problem from the parent\u2019s lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she discovered Patrick Teahan, a licensed social worker from Massachusetts with tousled hair and a massive YouTube following<\/a>. Mr. Teahan\u2019s videos introduced her to a new idea \u2014 that to heal from childhood trauma, it may be necessary to \u201cgo no contact\u201d from abusive parents. Around half of Mr. Teahan\u2019s clients restrict or sever ties with their families, which he describes as \u201cbrutally hard\u201d but, when it is appropriate, deeply rewarding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Mr. Teahan\u2019s website, you can fill out a \u201cToxic Family Test,\u201d which measures your family on a 100-point toxicity scale. You can access a webinar explaining how to write a \u201cno-contact letter.\u201d (He suggests: \u201cI\u2019m doing a family cutoff to get space to recover from this toxic and dysfunctional family.\u201d) You can join his \u201cMonthly Healing Community,\u201d where clients support each other in the lonely endeavor of disconnecting from family.<\/p>\n

Zhenzhen, who asked to be identified by her first name in order to speak about a family conflict, took action as soon as she graduated and began to earn a paycheck. The relief was almost immediate, she said. It was lonely at first, but not for long. Through Mr. Teahan\u2019s site, she found others \u2014 her \u201cchosen family,\u201d she calls them \u2014 who supported her decision.<\/p>\n

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As she struggled through her sophomore year in college, Zhenzhen spent hours in therapy, but it hadn\u2019t addressed the central strain in her life: her parents.They called her at her Midwestern campus again and again, badgering her to fulfill their expectations \u2014 to study business, and to return to China, marry a wealthy man and raise children near them, she said. When she pushed back, her father screamed, she said, and her mother wept.The pressure made it hard to function, and Zhenzhen fended off thoughts of suicide. But when she brought this dynamic up with her therapists, she said, \u201cthey would always stand by reconciliation, and \u2018family is everything.\u2019 They would always look at the problem from the parent\u2019s lens.\u201dThat\u2019s when she discovered Patrick Teahan, a licensed social worker from Massachusetts with tousled hair and a massive YouTube following. Mr. Teahan\u2019s videos introduced her to a new idea \u2014 that to heal from childhood trauma, it may be necessary to \u201cgo no contact\u201d from abusive parents. Around half of Mr. Teahan\u2019s clients restrict or sever ties with their families, which he describes as \u201cbrutally hard\u201d but, when it is appropriate, deeply rewarding.On Mr. Teahan\u2019s website, you can fill out a \u201cToxic Family Test,\u201d which measures your family on a 100-point toxicity scale. You can access a webinar explaining how to write a \u201cno-contact letter.\u201d (He suggests: \u201cI\u2019m doing a family cutoff to get space to recover from this toxic and dysfunctional family.\u201d) You can join his \u201cMonthly Healing Community,\u201d where clients support each other in the lonely endeavor of disconnecting from family.Zhenzhen, who asked to be identified by her first name in order to speak about a family conflict, took action as soon as she graduated and began to earn a paycheck. The relief was almost immediate, she said. It was lonely at first, but not for long. Through Mr. Teahan\u2019s site, she found others \u2014 her \u201cchosen family,\u201d she calls them \u2014 who supported her decision.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9494,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9495,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions\/9495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}