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Family estrangement is receiving more public attention than ever. Stories of adult children cutting ties with parents, siblings growing apart, and families struggling to mend broken relationships now appear regularly in newspapers, podcasts, documentaries, and across social media. What was once kept behind closed doors has become a far more visible part of public conversation. As a psychodynamic psychotherapist specialising in the impact of family conflict and the process of

Do you find yourself repeatedly blamed for family problems, criticised more harshly than your siblings, or treated as though you're somehow responsible for tensions that existed long before you were born? If this sounds familiar, you may have spent years occupying the role of family scapegoat. Being the scapegoat has little to do with actually being "the problem." Within family systems, scapegoating is a role that emerges when unprocessed trauma and emotional immaturity shape

Sometimes it's easier to put someone on a pedestal than to face the truth about them. This is the work of a defence mechanism known as "splitting," and it's precisely what the name suggests: the mind splits a person into manageable pieces, keeping the difficult parts safely out of view. It's not uncommon for clients to arrive describing a wonderful, devoted parent who could do no wrong, only for a fuller picture to slowly emerge of someone who was also neglectful, demanding,