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The framing of going no contact as a "trend" is damaging on multiple fronts.

The current public discourse around estrangement ignores many key aspects and invalidates the experience.

Therapists must be non-assumptive about a client's motivations and decision to go no contact.

A podcast episode hosted by Oprah Winfrey last November has, as of today, over five million views. The title of that episode is “Oprah Explores the Rising Trend of Going No Contact with Your Family.” There is something immediately problematic about the titling of this episode: the use of the word “trend,” and the framing by many influencers that family estrangement is like a “fad” or “in vogue.”

This framing of something as psychologically wounding as going no contact is not only unhelpful but deeply insulting, and the fact is that it is mainly influencers, not mental health or psychology experts, who are responsible for framing it this way. Certainly, it........

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