How Do I Deal with a Parent Who Changed After Loss? Grief, Boundaries and Estrangement with Dr. Noëlle Santorelli and Christi

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Noëlle Santorelli, a licensed clinical psychologist, and Christi, who shares her lived experience, to talk about a reality more people are facing than we realize. After I shared a reel about this topic, thousands of comments and messages came in with the same theme: “I feel like I lost both parents.” We talk about what it looks like when a surviving parent moves on quickly, becomes emotionally unavailable, or shifts in ways that leave adult children feeling confused, hurt, and often disconnected. This conversation explores the overlap between grief, family conflict, and estrangement, and gives language to something many are experiencing but not openly discussing. We discuss why it can feel like you lost both parents after a death, and setting boundaries with a parent as an adult child. This episode is for anyone who has thought: “I feel like I don’t have a home.” Or, “I thought I was the only one going through this.”