Whitney shares three life-changing practices that reduced her anxiety—meditation with red light therapy, using Brick to limit social media, and consuming news only in written form. She then answers a caller's question about being the parentified golden child expected to solve all family problems while maintaining surface-level relationships with a mother and sisters who refuse deeper connection.

Red light therapy: https://amzn.to/48i5OyN

00:00 October at Calling Home: Illness and End of Life Caregiving

04:40 Three Changes That Dramatically Reduced My Anxiety

14:28 Q&A: The Golden Child Who Had to Solve Everything

19:28 When Children Are Trapped Between Victim and Perpetrator Parents

22:51 The Golden Child Who Doesn't Feel Golden

25:42 How to Maintain Relationships Without Real Connection

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Have a question for Whitney? Call in and leave a voicemail for the show at 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

Learn more about ad choices. Visit podcast.choices.com/adchoices

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney Goodman interviews psychologist Dr. Julie Fraga about her book "Parents Have Feelings Too." They discuss how parents can process their own emotions, break cycles of guilt and perfectionism, use the Change Triangle to understand their feelings, and teach emotional intelligence to their children—all while navigating the challenge of parenting differently than they were raised.

00:00 The Shift from Fixing Kids to Supporting Parents

04:26 Managing Parental Guilt

09:11 Getting Ahead of Overstimulation as a Parent

15:37 Breaking Intergenerational Patterns Without Overcorrecting

20:24 The Change Triangle

25:10 Why Kids' Emotions Make Parents Uncomfortable

30:18 Finding Joy in Parenting

Dr. Juli's Website: https://www.drjulifraga.com/

Order her new book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788442/parents-have-feelings-too-by-hilary-jacobs-hendel/

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Have a question for Whitney? Call in and leave a voicemail for the show at 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

Learn more about ad choices. Visit podcast.choices.com/adchoices

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney explores patterns around adult children who mimic their parents' harmful behaviors, the complexities of maintaining boundaries when a parent struggles with addiction, and how illness can be weaponized in estranged families. In the Q&A, she answers a caller's question about navigating grandparent illness during estrangement.

00:00 Introduction: Darker Family Patterns

02:59 Airport Observation: When Adult Children Treat Parents Like They Were Treated

08:11 Real Housewives SLC: How to Show Up for a Child Struggling with Addiction

10:55 Q&A: When Grandparent Illness Becomes a Manipulation Tactic

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Have a question for Whitney? Call in and leave a voicemail for the show at 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

Learn more about ad choices. Visit podcast.choices.com/adchoices

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney analyzes the Amazon Prime show "The Girlfriend" to explore mother-son enmeshment and emotional incest. She analyzes how the show illustrates blurred boundaries, guilt and manipulation, marital dysfunction, and the devastating long-term impacts on sons' ability to form healthy romantic relationships, connecting the fictional dynamics to real research on these family patterns.

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

00:00 Introduction to The Girlfriend and Mother-Son Enmeshment

04:00 Defining Emotional Incest and What It Looks Like

09:06 Power Assertion and Blocked Individuation

14:10 The Girlfriend as Both Rival and Mirror

17:25 How Marital Dysfunction Fuels Enmeshment

21:56 Why Enmeshed Sons Struggle with Adult Partnerships

25:12 Lies, Isolation, and the Ultimate Betrayal

Have a question for Whitney? Call in and leave a voicemail for the show at 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

Learn more about ad choices. Visit podcast.choices.com/adchoices

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney reflects on how the "rage economy" of social media and news is destroying our mental health and capacity to connect with others. She explores how algorithms reward inflammatory content that keeps us trapped in cycles of anger and isolation. Later in the episode she highlights a positive example from Real Housewives of Orange County where a parent demonstrates accountability and course-correction in real time.

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Have a question for Whitney? Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected] or leave a voicemail to 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

00:00 The Rage Economy That's Destroying Our Mental Health

04:34 How Algorithms Reward Inflammatory Content Over Nuance

08:58 Breaking Free from the Cycle of Rage and Reactivity

12:34 When Sports Team Politics Replace Critical Thinking

16:35 Real Housewives Example: How to Course-Correct as a Parent

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney Goodman teams up with therapist Kate Gray (@codependencykate) to analyze a viral YouTube video from an estranged parent with over 1.2 million views. They break down common patterns of defensiveness, emotional neglect, and deflection that prevent reconciliation, offering insights for both estranged adult children and estranged parents on how these dynamics play out and what healthier approaches might look like.

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Have a question for Whitney? Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected] or leave a voicemail to 866-225-5466

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

00:00 Introduction and Disclaimers About Analyzing Real People

05:24 The Politics Defense and Minimizing the Daughter’s Letter

13:53 Empty Gestures vs. Real Connection

26:45 The Birthday Martyrdom and Drama Triangle

34:06 Public Betrayal

42:43 Ghosting vs. Setting Boundaries

53:54 Spiritual Bypassing and Avoiding Real Accountability

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney breaks down dysfunctional family dynamics in Real Housewives of Miami and The Summer I Turned Pretty, then answers a caller's question about healing from the pain of having an enabling parent who failed to protect them from an abusive narcissistic parent. Enabling parents are often harder to process than overtly abusive ones and Whitney details what finding acceptance actually looks like.

Have a question for Whitney? Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to [email protected] or leave a voicemail to 866-225-5466

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute 

for professional mental health advice.

00:00 Family Cycle Breakers Club Community Update

05:02 Real Housewives of Miami: When Parents Take Credit for Your Success

08:19 Family Estrangement After Late-Life Adoption

13:18 The Summer I Turned Pretty: Should Parents Boycott Major Life Events

16:22 Q&A: How to Heal From an Enabling Parent Who Never Protected You

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney Goodman interviews Dr. Ingrid Clayton about her new book "Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves and How to Find Our Way Back." They explore fawning as the fourth trauma response, how it differs from people-pleasing and codependency, why children and marginalized people develop this survival strategy, and how it can masquerade as success while leading to complete self-abandonment.

Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves-and How to Find Our Way Backhttps://www.ingridclayton.com/

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute 

for professional mental health advice.

00:00 Dr. Clayton's Discovery of Fawning Through Her Own Trauma

04:26 Why Fawning Isn't About Shame - It's About Survival

09:00 How to Recognize Fawning in Your Own Life

12:16 The Connection Between Fawning and Family Estrangement

19:49 Fawning vs. People-Pleasing vs. Codependency

22:13 When Fawning Looks Like Success

27:46 Growing Out of the Fawning Response

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPOILER WARNING: This episode contains major spoilers for the Netflix documentary "Unknown Number: The High School Catfish"

Whitney analyzes the Netflix documentary by exploring the psychology behind extreme parental abuse and manipulation. She examines the case through the lens of child psychology, trauma bonding, and the devastating impact when a parent orchestrates elaborate schemes to control and isolate their child while positioning themselves as the sole source of comfort and support.

Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.

Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute 

for professional mental health advice.

00:00 Introduction to the Unknown Number Case

08:11 The Shocking Revelation: When the Abuser Becomes the Comforter

15:27 Understanding Abusive Parents Who Don't See Themselves as Abusive

21:07 The Predatory Behavior and Hidden Motivations

23:26 Trauma Bonding and Why Children Protect Their Abusers

27:43 The Difficulty of Admitting Your Parent Harmed You

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whitney interviews Michelle Dempsey-Multack about how to protect children during divorce and co-parenting. They debunk the myth that divorce inherently harms children, exploring how the quality of the divorce experience—not the divorce itself—determines the impact on kids. The conversation includes practical strategies for healthy co-parenting, introducing new partners, and handling difficult conversations with children.
Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.
Join the Family Cyclebreakers Club⁠⁠

Follow Whitney on Instagram | sitwithwhit

Follow Whitney on YouTube | @whitneygoodmanlmft

⁠⁠Order Whitney’s book, Toxic Positivity⁠⁠

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute 

for professional mental health advice.

00:00 Debunking Divorce Myths: It's About How You Handle It

02:45 Staying Together for the Kids vs. Healthy Single Parenting

08:00 How to Have a Good Divorce: Separating Emotions from Parenting

13:14 Speaking Poorly About the Other Parent and Its Long-Term Impact

20:16 Balancing Protection with Facilitating Relationships

33:11 Introducing New Partners: Timing and Red Flags

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices