I don't have children, but I have two nieces, aged 15 and 16 (from my sister's side) I am very close to. About a year ago, my sister's DH announced he wasn't happy in the marriage, had been having an affair, and wanted a divorce. To cut a long story short, this has left the family devastated, my DSis with a horrible depression (to be fair she already have it, just things are worse now), and her ex DH now living in another house and in a new relationship. For the sake of my DNs, I am in contact with ex BIL and I am civil.
I cannot get into all the detail of all the ins and outs of everything that's happened, the anger, the upset, the fighting, etc etc. I think you can all imagine.
My concern is with my youngest DN, who was closest with her dad. Due to her understandable anger towards him and the way he's dealt with the aftermath of the separation, she stopped talking to him 6 weeks ago. I am concerned because well, this is not a healthy situation, but also, it's not like she can have a lot of support from her mum as she's often in no fit state to even support herself, and demands a lot of emotional support from my DNs.
Aside from the obvious counselling for all, family therapy, etc, I was wondering how I may gently start broaching the subject with my DN that perhaps it's time to re-establish some sort of relationship with her dad. I feel that she may have backed herself into a corner and now she doesn't know how to get herself out of it.
Any advice would be most welcome.