Somebody I know has just been in a situation where communication with her children was heading for estrangement. From the outside, I could see that there were problems and a great deal of hurt on both sides. Sometimes when I was listening to reports about their arguments and read the messages they were sending, I was quite shocked about the inflammatory language. It was difficult to tread a path between them that didn't compromise my relationships with them. At one point, a dear friend suggested that the mother attended a Non Violent Communication Course (NVCC) and to my surprise, the mother did. Bear in mind that this was a family who had been in family therapy for over a year and things were getting more explosive with every communication. After attending the NVCC, the next meeting with the children was amazing ending up with a "chat" after it. I don't know how things will continue but the contrast was fantastic. Some of the things the mother had learned about communication seemed quite minor in the scheme of things but just made enough of a difference to her presentation.
There is no magic wand but it occurred to me that if you are in that terrible situation where you feel that everything in your relationship with your child is heading for full blown estrangement, then taking an NVCC might just make the difference.
Passports not in the drawer I always keep them in. Turning the place upside down.