Family Reflections: A Promising Therapeutic Program Designed to Treat Severely Alienated Children and Their Family System

Reay, Kathleen M.

doi:10.1080/01926187.2015.1007769

Cited by 36 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…53 More recently, other interventions have emulated, to varying degrees, elements of Family Bridges. Examples of such interventions include: Family Reflections, 54 Families Moving Forward, 55 Stable Paths, 56 Turning Points for Families, 57 and Transitioning Families, 58 although some of these interventions no longer operate. Among the elements that originated with Family Bridges and have subsequently been adopted by other interventions are: using educational approaches in contrast to traditional psychotherapy; using educational and entertaining videos to engage children's attention while teaching them important skills in a child-friendly format; providing the intervention in a leisure setting rather that in a professional office, thus helping to create a sense of ease and providing opportunities for the parent and children to interact in a natural and relaxed manner; and condensing the intervention into a few full days rather than hourly sessions spread over months and years.…”

Section: B Interventions For Alienated Children In the Custody Of Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Warshak¹

2020

Family Court Review

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Involvement in custody cases that include accusations of parental alienation-whether as an evaluator, expert witness, lawyer, judge, therapist, provider of a specialized intervention, or researcher-incurs both professional and personal risks. Some risks relate to false negative or false positive identifications of parental alienation that can lead to regulatory agency complaints and public condemnation by the parent who feels wronged by the case outcome. Other risks stem from providing services in an emerging area of practice and working with children who overtly oppose repairing the relationship with their rejected parent. These risks include: unfounded accusations of mistreating children; negatively biased commentary and sensationalist attacks in the media and in social media, professional conferences and journals, and in courtroom testimony; harassment, vilification, and invasion of privacy; threats of violence and public humiliation; shunning and rumor spreading by colleagues; and complaints to regulatory agencies. This article examines circumstances, beliefs, and dynamics that give rise to these risks, suggests precautions to reduce the risk of false accusations against professionals, and offers recommendations for dealing with regulatory agencies. Criticisms that a court or service provider has mistreated a child merit careful scrutiny in the context of the case evidence and empirical data. While some interventions for alienated children raise legitimate concerns, others have been maligned by anecdotal complaints that studies show do not represent the experience of most participants. Practitioner's Key Points:Professional risks in an emerging area of practice can be mitigated by using approaches informed by concepts derived from empirical research, professional knowledge, and professional experience, and by adhering to applicable professional standards and guidelines.Biases, superficial understanding of the complexity of parental alienation issues and dynamics, and inexperience can lead to inappropriate generalizations about the nature, roots, and remedies of parent-child relationship problems, and result in false positive and false negative errors regarding parental alienation.When faced with accusations of misconduct, practitioners should inform the regulatory agency of case evidence and court findings of prior false accusations and malicious complaints, ask the agency to evaluate whether complaints against the professional reflect similar dynamics to those identified during the litigation, and stress the importance of the rejected parent's observations of how the professional treated the children.Accusations of mistreatment of children who participate in specialized interventions for alienated children should be evaluated in the context of empirical data on the interventions.Outcome research on Family Bridges and Overcoming Barriers found high levels of satisfaction among child and adult participants and do not support assertions that these specialized services harm children.

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Section: B Interventions For Alienated Children In the Custody Of Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Warshak¹

2020

Family Court Review

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“…Over the last decade, several programs were specifically developed to help these families with entrenched conflicts and presenting resistance refusal dynamics and aimed at restoring strained parent–child relationships (Baker, Burkhard, & Albertson‐Kelly, ; Deutsch, ; Reay, ; Sullivan, Ward, & Deutsch, ; Warshak, ). Despite the growing interest in how these interventions may work, few have been rigorously evaluated (Saini et al, ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the growing interest in how these interventions may work, few have been rigorously evaluated (Saini et al, ). These interventions report varying levels of success (Baker et al, ; Gardner, ; Rand, Rand, & Kopetski, ; Reay, ; Sullivan, Ward, & Deutsch, ; Toren et al, ; Warshak, ). As Saini and Deutsch () observed, the information regarding the standard methods of services delivery, the theoretical foundations of the intervention models and the attention given to the risk and protective factors for parents and children with strained relationships vary greatly from one study to another and are sometimes not specified or not reliable.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Interdisciplinary Case Management Protocol for Child Resistance or Refusal Dynamics^†

Cyr¹,

Poitras²,

Godbout³

2020

Family Court Review

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High‐conflict parental separation cases associated with child's estrangement or contact refusal take an unusually large amount of court time and generate high emotional costs for parents and children. This paper reports on a study of a research‐based pilot project and protocol, called the Parenting Conflict Resolution (PCR), which is intended to reduce parental conflict, improve interparental communication, and support or restore the parent–child relationship. The protocol was developed at the Superior Court in Quebec City (Canada), and involves single judge case management, and lawyers' commitment to have the child's best interests as their primary consideration and to guide their clients to trust the process. The assigned judge and lawyers have the ongoing involvement of a mandated psychotherapist, taking a family systems approach with the case. The PCR also requires the parents to participate in a psycho‐educational, introspective group program to work on co‐parenting and communication skills. Ongoing communication between the professionals involved in the PCR is required to ensure cohesion and accountability. This pilot project was implemented with 10 high‐conflict families, 6 of which presented with the child's resistance or refusal to see one parent. A qualitative data study was undertaken into the experiences of all the participants. The most salient result is the resumption of parent–child contact in all six contact refusal cases. Discussion highlights key elements to successfully address these cases: (a) interdisciplinary program delivery, (b) systemic understanding of the contact problems, (c) focus on the child's best interest, (d) single judge assigned to the case, (e) lawyers' support of the parents' participation, and (f) psychotherapist reporting to the court.

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“…. '" [154]; "When a child rejects a parent: Tailoring the intervention to fit the problem" [66]; "Toxic divorce: A workbook for alienated parents" [124]; "The psychosocial treatment of parental alienation" [48]; "A Family therapy and collaborative system approach to amelioration" [78]; "PIVIP -Programa de intervención para victimas de interferencias parentales" [139]; "Reunification planning and therapy" [133]; "Working with alienated children and families -A clinical guidebook" [11]; "The application of structural family therapy to the treatment of Parental Alienation Syndrome" [79]; "Understanding and working with the alienated child" [156]; "Family reflections: A promising therapeutic program designed to treat severely alienated children and their family system" [125]; "An attachment-based model of Parental Alienation -Foundations" [40]; "Restoring family connections" [7]. Letzteres ist eine Methode, die zugelassenen "Mental health professionals"/Therapeuten zur Verfügung steht, die mit betroffenen Eltern und ihren erwachsenen entfremdeten Kindern ambulant arbeiten.…”

Section: Präventions-und Interventionsprogrammementioning

confidence: 99%

Parental Alienation (Syndrome) – Eine ernst zu nehmende Form von psychischer Kindesmisshandlung

Boch-Galhau

2018

Neuropsychiatr

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Zusammenfassung Bei der induzierten Eltern-KindEntfremdung (Parental Alienation) handelt es sich um eine bestimmte Form von psychischer Kindesmisshandlung, die im DSM-5, dem aktuellen Diagnostic and Statistic Manual der American Psychiatric Association (APA) unter der Diagnoseziffer V 995.51 child psycholocical abuse verortet ist. Induzierte ElternKind-Entfremdung, die nicht behandelt wird, kann zu traumatischen psycho-physischen Langzeitfolgen bei betroffenen Kindern führen. Dieser Tatsache wird in familiengerichtlichen Verfahren noch unzureichend Beachtung geschenkt. Der Artikel befasst sich zusammenfassend mit der Definition, der Symptomatik und den verschiedenen Schweregraden von Parental Alienation und beschreibt einige wichtige Entfremdungstechniken und mögliche psychosomatische und psychiatrische Folgen der induzierten Eltern-Kind-Entfremdung. Schließlich wird auf Prä-ventions-und Interventionsprogramme hingewiesen, die inzwischen in einigen Ländern angewandt und evaluiert werden. Zwei Fallbeispiele aus der Praxis und ein ausführliches, internationales Literaturverzeichnis schließen die Arbeit ab.

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Family Reflections: A Promising Therapeutic Program Designed to Treat Severely Alienated Children and Their Family System

Cited by 36 publications

References 18 publications

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

An Interdisciplinary Case Management Protocol for Child Resistance or Refusal Dynamics^†

Parental Alienation (Syndrome) – Eine ernst zu nehmende Form von psychischer Kindesmisshandlung

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Family Reflections: A Promising Therapeutic Program Designed to Treat Severely Alienated Children and Their Family System

Cited by 36 publications

References 18 publications

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

An Interdisciplinary Case Management Protocol for Child Resistance or Refusal Dynamics†

Parental Alienation (Syndrome) – Eine ernst zu nehmende Form von psychischer Kindesmisshandlung

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An Interdisciplinary Case Management Protocol for Child Resistance or Refusal Dynamics^†