Readers will be interested to watch the Victoria Derbyshire show today on the matter of parental alienation.
You can watch again at hhtp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083h9v3
The Family Separation Clinic contributed to the making of this piece and is pleased to see it being aired today and that it has made the headline news on the BBC, a first for the UK on the issue.
During the film there is a call for mandatory mediation and mandatory therapeutic intervention, a call we at the Clinic absolutely disagree with. Mediation and standard therapy do not help in cases of parental alienation and it is absolutely contraindicated in most cases.
Parental alienation is a mental health problem in its pure form and a child protection issue at its worst. The only way that this issue can be treated is to interlock the mental health intervention with the legal framework, anything less is damaging for the child involved.
Anyone offering standard therapy in such cases should, in our view, be avoided. Such approaches are not the treatment route offered or supported by the Family Separation Clinic, whose interventions mirror those of the best practice in treatment of the issue from around the world.
Information about our work can be found at http://www.familyseparationclinic.co.uk and we can be contacted –
appts@familyseparationclinic.co.uk
and
office@familyseparationclinic.co.uk
Karen Woodall 
James O’ Brian on LBC also did a phone in on PA. Really wanted to listen but had to work. Think he is very balanced and is the only phone in host I have heard covering this. Might be worth approaching him
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James O’Brien has done many phone-ins on contact disputes over many years. The fact he has only recently recognised PA as an issue within the post-separation arena suggests, to me, that at best he has little knowledge/acceptance of PA and at worst is another opportunist jumping on the bandwagon of a current news story.
I listened to the show you mention, which was connected with an isolated overseas case, where compensation was the issue – all these presenters want is to increase the numbers listening to their shows and have little interest in the real problem….https://twitter.com/search?q=lbc%20parental%20alienation&src=typd
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I don’t know if this blog is still valid as a second one has been posted.
I hope it is OK to suggest something else instead. (I actually haven’t seen this program as yet though)
From my experience in the court process which ended about 4 years ago this week, in order to prove PA, one has to get experts invovled. This can’t happen without it going to CAFCASS/SS who tend to cause untold damage. I know that you, Karen, have mentioned coming across such officers that do “get it” but such people are few and far in between – maybe one in a million! (and no, I don’t think that is an exaggeration folks).
This point is further illucidated by the fact that no matter how much I tried, I just could not get Karen involved and then settled for a so-called Harley Street professional psychiatrist with so, so many letters after his name and who charged a hell of a lot of money but who just did not “get it”. This chap had his own softy softy way of dealing with it and had totally ignored world-wide up-to-date information on PA and dealt with it totally inappropriately. However, even he had come highly recommended (a recommendation that I am sure was quickly withdrawn by the recommender once it was highlighted how poorly he handled my case I think). so if he can’t get it then very little chance of CAFCASS/SS getting it.
So what I would propose is this – what if the mediation and early intervention were to happen, but each one of those therapists was also equipped to pass PA cases to PA Professionals and ensure that PA was dealt with deifferently? Thereby bypassing CAFCASS/SS and the beastly court process?
I know this is idealistic, but so are the other proposals being put forward, and so this needs to be put out there early on.
My case was probably pure PA. But it became far far worst due to mishandling by other court professionals and also an evil other-side solicitor. The proposed way forward may help to by-pass all that.
How, oh how, I regret not handling my case more robustly. Such proposals may have helped – possibly….
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Thanks for that link. I was watching the Victoria Derbyshire programme just now. My son was sitting close by and asked what I was watching so I told him this;
I am doing some research because I am trying to help a friend of mine who hasn’t seen his daughters for three years now.
……………………………….
I don’t get it said my son, why can’t the children decide who they live with?
……………………………….
Because sometimes the parents argue so much that the child is over-run and becomes trapped, enforced to make a decision that separates them from one of their parents
………………………………….
I’m talking about older kids, said my son
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It’s best that the children see both parents I said.
……My son has left now to go to the Gym. I could have said more, but it will have to wait for another opportune moment should it arise…….and I rebuke myself because I so wanted to talk about feelings and ended up talking about factual sensible arrangements; that is so not going to help him with his feelings.
Fancy now he is going to preach (or not) his Dad’s philosophy on shared parenting; it’s just an ideal for goodness sake.
Forgive me I was caught off-guard, I never expected my son to be taking an interest in family separation. I didn’t do the acknowledgement thing ………………. I just launched into the world according to me.
I thought I had outgrown all that stuff; obviously not. And now, I forgive myself, because there will always be another day, another day to listen, to confirm what I hear, to empathise…………………..and if it really goes well, we can problem solve, that would be it. So, no real harm done, live to fight another day or should I say, live to find another moment to de-alienate and to parent in the best possible way.
Kind regards
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Absolutely agreed that mandatory mediation and mandatory therapeutic intervention do not work. Brian Ludmer, an elite attorney in Canada, provides more details about why http://www.advocatedaily.com/Structured-intervention-trumps-therapy-in-child-estrangement-cases.html
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