This week we launch training opportunities in Costa Mesa California for practitioners who wish to understand and work with alienated children and their families.  This is part of our development of the services of the Family Separation Clinic to a worldwide audience.

The Family Separation Clinic is a pioneering organisation working directly with alienated children and families for over a decade. Based in London UK, the Clinic has worked to build proven strategies for the reunification of children and families, across the alienation spectrum.

In 2017 the Clinic convened a small training and development group on the US East Coast. This group went on to deliver services directly to families and in Austin Texas, demonstrated the efficacy of the FSC model of reunification in a court setting.  You can see one of our trainees from last year, Kelley Baker Ph.D, speaking about her work to the Williamson County Court House in Georgetown Texas.

In 2018, we are aiming to bring the FSC reunification model to the US West Coast by convening another small training group to work intensively on development of reunification skills and protocols to be used within the US Family Court Setting.  This training group is open to psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists who wish to work with this complex issue using a proven model of intervention which is supported by key research and by a wealth of post training support materials.  The training is also supported by a twelve month supervision programme by the Family Separation Clinic.

The training takes place at the National University in Costa Mesa in California and has been scheduled as follows –

One Day – Introduction to Working With Alienated Children and Families

Two Day – Follows on from Day One – Differentiation and Development of Treatment Routes

Three Day Reunification Training – (6 places only)

Practitioners can choose to attend a basic level training only, an intermediate training which is for two days and which enables use of the Family Separation Clinic tools for treatment, or the intensive reunification programme which enables the full range of learning and reunification skills for work in a court setting.

Details of Each Training Day

One Day– Understanding Parental Alienation for Practitioners – 22nd June 2018 

The one day training is useful for anyone who would like to know more about the problem of parental alienation, how it presents and how to recognise it in children.  The day covers the history of parental alienation, the controversies and the complexities of managing the problem of alienation in families.

Suitable for: Therapists, Social Workers, Family Support Workers, Coaches, Attorneys, Guardian. 

Cost for day one only: $175 per person with an early bird discount of 10% for all bookings made before May 20th 2018.

Two Day– Using differentiation routes, formulation, treatment routes. 23 June 2018 

This second day training unpacks the differentiation of cases and matches them to treatment routes for hybrid and pure cases of alienation. 

Content includes: experience and impact on children, the rejected parents struggle, assessment and differentiation (mild, moderate, severe cases, personality disorders), child’s tipping point, and the transition bridge a child must navigate to maintain connection with both parents.

A Model for: Understanding the way a child recovers from alienation; A coaching model for support of rejected parents; and how to work in the family courts towards healing and reunification of parents and children. Includes interview and assessment process of family mental and emotional health.

Suitable for:  Therapist, Guardians, Coaches, Family Support Workers.

Cost for two days  $340 per person with a 10% discount for bookings made before May 20th 2018.

The Family Separation Clinic Reunification Model – Training 25/26/27 June 2018

Reunification training is traditionally very expensive and is confined to programmes which cost a lot in court.  This training is for those practitioners already trained in the helping therapies, who wish to use a reunification model with a tested aftercare support package, which is easy to deliver and cost effective for families.

About the Family Separation Clinic Reunification Model

Reunification of children with parents in hybrid or pure cases of parental alienation, requires practitioners to understand and use recognised protocols to ensure successful intervention.  The Family Separation Clinic model uses a combination of protocols which are drawn from the international research literature and which are combined with evidence based strategies for working with children affected by traumatic disruption of family circumstances.  

Based upon the work done by the Family Separation Clinic in understanding how children become alienated in a variety of ways, reunification training enables the matching of treatment routes to the presentation of the problem in the family enabling the correct intervention to be identified and delivered.

About Assessment and Therapeutic Trial (Part of the Reunification Model)

This training enables the practitioner to use the Family Separation Clinic reunification model for both hybrid and pure cases and includes a detailed unpacking of the Assessment and Therapeutic Trial program which enables depth understanding of the family dynamic. This offers a clear route to reunification and supports this through the use of residence transfer, in which the child is moved directly to the care of the rejected parent.  This approach, which is used routinely in the UK, ensures that the child is enabled to reconnect to the rejected parent in a manner which supports the attachment relationship fully.  

It is an emotionally attuned approach, which is supportive of the rejected parent’s capacity to provide healthy care for the child and which enables the child to reconnect swiftly through the integration of the split state of mind.  This reunification programme has supported 33 reunifications of severely alienated children in recent years as well as many children in the mild to moderate range and has additionally been shown to work in the US court system in Austin Texas, with severely alienated teenage children.  The programme uses therapeutic parenting interventions to provide a framework of attuned parenting which draws out and nourishes in the child, the split off and denied relationship with the rejected parent, in the safe and familiar environment of the family home. This reduces the anxiety and defences which can be triggered by reunification work which is undertaken in forced circumstances in unfamiliar surroundings and increases the opportunities for swift and lasting resolution.

About the Family Separation Clinic Aftercare Programme

The aftercare programme of therapeutic work with the recovering child and parents is also unpacked and delivered as part of the reunification training.  This programme is based upon therapeutic parenting principles and offers a full, twelve week step by step attuned intervention to assist the alienated child in recovery.  This programme also includes the testing of contact with the previously aligned parent and the ways in which the child is assessed and supported to restore the relationship with this parent.

Content:  Reunification Protocols, Assessment and Therapeutic Trial programme for complete formulation of treatment route, delivery of Reunification Program and introduction to detailed twelve week aftercare programme to support alienated children and families in recovery.

For: Therapists, Coaches and people who are working in the family courts with severely alienated children and their families.

Cost: for Three Day Reunification Training with additional  twelve month supervision and development programme.  $1700 as a full payment or $500 deposit (and three further payments of $400 to be invoiced).

Our Training Venue

National University

3390 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa CA 92626 

Recommended Accommodation

881 West Baker Street, Costa Mesa, CA  92626

We have made arrangements for favourable rates at the Residence Inn Marriott and information can be found during booking about how to utilise this offer.

All bookings should be made online at Family Separation Clinic where further detailed information about the training, accommodation and nearby airport and shuttles will be shared.

We are supported in our delivery of this training to the US West Coast by Dr Nancy Anderson to whom we are extremely grateful for all of the hard work she has put in to help us to make this happen.

We look forward to working on the US West Coast and helping to change the lives of alienated children and families in the USA through this initiative.