This weekend Nick completed the Mount Toubkal Challenge, climbing the highest of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in support of the Salvation Army. Arriving home after five days of exhausting travel and three full days of exhausting climbing, he has asked me to thank everyone who has supported his venture, which so far has raised £2500 for projects to help homeless people. Here are some of the highlights of his trip.

There is still time to contribute to the fundraising for this successful venture, if you would like to support it (and encourage him to go on his next adventure), you can visit his just giving page here

Our grateful thanks to everyone who has shown interest and support for Nick on this challenge, he plans to climb even higher next time!

Autumn Schedule – Family Separation Clinic

Residence Transfers in England and Wales – An Evaluation of a Decade of Work

Currently there are no evaluated outcomes of residence transfers carried out in England and Wales. The Family Separation Clinic is currently undergoing evaluation of the outcomes of a number of residence transfers which include the voices of children who are over the age of eighteen, who underwent residence transfer with support from the Clinic. Slightly delayed due to a change of evaluation team, the data in this study will provide valuable evidence of the outcomes for children in decisions in private and public law. Publication due in 2023.

Court based Services

The Family Separation Clinic is currently unable to accept instructions in the lower courts of England and Wales and has a limited capacity for High Court Instructions. Please note that the Clinic offers treatment routes in cases where children have been found to be emotionally and psychologically abused. The Clinic will accept instructions on the basis of consultancy in Public Law Cases which are in the High Court in the UK only.

Clinical Handbook

In the Autumn we will be focusing upon the completion of our new Clinical Handbook which is in revision for the publishers now. This handbook is for psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers and other family court professionals and focuses upon theory and practice in working with children suffering from induced psychological splitting and treatment routes which are proven to heal the emotional and psychological damage done to children when they are alienated.

Training for Professionals

Training for Social Workers and CPS

Our training pathway for social workers (UK) and CPS (US) is nearing completion. Focused upon helping statutory services to recognise the emotional and psychological harm which is seen in cases where a child is seen to hyper align and reject a parent with attendant contempt and lack of empathy, this training enables social workers to understand how to recognise the pattern of behaviours in a children through a child protection lens. This training is being prepared in varying formats to enable statutory services to access information at low cost and on demand.

When a Child Says No with Contempt – A Webinar for Professionals Working in the Family Courts

This two hour webinar will be delivered in the autumn months and will examine the underlying psychological and psychiatric issues which are seen when children are groomed to hyper align with a parent and reject the other. Examining the current debates which deny alienation, this webinar will look at the strategies used by alienating mothers and fathers to groom children and demonstrate that far from being a tool used by abusive fathers, alienation is a child abuse issue which everyone supporting families should be concerned about. Case studies from work with alienated mothers will examine coercive control strategies used by fathers and studies from work with alienated fathers will examine the covert strategies such as enmeshment, abandonment threat and other emotional and psychological manipulation which is used by mothers. This will be set within a framework of understanding mild to severe alienation and the psychological and psychiatric profiles of parents who cause serious harm to their children in divorce and separation.

Cost £40 per person, date for delivery to be announced, this webinar will also be available on dema

Autumn Courses for Rejected Parents

Holding up a Healthy Mirror

This popular course has already been delivered to well over a hundred parents and will run again in September (12/19/26/3rd October). Parents who have taken this course have reported breakthroughs with their children alongside increased understanding of the problems their children are facing and development of new perspectives alongside skills to help their children. The autumn course is limited to 25 places to ensure that people get the most out of it. Booking is open now here.

Learning and Listening Circles

The first drop in learning and listening circle will be held on October 5th and will run weekly until Christmas. Learning and listening circles are for rejected parents who want regular connection with others and an opportunity to learn, reflect and share their experience with therapeutic faciliation. Based upon the concept of listening circles for therapeutic parents, these circles will be open to parents, family members and friends who wish to assist the family to build a path home for a child. The first circles will be facilitated by me and in 2023, this concept will be further developed to expand upon the availability.

The cost of attendance at a listening circle is £30 and each session will run for two hours making it an affordable way to gain experience, knowledge and guidance. Participants are invited to drop in to one or attend as many as they find helpful. Details on how to book and join on Zoom will be available on the Family Separation Clinic website in September.

Development of Resources from the Family Separation Clinic

The Clinic received investment last year to build resources for parents and practitioners and as part of that project we are now completing the handbook of clinical practice alongside video explainers and other materials which are focused upon induced psychological splitting and the harm it causes to children as well as how to treat the problem. We are very grateful to have the opportunity to expand our resources and look forward to sharing these with the world soon.

International Academy of Practice with Alienated Children

The videos from the Conference in Israel are now ready and the links to viewing are being sent out. More news about next year’s conference shortly.

Note

I am now on a sabbatical to work on my PhD and then I will be on vacation and will not return until mid September. Please know that we are working incredibly hard in preparation for a new phase of work at the Clinic and that we will return in the Autumn to support the ongoing raising of awareness of the harm being done to children who are induced to use psychological splitting in divorce and separation. With treatment routes, evidenced outcomes and clinical resources, we are better placed than ever to challenge and change the landscape for abused children of divorce and separation.