Alongside the publication of my new book The Journey of the Alienated child on 9th December, we will be launching a new approach to supporting parents via a structured, clinically informed programme of small-group relational learning which is organised around the different stages that children move through on this developmental diversionary journey. The purpose of this is to enable parents who wish to focus intensively on development of stage related skills, to work with others in the same situation.
At the Family Separation Clinic we have long understood that every parent’s journey is unique and that what you do at each stage of the child’s journey, depends upon your ability to disentangle yourself from your own trans-generational patterns and history in order to help your child to disentangle from theirs.
From January 2027 our new groups will run according to the stage of the journey your child is in – ie:
Stage One – Onset of disorganised attachments – the beginning stage when your child is entering into the behaviours seen when children are under relational pressure.
Stage Two – Disappearance into splitting – the stage when your child is refusing all connection with you.
Stage Three – Emergence with disturbance in self organisation – the coming and going phase, where your child is seeking reconnection whilst struggling with the harm they have suffered.
Stage Four – Integration – when your child has reconnected and you can see the ongoing struggles with understanding and resolution of past confusion.
Each group will run for six weeks for two hours and will comprise of learning, listening, reflecting and skills practice. Each group will be led by Karen Woodall. Joining will be by application only.
These groups are relational healing groups and are only for those who wish to develop therapeutic parenting skills for helping alienated children to heal. They are not generalised support groups. The reason we are asking parents to apply to join these groups is to ensure that we maximise the potential for each group to begin in approximately the same psychological place.
The cost of these groups will be £300 per person and there will be a total of twelve hours teaching/learning/reflection time across that time, which equates to £25 per hour.
You can apply to join one of the groups by emailing me at Karen@karenwoodall.blog now. A waiting list will ensure that those who are not able to join this cohort, will be able to join the next one.
Please note that if you were on the Relational Healing Group last year, you will be invited to apply to join the appropriate group for your situation.
We will continue to offer our Mothers Therapeutic Support Group, Dads Group and Lighthouse Keeping Groups alongside this new format. We will also launch our Lighthouse Keeping Club for those who want a low cost regular subscription service to meet their need for weekly support.
Our work is about healing trans-generational trauma and helping to address coerced alignments in children of divorce and separation. We do not subscribe to constructs such as parental alienation or resist/refuse dynamics and we are not invested in persuading you that our approach is the right approach or the only route to healing. We do not exist to gather followers, supporters or champions of our approach, we only exist to help you to help your children.
The approach that we use at the Family Separation Clinic is based upon neuroscience, attachment theory and relational psychoanalysis and as psychotherapists we have a sole focus, which is to help you to understand the underlying patterns in your own situation, to strengthen your recovery from the harms you have suffered and to help you to learn new skills to help you to help your children to heal. As such, our relational healing groups are not for the purpose of discussing or debating other approaches but for focusing on the work of relational healing in the context of children’s alignment and rejection behaviour.Please do keep all of that in mind when you consider whether you would like to come and work with us.
All of our listening circles and seminars will continue to be available but from 2027, these will be delivered through our watch on demand service at http://www.fscparenting.com
The Journey of the Alienated Child-
Promotion Offer!
The Journey of the Alienated Child is currently being promoted by Psychological Therapy Books who are a specialist UK therapy bookseller. You can order it at a reduced cost of £29.22 with free UK delivery now. Press the image above to go through to order.
Launch of The Journey of the Alienated Child
I will be taking part in media events around the world based on my new book from early December, starting with a podcast which I will record on 17th November for a host with a large platform. I will post details of this and all events as they are planned, including dates and how to access them as they become available. I hope that the Journey of the Alienated Child will begin a new conversation about the hidden harms that children and parents in the rejected position suffer in divorce and separation as well as highlighting what needs to change to ensure that families receive the help they desperately need.
Don’t forget that I am delivering free online launch events to mark the publication of the book and you can book for those below.
