Authorpreneur Dashboard – Cara E Koch
From Heartbreak to Healing
Self-Help
Fixed - 10/23/2020
From Heartbreak to Healing is a comprehensive introduction to a common but often unrecognizes family dynamic called parental alienation, which is a serious form of both child and spouse abuse that occurs when one parent turns their child against the other parent for no justified reason—often during divorce or separation. It is a serious form of both child and spouse abuse that occurs throughout the world.
This go-to book for parents who do not know what to do when their child rejects them, is based on the author’s personal experience as an alienated parent years before the experience had a name. It reveals her story and how she healed her own grief, summarizes her research of the literature on this new field of parental alienation, and shares the results of the author’s nation-wide survey to interview other rejected parents firsthand about their experience of alienation.
Topics include:
- What parental alienation is and how it works
- Who teaches their child to reject the other parent and why
- Stories of other alienated parents
- How to find and screen parental alienation-qualified professionals
- What works to resolve alienated relationships
- Next steps YOU can take to help erase and prevent parental alienation
As a recommended resource on the International Parental Alienation Sudy Group website, this book is an excellent resource for social, legal, and mental health professions who want to understand and provide best practices to families suffering from parental alienation.
Book Bubbles from From Heartbreak to Healing
RESOLVING FAMILY BREAKDOWN
Our current approach to family crisis and breakdown is often inappropriate and too late for the wellbeing of the children. Rather than a human support system, family court is a legal adversary system that pits parents against each other. Children can easily become pawns in endless power struggles as the marriage disintegrates. What if, instead, parents were routinely supported before, during and after divorce with education and counseling about child development and family relationships? There could be go-to resources available to any parents: classes available at no or low cost in every community, teaching problem-solving skills, non-violent communication and interpersonal relationship skills BEFORE marriage, so parents have the necessary tools to make marriage and family work well—and to do what is best for all if the marriage must end. Such classes could begin with in public schools. What if such services were to include a continuum of options such as voluntary mediation and mandatory mediation, with court being only a last resort? How many marriage problems could be prevented before they begin? How many children could continue to have healthy relationships with both parents after divorce? Is Prevention not the best answer?
Better Than a Cure
Because standard treatment approaches to family therapy are unlikely to succeed in cases of parental alienation, what can a rejected parent do? There are a few approaches that are successful, BUT they are usually prohibitively expensive AND extremely rare. So what can be done to stop this devastating family dynamic that is currently an epidemic throughout the world? PREVENTION. Find out what makes a marriage work. One of the best ways for new couples to explore that question is to find out why so many marriages end in divorce. Together, honestly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each other to determine what each needs from the other—emotionally, financially, and time-wise. Also recognize the role of family and friends as resources to meet needs and areas of additional responsibility. Learn what it takes to be a parent. Check out community resources for parents. How much do you about children, and their stages of growth and development? Taking classes together is a great way to explore your feelings and explore expectations about parenting. Find out the cost of childcare in your community.
If You Are an Alienated Parent . . .
If you are a parent suffering from rejection by a child, two of the most common feelings are helplessness and hopelessness. To counteract this, the book excerpt outlines some concrete action steps you can take to both address the rejection AND to help yourself regain a sense of control and renewed hope. These steps will help you understand the complex dynamics that cause the rejection so you know what you are dealing with and can effectively strategize your action, as well as help you identify the professional help needed to counter it. To become more informed, you can learn more about The PARAENTAL ALIENATION STUDY GROUP (Go to : pasg.info). This is an international organization open to both alienated parents and professionals who help parents deal with it, including mental health experts who specialize in PA; legal professionals, and those who do research on this topic. You may also access a database of PA research from Vanderbilt University Medical School (https://ckm.vumc.org/pasg) that makes accessible the latest research available at no cost. This year their annual PASG2021 Conference (available for streaming online) is about “protecting family ties after separation, NOW! Prevention is better than cure.” You can register for streaming or in-person attendance at: Welcome - FAMILYTIES2021.EU
IS FAMILY COURT OBSOLETE?
A recent survey of custody evaluators in the US shows there is considerable agreement among parental alienation experts about the basics of parental alienation (reported in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, August 2021). PA is recognized by these evaluators as a highly consequential family dynamic that causes harm to children and parents. This is good news for families, but there is still a long way to go before we have an adequate solution for families who experience PA. There is currently a growing interest around the globe in developing another way OUTSIDE the court system, to address family dysfunction. Because courts are, by definition, adversarial in nature, new thinkers are suggesting that court is not the appropriate venue for sorting out family problems. Rather, an atmosphere of support and nurture could create a basis for healthy relationships beyond divorce. They are looking at alternative community resources that could help parents and families sort out differences long before they reach crisis level. Such resources could help parents maintain healthy relationships and to co-parent in mutually beneficial way even if they do decide to divorce.
PROTECTING YOUR CHILD THROUGH FAMILY BREAKUP
One of the most important parenting skills needed during divorce is the ability to actively and genuinely support you children’s relationship with the other parent. It is critical they experience the love and caring of both parents, so they have a wholesome self-love to sustain them through life. It is important to make sure you find healthy ways to meet your own relationship needs.. When a parent manipulates a child to meet their own needs, it is called enmeshment. Children participate as a means of survival because they are critically dependent on that parent. In a normal parent/child relationship, it is the parent’s responsibility to see that the child’s needs are met, not the other way around. When children are deprived of having their needs met due to enmeshment, serious harm occurs. This is true even though, from the outside, the relationship may appear to be warm and loving. When parent/child boundaries are violated through enmeshment, the normal developmental path of the child is disturbed or blocked. This creates the environment for developing childhood psychopathology Enmeshment is child abuse because the child is deprived of having his or her basic needs met. Become familiar with the ways a child can be coerced into enmeshment. They are listed on pages 190-192 of FROM HEARTBEAK TO HEALING.
When a Child is Forced to Choose
: Because one of the basic tenants of child development is that children need a relationship with both of their parents to reach optimum well-being and to develop to their full potential, a critical parenting skill is parents' ability to support their child’s relationship with the child's other parent. A parent’s inability to do this may be an indication of a personality disorder in that parent. Although traditional family therapy considers both parents to be equally responsible for their relationship, this is not true in the case of parental alienation. When one parent, for example due to a personality disorder, does not have the ability to support a child’s relationship with their other parent, or show empathy for other points of view within the family, traditional family therapy does not work. In severe parental alienation cases, a different approach to therapy is required. The psychological splitting that occurs in severe parental alienation is not naturally outgrown as a child matures. Rather, it can cause unresolved PTSD, life-long difficulty in relating to others, and other emotional problems that may eventually cause physical health problems as well.
BOTH Parents Create a Child's Self
When you fully grasp that a child’s core sense of self develops out of his or her relationships with both parents, it is easier to understand how destructive it is to that child’s mind when one of their trusted parents tells the child their other loving parent is not trustworthy, is dangerous, or is bad. The child cannot integrate the two conflicting ideas into a coherent whole. They must choose one or the other to create their own view of reality. If the pressure from the alienating parent is powerful enough, the child must choose the alienator’s view of reality to literally maintain sanity. The child’s (real or perceived) dependence on the alienating parent for the basics of life—food, shelter, and clothing—means the only option for the child is to choose the alienator and reject the loving parent
AMERICAN DIVORCE: Flaws in the System
Most people are unaware that the basic concept of “innocent until proven guilty” is reversed in the US Family Court System. Instead, a parent accused of child abuse must prove they are innocent. In the meantime, as they wait for a court hearing, such a parent can be prevented from any contact with their children—sometimes for months, sometimes for years. This proof can take a long time. It often involves psychological assessment of the family members and hiring expert testimony, both of which are unbelievably expensive and difficult to do because there is such a shortage of experts in this burgeoning field of specialization. Here are some more startling facts from the Ellis account: • 4,000 children per DAY lose a parent in family court. • The US has the highest rate in the world of children living in a single parent household. • American Divorce is a $60 Billion per year industry FROM HEARTBREAK TO HEALING: RESOLVING PARENTAL ALIENATION provides the background information to understand the context of the Ellis story. Based on peer-reviewed research, it explains Who does the alienating, Why they do it, the Affect on both the child and the alienated parent, and What can be done to counteract the alienation once it happens.
Parental Alienation is Counter-Intuitive
Identifying Parental Alienation is counterintuitive. Here is why: One of the reasons it can be so difficult for courts to identify the cause of parental rejection is the emotional distress experienced by the rejected parent. The depression and high level of unending anxiety, the loss of identity as mother or father, and the hopelessness that results from not seeing their children for months or years, can make a parent experiencing this trauma seem hostile and unstable. On the other hand, a parent who is emotionally enmeshed with a child can appear to have a close and loving relationship with the child, even though the enmeshment is driven by a fear of not surviving if the child lose that parent. Enmeshed children cannot think for themselves because they feel so dependent on the alienating parent they cannot think independently. Their thoughts become those of the parent who is emotionally manipulating them to believe that the other parent is all “bad.” Total rejection of one parent is a RED FLAG for PA because, as anyone who works with troubled children knows, children who are truly abused by a parent do what they can to get the abusing parent to like them. They do not fiercely reject them.
A NEW NAME FOR PARENTAL ALIENATION?
When a child rejects one parent while remaining exceptionally close to the other parent, we usually try to understand what is happening by focusing on the parent who is being rejected. We assume something is wrong with the rejected parent and look for ways in which they may have mistreated the child. The problem with this approach is that, as professionals who work with dysfunctional families know, children who are truly being abused typically do not turn against their abusing parent—instead, they do the opposite. They minimize the abuse and try every way they can to connect with the parent in hope of winning their love. This means that when a child strongly and overtly rejects a parent, this should be a red flag to look at the relationship between the child and the aligned parent—the one with which the child appears to be closely attached. This counter-intuitive nature of parental rejection by a child is the reason one of the major researchers/clinicians* who work with alienated parents is now suggesting the term “hyper parental alignment” to replace “parental alienation.” The new term points to the parent who may be more likely to be the root problem. *Karen Woodall is a therapist and researcher from the UK who works with dysfunctional families around the world
How Courts Become a Weapon of PA
In an effort to act immediately to protect children against alleged child abuse, courts restrict contact by the parent accused of abuse without any proof that the allegation is true. This can cause the court to become a weapon to be used by alienators whose goal is to cut off contact with their child’s other parent by falsely accusing the other parent of child abuse. This controversy can pit child abuse advocates and parental alienation awareness advocates against one another in gender warfare. This issue is one reason why many professionals advocate preventive services and alternatives to the court system as a resource for family breakup.
Hidden Facts Every Parent Should Know
Most couples expect to have children when they marry. But how well does our society prepare young people for the challenges of parenthood? Young parents may discover too late that, "babies do not come with instructions." Although not part of the plan when couples marry, approximately 42-45 percent of marriages in the United States today end in divorce (this does not include legal separations). Today there is little preparation to help parents understand the pitfalls families face during separation and divorce. These are some of the core issues parents need to know about in order to assure the wellbeing of children, should they find themselves facing family break up. Although parental alienation can be treated successfully, it is prohibitively expensive to do so, and there are very few effective resources available. This book is meant to be a resource for families to understand what they need to know and to learn how they can work to create the needed resources.
Why Parents Need to Know About PA
: Parental Alienation is a significant public health issue that disrupts many aspects of a child’s development and formation of a sense of self. This means it has lifelong consequences—both mental and physical--that can even be passed on to the next generation if not healed.. Many children who become alienated from a parent go on to be alienated themselves as parents. Because of this, I wrote this book to be a practical, go-to book for parents who want to prepare themselves to prevent or mitigate harm to their children. This book shares the results of a national survey I conducted and the individual stories of several of the parents surveyed, in addition to my own story. It also reports recent research and professional articles from mental health experts who have direct experience working with alienated families. Included are valuable interview guides for hiring qualified professional mental health and legal help. Find additional information about assuring the wellbeing of children through separation and divorce online at Two Wishes - Healthy families. For life.
It’s Bigger Than Us: A New Paradigm
The beginning of my healing began to occur when I realized the need to view this life experience from a larger paradigm. Where did our story fit in the context of the greater Universe? Examining the existential questions, “Why is this happening to us?” and digging deep into my psyche to examine what might be the universal purpose of this cruel, tortuous experience, gradually initiated a source of healing for me. Today, I have a new understanding of the importance of empathy, and the role it has to play in the healing of ourselves and Mother Earth. Today Mother Earth is my model for parenting during alienation: She is always there, the ever-present and consistent Mother, providing care and nurturing to her children until we understand.
Rejected Parents as Grandparens
It is often assumed that children who reject a parent due to manipulation by the other parent will eventually outgrow their rejection when they recognize the lies and realize the truth. However, that may never happen if the coercive behavior is severe enough. Instead, it can get worse, as it did in my case.
95% of Therapists Get It Wrong
Steven Miller, MD, an internationally-known expert on alienation and estrangement – and how to distinguish one from the other, is also an experienced expert witness, litigation consultant, and trial strategist. He states that 95% of the time most professionals, unless they have both specific training in parental alienation AND extensive experience directly treating alienated families, make the wrong assessment. Because this is a relatively new area of study, such training is not yet included in licensure requirements for either mental health or legal professionals. NOTE: Get this book to see a list of interview questions for both mental health professionals and attorneys to screen for appropriate knowledge of PA.
The Target Parent Dilemma
When the alienating parent says and does terrible things about you as the target parent, it creates a dilemma. How can you tell your child the truth without committing parental alienation in reverse? This would only increase the pressure on the child to choose one parent over the other. It is like asking them which arm they want cut off. This excerpt describes my attempt to avoid this dilemma by having his father and me tell our son together why he and I had not seen each other for four years.
Protecting Children When Parents Separate
Positive parent-child relationships are a critical key to the future wellbeing of our children. They are the foundation for life-long mental health. But we often do too little too late to help nurture these fundamental relationships--from early childhood to adult preparation for marriage and raising children. Especially lacking are effective interventions when marriages falter. They are not timely and are often inappropriate. Sometimes these interventions do even more harm. Lasting trauma from divorce is a world-wide public health issue. What more can be done in your community to support healthy family relationships?
What Can You Do to Help Rejected Parents?
This past year there has been an increased awareness about how inadequate our current systems are for addressing family dysfunction and marital breakdown. A new resource is available at www.TwoWishes.org for sharing resources about best practices from around the world and networking to imagine creative ways to help families before, during and after parents split. A world-wide organization called THE CHANGE FOR CHILDREN has been tackling key issues to resolve so children are not overlooked during divorce. Also, a new Magazine ,The Contemporary Family now offers the latest information to help hurting families all over the world.
Family Court: Is This The Right Answer?
Since I wrote this book a year ago, there has been a growing world-wide discussion about whether the family court offers the appropriate type of expertise to assure the well being of children and families when they break up. What sort of alternative can we imagine that would utilize the skills of professionals with expertise in child development, family systems, relationship dynamics, and communication skills? What about teaching children to be resilient and to think objectively? Could there be a resource/s where parents can access help much before they are at the breaking point? What if some of these skills were accessible through the school system, to better prepare future parents for successful marriage? If some of these resources are already available but not coordinated or readily available and affordable, what changes are needed so all families have access to them? If such services could be coordinated with mediation and, if needed, mandatory arbitration by professionals with appropriate skills, would it be possible for most families to avoid family court totally?
Healthy Families is a Public Health Issue
Pitting parents against one another in family court creates an atmosphere that can breed dysfunctional relationships before, during, and after divorce. This adversarial approach can create an incentive for parents, many of whom do not realize the potential lifelong damage to their children in doing so, to turn their child against the other parent in an attempt to win a court battle over who “gets” the children, and who pays for their support. With current research in child development making clear that children need a good relationship with both parents, surely it is time to reinvent how we support children and their parents when the parents split up. We need to recognize that an important characteristic of a good parent is one who actively supports their child's relationship with the other parent.
Is Family Court the Answer?
Watching the evolution of the COVID pandemic, one of the most important take-aways is the importance of family relationships—and their fragility. We are likely facing an avalanche of family breakdown due to the recent emotional and financial stress on families. Considering the already overburdened situation with family courts, is it not time to ask, “How do we best ensure the safety and long-term wellbeing of children when parents split up?” Pondering that question leads one to question the use of family courts and legal professionals as the best resource to address the interpersonal problems of marriage and family. What if, instead, we looked to professionals who specialize in interpersonal relationships and family dynamics? Someone who can help families prevent harm before it starts so when parents do break up in the future, all family members are better equipped to avoid the damaging outcomes of today? Right now we have the best opportunity in generations to give our children a better chance. Can we acknowledge that family breakdown is a major health and social issue, and that family law is not the best suited avenue to address it? We have the knowledge and expertise to create new and better ways of assuring the wellbeing of all families, whether or not a marriage stays intact.
Wellbeing of Children During Family Breakup
After reviewing the weaknesses and inconsistencies of current custody laws outlined in this excerpt, it is high time we examine the question of how we might better assure the safety and wellbeing of children when families break up. Surely, we can come up with something better than our outmoded system of pitting two parents against one another in court, where the parent with the most access to money hires an attorney to “win” the prize of custody of the children, along with financial support. Why do we not have a system that instead utilizes professionals who are trained and experienced in child development and family relationships, family dynamics, communication skills, mediation, and arbitration? These specialized professions offer skills to help families address and resolve problems before a breakup becomes necessary, or to help them negotiate a fair and equitable sharing of parental responsibilities that assures the wellbeing of the children AND both parents.
PRIORITIZE FAMILY WELLBEING
What if countries around the globe prioritized family wellbeing by: PROMOTING awareness of children's vulnerability during family breakdown PROVIDING services to enhance interpersonal communication skills and promote health relationships ENSURING and promoting affordable, accessible high-quality counseling and therapy for all children and families who need it. REPLACING family courts with agencies whose purpose is to provide professional counseling, therapy, mediation and arbitration, thereby replacing adversarial strategies with supportive services that assure fair and equitable treatment for all family members.
One Family's Story
This story, one of the many discovered in my national survey, illustrates the ineffectiveness of our current system of looking to family courts to resolve family breakup. The problem with courts is that they are an adversarial system that pits parents against each other using attorneys who are trained to "fight" with availability is based on ability-to-pay, rather than an equitable system available to all. Why do we promote attorneys rather than relationship specialists as the go-to resource when a marriage breaks up? I invite you to reimagine a preventive system that includes child development and family relations training in high school; a marriage and parenting center staffed with professionals trained in human relationship building, mediation and arbitration so families can receive appropriate guidance in resolving their problems in a way that protects the children and serves the best interest of all? For more ideas on a reimagined vision, check out the Two Wishes Foundation on the internet.
Family Court Does Not Hold the Solution
Even when you 'win' the court battle, if you child continues to reject you the core issue is not resolved. What does it take to change the mind of a child who has been taught to reject a parent? After decades of trying to explain "what really happened" to my son, I now know this approach does not work. Instead, an alienated child needs to feel support and compassion from you so his experience of you does NOT match the negative stories he has been told. For example: "I am so sorry you felt that way, Tommy. That must have been awful for you to believe I abandoned you and didn't care. What was that like? I want to know all about what it was like for you, because I do care." This response shows empathy and compassion while not agreeing that you were the cause of his belief. It opens the door for real sharing so Tommy's feeling can be heard and acknowledged as he experiences the real you.
Alternative Solution for Family Troubles
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Ben Franklin's wise saying can well be applied to dysfunctional family dynamics and family breakup. If parents learn the basics of interpersonal communication, principles of child development, and family relationship skills before ever becoming parents, much heartache from marriage breakup could likely be prevented. Waiting until the damage is done and then trying to sort out the disaster in family court with an adversarial system that pits one parent against the other in an attempt to "win," with children and financial support being the prize, is an outdated and inhumane solution that belongs to a past century. For more information about reimagining an alternative that uses supportive services rather than adversarial legal services, go online to www.TwoWishes.org.
Treatment Depends on Severity
There has been much effort spent during the past 30 years discovering how to resolve a child’s rejection of their parent when the cause is psychological manipulation by the other parent. Because it takes much specialized knowledge and experience to do this work and because specialized training is not yet required for licensure in either the mental health or legal professions, it is extremely difficult for families to find qualified experts to resolve parental alienation. As with any scarce commodity, such experts come at a high cost. From the perspective of those living this nightmare, 30 years is a long time to wait for an affordable solution. Therefore it is my opinion that a focus on prevention is what is needed so this problem can eventually be eliminated. We need to reimagine new ways of offering support services to families long before toxic family relationships occur. What if the go-to service were a team of affordable child development and family relation specialists, therapists, mediators, and arbitrators who could help parents solve relationship problems, rather than a divorce attorney and family court where parents are pitted against one another? Then the well-being of the children and the adults could be better assured whether or not the marriage remains intact.
Prevention is the Real Solution
The ineffectiveness of family court in helping families who experience the rejection of a parent has led me to the realization that the solution to this problem must occur “upstream.” If you discover a child drowning in a river, your first reaction is to pull the child out of the water and administer first aide. If you discover more children have fallen in the river, you eventually go upstream to see why they are in the river in the first place. Likewise, going upstream is the logical approach to address the problem of parental rejection that is a world-wide crisis today. Close you eyes and imagine how different it would be if parents could choose professionals with therapeutic, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration skills to support the family and assure the well-being of all family members before the breakup of the family. Rather than contacting an expensive lawyer to help them battle it out in court using children and money as the weapon and/or prize, parents would have affordable resources to guide them in working out the best solution for moving forward with their lives. Such a system could keep most families from ever needing to go to court. For more information check out www.TwoWishes.org.
Personal Support for Parents
If you suspect that your child is rejecting you due to the influence of his or her other parent, it is critical that you get professional help to determine if this is true. If you follow the steps outlined in the excerpt and use the interview guides for interviewing therapists and attorneys on pages 227-229 of the book, you can develop the support you need to assure the well-being of your child and yourself.
Why Professionals Don't Know About PA
It was 22 years after the term, "parental alienation" was coined in 1985 before I ever heard the term. This was the first I knew that others had experienced the nightmare I was living. Today most parents and mental health professionals are still unfamiliar with the term. Family Court judges depend on the recommendation of mental health professionals when they make custody decisions--but if the mental health professionals are uninformed, about the complexity of this tragic family dynamic, is it any wonder that so many parents believe that courts often get it wrong? To find out one reason why professionals are not better informed, read this excerpt from my book.
Parental Alienation is Counter-Intuitive
Experts say that parental alienation is difficult to recognize because it is counter-intuitive. This excerpt explains what they mean.
Getting the Help You Need
When your child's resistance or hostility toward you is the result of psychological manipulation by their other parent, it is critical that you work with clinicians and legal experts who are trained and experienced in working with this complex family dynamic. Use the interview checklists for hiring a therapist and an attorney found on pages 227-229 of this book. Also, make sure they know to use the reference book, PARENTAL ALIENATION: SCIENCE & LAW by Larandos and Bernet to guide their preparation for court.
How Much Harm Does It Cause?
Childhood trauma is not something you just get over as you grow up. The repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or issues such as substance abuse, has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. The best way to counteract this is through prevention. This means we as a society must find ways to better support families before, during and after separation. How about teaching child development and family relationships in high school, before people become parents, as a beginning?
Parental Alienation is an ACE
Used to predict future health of children, Adverse Childhood Experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing the world today. A child's resistances or hostility toward a parent that is the result of psychological manipulation by the other parent is a form of ACE. The 10 ACE's fall within three categories: ABUSE: Emotional, Physical and Sexual Abuse. HOUSEHOLD CHALLENGES: Domestic Violence, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Parental Separation/Divorce and Incarcerated Parent. NEGLECT: Emotional Neglect, Physical Neglect. ACE's can have life-long effects! 67% of the total population has at least one ACE. People with 6 or more ACE's can die 20 years earlier than those who have none.
Why Reject a Loving Parent?
Creating a safe transition bridge requires understanding the importance of parental bonds for a child's well-being. Adversarial family separation/ divorce is one of the greatest, least-recognized health risks to our children because it creates psychological trauma that can last a lifetime. This public health issue could be better addressed by investing in earlier, safer, more cost-effective measures than the family law system offers. Measures such as well-targeted education of children, parents and society at large; could provide prevention and intervention. They could include creative apps and online tools to help kids and parents navigate family separation and foster healthy relationships during and after separation. Quality conciliation and, where necessary, an arbitration process instead of hostile court proceedings would become the norm. Measures that give families a chance to reinvent themselves rather than guaranteeing their destruction would be a creative alternative to our current system that pits parents against one another.
Response to a Brainwashed Child
If you are a parent whose formerly loving child has suddenly become resistant or hostile toward you, you may be shocked and hurt, not knowing how to respond. The first thing you must do is determine the cause. Find out IF your child is being brainwashed. The Five Factor Method described in my book is the recommended way to do this. Once you are clear about the cause, it is important that you learn all you can about the psychological split your child is experiencing that causes you to be seen as all bad and the other parent all good. This will help you have compassion for your child, who is no longer able to think for him/herself. You then realize the unacceptable behavior is not an issue of discipline; you realize you need to find a way to connect with your child to counter the manipulation. This begins with a compassionate response such as, "That must feel awful to you, believing that you cannot trust me, your own mother! No wonder you are so angry! If I had believed that about my mother, I would have been just as angry." With this response, your child experiences you as compassionate, and that you are trustworthy of understanding his/her feelings.
Unchecked PA can Last Forever
Some parents who have been unjustly rejected by their child due to mind manipulation by the other parent believe that when their child grows up they will automatically realize the truth; therefore they will reconnect of their own accord. Sadly, there is no guarantee of this happening, especially if the level of PA is moderate to severe. In order to reverse it, rejected parents need to first understand in depth the dynamics of alienation--what it is, how it happens and why. Once you know in your heart that it is not your child's true "self" that is speaking the hostility and hate, you will be able to fortify yourself to withstand it and respond constructively. You will realize that their "bad" behavior is driven by their need to survive psychologically. You will then see that a constructive response is not a simple matter of disciplining bad behavior.
Reconnecting with my Son
This letter was the first communication with my 8 year old son after my former husband took him away four years previously. I had tried many times to reach out to his father during that time, but the phone call in response to this letter was the first time I was ever able to talk with my son. Little did I know what was in store. My story of what happened following the phone call demonstrates what can happen to a child when his or her bond with a loving parent is distorted and buried through mind manipulation, be it unconscious and not intentional or clearly intended. This book also reveals my own grief and struggle as a parent who has lost a dearly beloved child. I walk you through my existential crisis and what I learned so I could begin to come to terms with what happened. It is the process of a lifetime, and I am still learning.
