Working With Alienated Children and Families: A Clinical Guidebook

Parental Alienation (PA) is a frustrating problem for mental health professionals that is rife with complications and challenges on all fronts, such as how to create a therapeutic relationship with a child who holds distorted beliefs about a parent, questioning how involved the courts should be in a child's treatment, and whether or not the favored parent should be involved in treatment. Currently, there is no guide for clinicians to help them resolve these issues. This guidebook pulls together for the first time the best thinking in the field today about different approaches for working with these families. It is written by and for mental health professionals who work directly with alienated children, targeted parents, and families affected by parental alienation. The contributors explore cutting edge clinical interventions currently in operation and present a range of clinical options, such as parent education, psycho-educational programs for children, and residential programs for children and parents. Each chapter is written by a leading authority on their topic, often the founder of the theoretical model discussed.