Parental alienation: Psychological distress and mental health Male - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Parental alienation: Psychological distress and mental health

Male Psychology Conference

24th June 2017

Dr Sue Whitcombe, Chartered Psychologist, AFPBsS HCPC registered counselling psychologist

Overview

• Mental Health and ACEs
• Parental alienation
• a child welfare issue, prevalence and outcomes
• key signs, symptoms, behaviours
• contributory factors
• Evidence from practise
• Parental alienation in the UK

Mental health and ACEs

• Mental health problems are one of the main causes of the overall

disease burden worldwide

• 10% of children and young people (aged 5-16 years) have a

clinically diagnosable mental health problem

• 70% of children and adolescents who experience mental health

problems have not had appropriate early intervention

• 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75%

by age 24

Mental health and ACEs

• Adverse Childhood Experiences include experiencing all types of

abuse; living in a home where there is parental conflict, domestic violence, alcohol or drug abuse; parental separation

• Number of ACEs strongly associated with adult high-risk health

behaviours - smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, promiscuity and severe obesity, and correlated with ill-health including depression, heart disease, cancer and shortened lifespan

• ACE score above six is associated with a 30-fold increase in

attempted suicide

• Implacable hostility
• Hostile Aggressive Parenting (HAP)
• Intractable contact dispute
• Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)
• Resist/refuse dynamic
• Pathogenic parenting
• Attachment Based-Parental Alienation (AB-PA)

What is parental alienation?

Unjustified or unwarranted rejection of a parent where there was previously a normal range, loving, good enough relationship Intentional or unintentional actions by a parent (usually PWC) to turn their child against the other parent (usually a NRP)

What is parental alienation?

Family system under stress: the child feels a loyalty conflict, unwittingly co-opted into an unhealthy cross-generational coalition with one parent, or empowered or elevated to the role of decision maker in perverse triangulation, parentification or adultification processes

What is parental alienation?

Over time, the child becomes hostile, vitriolic and abusive, before usually rejecting the parent and refusing contact

What is parental alienation?

What is parental alienation?

Rejecting a parent

• Children are wired to attach to their parents and caregivers – even

if they are neglectful or abusive

• Children who have experienced neglect or abuse still crave a

relationship with their parent or caregiver

• It is unusual for a child, particularly a pre-adolescent, to actively

reject a parent or caregiver

• Rejection is a sign of underlying psychological distress, most likely

a sign of alienation

What is parental alienation?

Defence mechanism:

• Children unable to deal with hostility and conflict between

parents, experience cognitive dissonance and psychological distress

• Feel forced (usually unconsciously) to choose between

parents, minimise distress by rejecting the least vulnerable or least fearsome parent

• Splitting defence - one parent is all good, and the other is all

bad, unable to manage the reality that there is good and bad in both

What is parental alienation?

Child Psychological Abuse 995.51

“nonaccidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child’s parent or caregiver that result, or have the potential to result, in significant psychological harm to the child. Examples include […] harming/abandoning – or indicating that the offender will harm/abandon – people or things that the child cares about”

• Parental alienation is not a child arrangements issue
• Parental alienation is a child welfare issue
• Alienated children experience ACEs – parental conflict,

parental separation, exposure to DV, emotional and psychological abuse

• Parental alienation results in psychological distress and

emotional harm

What is parental alienation?

Parental alienation - outcomes

Short-term children may appear to function reasonably well in their day to day lives. However:

• There can be a restricted number of

personal relationships and friendships

• Cognitive functioning can be impaired –

reality testing, critical evaluation and black and white thinking

• Suppressed and repressed memories, feelings and experiences can

lead to anxiety, anger, aggression, social withdrawal

Parental alienation - outcomes

Life-long effects include depression, substance abuse, damaged self-esteem, personality and identity issues, enduring relationship issues

(Baker, 2005; Ben Ami & Baker, 2012; Bernet, Baker & Verrocchio, 2015 )

Later recognition that they excluded a loving, caring parent from their life may cause irreversible damage to relationship with the alienating parent

Parental alienation - prevalence

• Data variable- issues with samples and definitions
• 10-15% in community samples 20-40% in high conflict samples
• Most common in high conflict separated families though does occur in

intact families

• Gender of children not significant
• (N=610) randomly selected population of adults in USA. 13.4% of parents

have been alienated from one or more of their children; much higher than previous estimates. Findings show evidence of parental alienation across all socio-economic and demographic indicators (Harman, Leder-Elder &

Biringen, 2016)

Parental alienation - prevalence

July 2016, Sarah Parsons, Principal Social Worker and Assistant Director of Cafcass, stated that “parental alienation is responsible for around 80% of the most intransigent cases that come before the family courts”. ??? How many intransigent cases? Extrapolating from overseas studies – parental alienation is likely to be a feature in a minimum of 9,000 family proceeding applications per annum involving more than 18,000 children

• 1. A campaign of denigration / or extreme anxiety
• 2. Weak, absurd, or frivolous rationalizations for the criticism
• 3. Lack of ambivalence
• 4. The "independent-thinker" phenomenon
• 5. Reflexive support of the alienating parent
• 6. Absence of guilt over cruelty to the alienated parent
• 7. The presence of borrowed scenarios
• 8. Spread of the animosity to the friends and/or extended

family of the alienated parent

Signs and symptoms in the child

A campaign of denigration or extreme anxiety

• Hostile and abusive
• Physically resisting contact
• Rejecting phone calls, letters, emails and

gifts and expressing hatred

A campaign of denigration or extreme anxiety

Helen’s expressed fear of her father is a key feature of her narrative. She has not seen her father for three years, yet he lives within half a mile of her home. Helen expresses hypervigilance and hyperarousal, avoiding normal activities and adjusting her life to minimise the likelihood of encountering her father. Helen’s fear and anxiety seem disproportionate to the actual risk her father poses to her. Both Helen and her mother referred to Helen and Liam being so frightened that their teeth chattered.

Weak, absurd, or frivolous rationalizations for the criticism

Lack of ambivalence - cannot acknowledge any good aspects

• f the rejected parent “all bad” – black and white thinking

I asked Jack to tell me all the things that he liked about mum. […] He wrote kind then nice. I asked Jack what he meant by nice and he wrote hugs me; she always bes nice. I asked Jack to tell me what he liked about his father. He was unable to say anything at all positive. I asked Jack what he didn’t like about his mother and he said nothing. When I asked Jack what he didn’t like about his father he wrote everything.

Child aged 7, no contact for 3 years

The "independent-thinker" phenomenon

I asked Molly to tell me the best bits about daddy. Her response is “When we don’t have to see him. Cos I don’t like seeing him and I always find a way to get out of seeing him.” I asked how Molly got out of seeing her father. “By pretending to be sick. I am actually sick sometimes.”

Reflexive support of the alienating parent Child and parent are enmeshed – an overly dependent relationship, best friends, child can see no fault in parent

Absence of guilt over cruelty to the alienated parent

“Now, I definitely don’t want to see him at all. There is no emotion

• r purpose in his letters, they make me bored. It is pointless him

sending them in the first place. He needs a job; he never has any

• money. Arfan said that his father had “squandered his chances” and he

“had given up on him.”

The presence of borrowed scenarios

Molly told me that mammy gets upset because of what happened when they were little. I asked what had happened when she was little. Molly told me that she was three, and didn’t really remember what had

• happened. She then became quite animated, almost excited. “He threw

me down the stairs, that’s what I remember. I was asleep. He carried me onto the landing and threw me down the stairs. I woke up when I was rolling down the stairs, doing a roly poly. I did a cartwheel.”

Molly age 8, no unsupervised contact with father since aged 2½, minimal direct contact for 5 years, no indirect contact

Spread of the animosity to the friends and/or extended family of the alienated parent

I showed Jamie a photo of him with his Bampi (Andy’s father, Jim) together in Andy’s van. I asked who it was. Jamie responded “me with a dick.”

Alienating behaviours

Bernet, W., Baker, A. J. L. & Verrocchio, M. C. (2015). Symptom Checklist-90-Revised Scores in Adult Children Exposed to Alienating Behaviors: An Italian Sample. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 60(2), 357-362. Harman, J. J., Biringen, Z., Ratajack, E. M., Outland, P. L., & Kraus, A. (2016). Parents behaving badly : gender biases in the perception of parental alienating behaviors. Journal of Family Psychology, 30(7), 866–874.

The Baker Strategy Questionnaire - BSQ

Alienating behaviours

Eradicating Adultification / emotional manipulation Gatekeeping

Alienating behaviours

• Frustrates, prevents or interferes with time

with other parent

• Blocks phone messages or doesn’t pass on

letters, cards or gifts

• Made it difficult for child and parent to

communicate – text, telephone, Skype

• Makes child feel bad about spending time

with other parent’s family or stops them from doing so

Alienating behaviours

• Seems unhappy or annoyed when child speaks about
• r asks for photographs
• Talks to child about the court case, family finances,

adult relationships or other “adult” issues

• Makes negative comments or rarely makes positive
• nes
• Becomes upset, annoyed or ignores child when show

affection for parent or speaks positively about them

• Says or suggests parents don’t love child

Alienating behaviours

• Tries to make child choose between them
• Says or suggests parent is dangerous or unsafe
• Asks child to “spy” on parent or find out

information and report back

• Creates situations which would likely make child

feel angry or upset with parent

• Tries to turn child against dad/mum

Alienating behaviours

• Asks child to keep “secrets” – such as plans for

holidays, parties, school events

• Calls dad/mum by their first name and expects

child to do so also

• Refers to new partner as “dad” or “mum” and

expects child to do so

• Encourages child to value their opinion and rely
• n them above everyone else
• Encourages child to ignore other parent’s rules,

values or authority

Parental alienation False allegations

Q Methodology study (n=54; M=47, F=7)

• 94% family proceedings
• 70% former partner repeatedly broke orders
• 78% currently had no direct contact
• 56% had not seen child in the last year

Parental alienation and false allegations

Parental alienation and false allegations

Have you been subject to false allegations of DV against your partner? Yes= 36 (67%) No=18 (33%) Have you been subject to false allegations of child abuse? Yes= 44 (81%) No=10 (19%)

Parental alienation – contributory factors

• Duration of no parent-child contact
• Geographical distance
• Involvement of the legal profession and mental health

professionals who have insufficient knowledge

• Engagement with therapeutic support and agencies who

hold one-sided, subjective, background information (collusion)

• Co-existent domestic violence

Parental alienation – evidence from practice

• Failure to recognise when alienation may be a factor –

lack of knowledge in law, health, social care and education

• Assumptions that child behaviours indicate exposure to

abuse or violence

• Laissez faire and short termism – when a child appears to

be functioning well

Parental alienation – evidence from practice

• Lack of consistency between Courts, Cafcass practitioners

and Children’s Services

• Delays in the Court process
• Lack of training in parental alienation
• Lack of available interventions in the UK
• Gender bias – DV, parenting, Children’s Services, Cafcass,

Courts

Parental alienation – the UK

My daughter is only 13 months old. CAFCASS initially said that she was too young to experience any emotional/psychological problems, including parental alienation, and contact with her father (me) was not important until the age of 4. This was essentially overturned in court and there is now a suggestion that my daughter has suffered harm through either poor contact quality and lack of contact.

Research participant

Parental alienation in the UK

• July 2016, Sarah Parsons, Principal Social Worker and Assistant

Director of Cafcass, stated that “parental alienation is responsible for around 80% of the most intransigent cases that come before the family courts”.

• February 2017 Cafcass CEO, Sir Anthony Douglas, determined that

parental alienation is “undoubtedly a form of neglect or child abuse”.

• Both have asserted, as have the Welsh Government, that all front-

line practitioners are trained to recognise the issue and its impact

• n the child.

Parental alienation in the UK

• More awareness, particularly among some Court appointed

Guardians and family solicitors.

• Still far, far away from a universal recognition and understanding
• Need for policies that recognise a child has two parents and require

inclusion of both parents

• Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, March 2017, lack
• f headway in dealing with cases involving parental alienation since

he commented on the same back in 2004 ([2004] EWHC 727 (Fam))

• Research, analysis of cases non-existent

Mental health, ACEs and parental alienation

• Children experience ACEs
• Do not meet threshold for diagnosis or involvement of Local

Authority YET

• Use of a maladaptive coping strategy fails to prevent symptoms

surfacing in medium-long term and likely contributes to a difficult personality presentation and a repeating transgenerational problem

• Failure to offer early intervention leads to mental illness and

distress

Parental alienation – screening

• Signs and symptoms in the child
• Adult behaviours
• “False” allegations

• Maintain direct contact
• Reduce opportunities for inter-parental conflict
• Minimise transitions
• Psycho education for parents
• Strategy and resilience building for children
• Enforce court orders, swiftly
• Share objective information, court orders and

judgements with education and health service

Parental alienation - Early interventions

Parental alienation – Assessment

What are we assessing? The child’s apparent rejection of a parent Is it alienation or justified rejection/estrangement? If alienation, is it: mild, moderate, severe hybrid or pure conscious or unconscious Is there any underlying psychopathology? Is the child experiencing (or at risk of) significant harm?

• Clinical interview
• Observation
• Discussions with agencies,

services and practitioners

• Discussion with key family

members

• Family history
• Use of photographs and videos
• Chronology – subjective and

independent

• Psychometrics
• Projective techniques
• Medical records
• Police records
• Social services records
• Court paperwork

Parental alienation - assessment

Parental alienation - interventions

There is is no one siz ize fit its all, ll, off the shelf, magic ic solu lution!! !! Essential that therapist is fully understanding of alienation and has sight of assessment and psychological reports. Essential that intervention is based on a holistic assessment and addresses the underlying causes and current presentation.

• Family systems approach
• Structural, functional and strategic family therapy
• Brief solution focused therapy
• Narrative therapy
• CBT
• Parent-child interactive therapy
• Psychoeducation

Parental alienation

Therapeutic modalities and strategies

Parental alienation

Specific interventions, protocols and approaches (Fidler, Bala &

Saini, 2012; Baker & Sauber, 2013)

• Cognitive Behavior Desensitization using a one-way mirror

(Weitzman, 2004)

• Model for Reconnection (Freeman, 2008)
• Family Restructuring Therapy (Carter, Haave & Vandersteen, 2006)
• Multi-Modal Family Intervention (MMFI) (Friedlander & Walters, 2010)
• Overcoming Barriers (Sullivan, Ward & Deutsch, 2008)
• Family Bridges (Warshak, 2008)
• Family Reflections (Reay, 2015)
• UK – Dejong & Davies (2013); mentalisation approaches; IFT; SSoPA

Parental alienation

No intervention

• Paramountcy principle
• Therapeutic letter
• Therapy and support for alienated parents
• Therapy with adult alienated children

Thank you for listening

www.familypsychologysolutions.org Dr Sue Whitcombe, Chartered Psychologist

sue.whitcombe@familypsychologysolutions.org