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Services for Parents
The courts, lawyers and mental health professionals sometimes face unknown territory when dealing with severe alienation. Jacqui focuses her practice on educating and consulting with them to better understand the enduring negative impact on children of this insidious form of child maltreatment.
Services for Rejected Parents
Jacqueline has worked as a consultant on many of the most challenging and litigious cases of parental alienation, learning the strategies to ensure that the target parent’s lawyer and the court fully understand the family history. To secure effective treatment and representation, target parents need a comprehensive chronological case history that identifies the developmental trajectory of how the children became alienated, who is responsible for their alienated state, and how they are likely to be affected by the alienating behaviours of the other parent. The emotional and psychological impact of alienation on children and their rejected parent can be fully appreciated by the court and those working with the family when the techniques, themes and processes used to alienate a child are identified.
Alienation is often an insidious process triggered by a particular event in the parental relationship, such as the separation itself, a new partner, birth of a new child, employment change, or financial issues. The triggering factor is essential in the formulation of the case history. Target parents may need assistance with their presentation, organization of their materials, and in the formulation of events leading up to the estrangement from their children. Often, an enormous amount of information needs to be understood with a discerning eye to determine what is relevant. The chronological history will quickly demonstrate to those professionals involved with the family and the court how the child experiences the alienating behaviours of the other parent and identifies that the child is at risk of or experiencing emotional and psychological harm.
Many professionals become mired in unimportant details of the family situation and fail to identify parental alienation as the basis of the family dysfunction. Stephen Miller (2019)2 identifies the "four C’s" of alienating parents; cool, calm, charming and convincing. In comparison, target parents present with the four A’s; anxious, agitated, angry and afraid. This presentation is counterintuitive to most professionals and to the court. Target parents need assistance to identify the persuasive rhetoric their children are exposed to and how to combat and cope with the campaign of denigration against them. Understanding parental alienation as a form of child maltreatment and intimate partner terrorism, targeted parents have been traumatized. They have become genuinely fearful of the pathology of their children's other parent.
Some target parents have lost the endurance necessary to keep fighting for their children. Other parents ‘soldier on’ in the pain and isolation of being separated from their child. Some parents have reacted poorly to the alienation and require new strategies to deal with their children and former partner. Jacqui understands the target parent’s plight and provides the support necessary in their endeavours and actions to take a meaningful role in their child’s upbringing.
Miller, Stephen. 2019.09.13. First Things First: It’s a Mistake to Think Like a Lawyer When Representing Targeted Parents. Third International Conference of the Parental Alienation Study Group, Philadelphia, PA. pasg.info/app/uploads/2019/09/Miller-Talk-for-9-12-19-on-How-PA-is-Counterintuitive-FINAL-FINAL.pdf
Jacqueline will ensure you enlist the qualified and appropriate professionals for your family circumstances and will assist you in identifying and assembling the resources appropriate to your child’s age, developmental level, and presenting behaviours.
Many parents struggle to understand their child’s rejection and require a fresh set of eyes to understand their child’s resistance to contact. Often there is confusion between what behaviours constitute mild, moderate or severe alienation, justified estrangement and potential for success or failure of any intervention to reintegrate the rejected parent with the child. Cases of severe alienation must be treated differently from those considered moderate and mild and must be differentiated from high conflict. These cases may have particular markers that will suggest a trajectory to severe parental alienation demanding timely intervention. Moderate and most severe cases of alienation involve the pathology of the alienating parent. Strategic and specialized intervention and an immediate judiciary response are required in these cases. Jacqui will help you to identify pertinent patterns of behaviour that contributed to your child’s alienated state so you may achieve a thorough understanding of your circumstances and your child’s well-being.
Many alienated parents receive well-meaning but misguided advice about parental alienation. Jacqui will ensure you enlist the qualified and appropriate professionals for your family circumstances and will assist you in identifying and developing resources relevant to your child’s age, developmental level, and presenting behaviours. There are significant ramifications when families undergo therapies and interventions that are contraindicated with alienated children, or attend “reunification therapy” with a professional who does not understand alienation.
Inappropriate treatment may have dire consequences for regaining a healthy relationship with your child and may further entrench the alienation. Jacqui will undergo a critical examination of those professionals working with your family to ensure they have the experience, process, and skills necessary to address the alienated child’s state properly.
The Consultation Process
An initial consultation with a parent may occur independently or include significant others in the child’s life, such as a stepparent, grandparent or sibling. Some parents wish to include their lawyers in this consultation. Jacqueline requires a minimum of five hours to investigate your family situation initially.
Her initial consultation procedure includes:
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An initial meeting to fully understand your family and how your children became alienated;
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Review of any factors that constitute emotional, psychological and physical abuse unique to your family situation;
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Review of the case materials, including assessments and psychological reports;
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Input regarding various options to move forward.
Following the initial consultation, many parents and their counsel will continue to work with Jacqui. She will provide ongoing support and consultation on an as-needed basis. Jacqui will work with parents to:
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Assist with the development of a timeline that will identify events and significant behaviours by the other parent that contributed to your child’s alienation;
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Provide feedback regarding strategic options to address the family dynamic;
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Identify professional resources and services necessary to regain a healthy relationship between the target parent and their children;
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Assist in the organization and preparation of materials for the court.
