Parental Alienation/Divorce
Articles
Videos
For parents, lawyers, and therapists dealing with parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome, overnights for young children, relocations, and child custody disputes. More
Divorce Poison: How To Protect Your Family from
Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing
Description and reviews of the classic guide to overcoming parental alienation. More
Welcome Back, Pluto: Understanding, Preventing,
and Overcoming Parental Alienation
The acclaimed video for children, teens, parents, and therapists that holds the key to regaining and keeping children's love. More
Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and
Alienated Parent-Child Relationships™
This highly-regarded educational program offers a safe and effective transition to reunite alienated parents with their children. More
Divorce Poison Control Center
Tips from Dr. Warshak and from former alienated parents on how to prevent and respond to parental alienation. More
Alienation Busters
Books, films, and TV shows teach children lessons that help overcome parental alienation. More
Case Law and References
List and description of case law relevant to parental alienation and reference citations to professional articles on parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome. More
On-line Articles
Support Groups, Books, Websites
Online and community resources for families suffering from parental alienation, and book recommendations for children, parents, mental health professionals, and attorneys. More
What Is Parental Alienation?
- Most children whose parents live apart from each other long for a good relationship with both parents and want to be raised by both. In my own studies, and those of other researchers, children say that the worst part of divorce is that they do not get to spend enough time with their parents. The parent they spend the most time with during the week usually has less time for the children after the divorce because of the responsibilities of earning a living and running a household without the assistance of the other parent. Children are also unsatisfied with the type of relationship they can have with a parent seen mainly on weekends.
- The majority of children want contact with both parents on a regular basis, and the most common preference among children, and among adults looking back on their parents' divorce, is for parenting plans that more evenly balance their time between homes.
- Some children, though, do not crave more time with an absent parent. Instead, these children reject one parent, resist contact, or show extreme reluctance to be with the parent. These children are alienated. In some cases, children have good reasons to reject a deficient parent. In other cases, children reject a parent with whom they previously had a good relationship, often paralleling their other parent's negative attitudes. The children's treatment of the rejected parent is disproportionate to that parent's behavior and inconsistent with the prior history of the parent-child relationship.
- On the pages linked above you will find resources for understanding, preventing, and overcoming a child's irrational alienation from, and rejection of, a loving parent.
