June 27, 2022

What is Parental Alienation and How Can Therapists Successfully Treat it?

1 hour 14 minutes

Curt and Katie chat about a controversial topic: Parental Alienation. We look at what parental alienation is, the controversies and complexities surrounding this process, how to assess for parental alienation, and how to effectively treat the family system. We talk about how traditional therapy methods are inadequate and potentially harmful in these cases and what to do instead. This is a continuing education podcourse.

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

In this podcast episode we explore Parental Alienation

We both have worked with families that

What is Parental Alienation?

The impact a parent/guardian has over how a child interacts with another parent/guardian

Complex dynamic within a family where conflict is present

Breakdown of relationship based on behavior of alienating parent toward targeted parent

The Four Factor Model from Baker (2020)

How do you assess for Parental Alienation?

Challenges with correctly identifying this process/dynamic

Controversies and lack of recognition of Parental Alienation as a separate diagnosis from Parent-Child Relational Problem

Identifying what Parental Alienation is not

Clues that stories from kids are manufactured versus authentic stories of child abuse

The need for access to the full family system to obtain sufficient information

Exploring: What is alienating behavior? How does it work?

Effective Case Conceptualization and Treatment for Parental Alienation

The importance of a family systems approach

Involvement of government systems

Uncovering the generational or individual trauma for all members of the system

How to engage the tools available to advocate for important treatment elements to be in place

The importance of understanding scope and how to write recommendations to court

Preventing therapist shopping and treatment avoidance

Harmful recommendations that can hinder progress within these systems

Treatment teaming and avoiding isolation

Educating about Parental Alienation

Supporting the targeted parent to improve the relationship with the child

Working with alienating parent to prepare for improvement in child’s relationship with targeted parenting

Co-parenting and conflict resolution

Therapist communication with all members of the system

Receive Continuing Education for this Episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide

Hey modern therapists, we’re so excited to offer the opportunity for 1 unit of continuing education for this podcast episode – Therapy Reimagined is bringing you the Modern Therapist Learning Community!

Once you’ve listened to this episode, to get CE credit you just need to go to learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com/pages/podcourse, register for your free profile, purchase this course, pass the post-test, and complete the evaluation! Once that’s all completed - you’ll get a CE certificate in your profile or you can download it for your records. For our current list of CE approvals, check out moderntherapistcommunity.com.

You can find this full course (including handouts and resources) here: learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com/pages/podcourse

Continuing Education Approvals:

When we are airing this podcast episode, we have the following CE approval. Please check back as we add other approval bodies: Continuing Education Information

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By Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT

4.4

235235 ratings

June 27, 2022

What is Parental Alienation and How Can Therapists Successfully Treat it?

1 hour 14 minutes

What is Parental Alienation and How Can Therapists Successfully Treat it?

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

In this podcast episode we explore Parental Alienation

We both have worked with families that

What is Parental Alienation?

The impact a parent/guardian has over how a child interacts with another parent/guardian

Complex dynamic within a family where conflict is present

Breakdown of relationship based on behavior of alienating parent toward targeted parent

The Four Factor Model from Baker (2020)

How do you assess for Parental Alienation?

Challenges with correctly identifying this process/dynamic

Controversies and lack of recognition of Parental Alienation as a separate diagnosis from Parent-Child Relational Problem

Identifying what Parental Alienation is not

Clues that stories from kids are manufactured versus authentic stories of child abuse

The need for access to the full family system to obtain sufficient information

Exploring: What is alienating behavior? How does it work?

Effective Case Conceptualization and Treatment for Parental Alienation

The importance of a family systems approach

Involvement of government systems

Uncovering the generational or individual trauma for all members of the system

How to engage the tools available to advocate for important treatment elements to be in place

The importance of understanding scope and how to write recommendations to court

Preventing therapist shopping and treatment avoidance

Harmful recommendations that can hinder progress within these systems

Treatment teaming and avoiding isolation

Educating about Parental Alienation

Supporting the targeted parent to improve the relationship with the child

Working with alienating parent to prepare for improvement in child’s relationship with targeted parenting

Co-parenting and conflict resolution

Therapist communication with all members of the system

Receive Continuing Education for this Episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide

You can find this full course (including handouts and resources) here: learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com/pages/podcourse

Continuing Education Approvals:

When we are airing this podcast episode, we have the following CE approval. Please check back as we add other approval bodies: Continuing Education Information

...more