Press Conference June 7 at 9:30 a.m. Regarding "Parental Alienation"

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 6-7-2018 @ 9:30 a.m., a press conference will be held in the Zenger Rm at NPC, located at 529 14th St. NW, 13th Fl, Washington, DC 20045. Speakers Wendy Perry, a parent-child advocate leading the fight against the psychological abuse of children, Dr. Craig Childress, a clinical psychologist and leading expert in "parental alienation" pathology, and Rod McCall, author of For the Love of Eryk: Surviving Divorce, Parental Alienation and Life After, (Rod writes about his own son who was killed in a murder-suicide by the child's mother because of this pathology). Also, Ginger Gentile, director and producer of the documentary film Erasing Family, which exposes the global epidemic pathology of "parental alienation," exacerbated by the failure of professional psychology.  On June 6, 2018 @ 2:00pm, the speakers will hand-deliver a Petition to the American Psychological Association: Protecting Children from Psychological Child Abuse, signed by over 19,000 parents.

Children are not weapons and should never be used as weapons in the spousal conflict surrounding divorce. Yet the lack of knowledge in forensic psychology regarding basic domains of professional psychology and the absence of appropriate guidance from forensic psychology to the family courts is allowing and rewarding the weaponization of children in high conflict divorce. This pathology is commonly called "parental alienation" in the field of forensic psychology and high conflict divorce, when the personality pathology of one parent is triggered by the rejection surrounding the divorce, leading this parent to psychologically control and manipulate the child into taking sides in the spousal conflict surrounding the divorce, ultimately leading the child into rejecting the other parent following the divorce.

Children are being psychologically abused by the allied narcissistic-borderline personality parent who is forcing the child to reject the other parent following divorce.  In response to the pathology, forensic psychology lacks the professional-level knowledge in defined domains of pathology needed to solve high conflict attachment-related family pathology following divorce.  Most forensic psychologists have minimal to no training in the domains of knowledge needed to solve this pathology; the attachment system, personality disorder pathology, family systems therapy, and complex trauma.  

Instead, court-involved forensic psychology makes up new forms of pathology that don't exist in clinical psychology, conducts extensive and exceedingly expensive child custody evaluations that lack validity in the conclusions and recommendations reached, and conduct an entirely made-up, undefined, and ineffective therapy ("reunification therapy") that can last for years and that does not alter the pathology, with the pathology instead becoming increasingly worse over time.

The domain of court-involved professional practice is forensic psychology and is separate from clinical psychology, which is the domain of professional psychology responsible for solving everything else, all of the different types of child and family pathologies that are not court-involved. Clinical psychology, long banished by forensic psychology from court-involved professional practice, is returning to solve court-involved high conflict family pathology surrounding divorce and child custody.

The Petition to the APA is the voice of parents seeking the support of the American Psychological Association to obtain the necessary professional knowledge regarding the attachment system, parental personality pathology, family systems pathology, and complex trauma which is needed to solve the attachment-related family pathology of "parental alienation" following divorce.  The Petition to the APA seeks three actions from the APA, 1) an immediate press release supporting Standard 2.01a of the APA ethics code requiring professional competence, 2) a change to the APA's position statement on "parental alienation" pathology, acknowledging the pathology exists and designating these children and families a "special population" requiring specialized knowledge to diagnose and treat, and 3) to convene a conference of experts to examine the role of professional psychology in the family courts and child custody decision-making.

Dr. Childress, a clinical psychologist, and Children4Tomorrow, a non-profit in Houston, have come together to establish a pilot program for the Houston family courts that represents the return of clinical psychology to court-involved high-conflict divorce.  This program for the family courts brings the necessary professional knowledge in attachment pathology, parental personality pathology, family systems therapy, and complex trauma to the solution by creating a knowledgeable treatment team of family therapists and amicus attorneys as a clinical psychology resource for the court.

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts in Houston represents the return of clinical psychology to court-involved high conflict divorce that saves and protects the family and restores a normal-range and healthy childhood for the child.  The AB-PA program for the family courts is a structured replicable model for court-involved clinical psychology that will solve high conflict family pathology surrounding divorce.

SOURCE Alliance to Solve “Parental Alienation”