PARENTAL ALIENATION WHAT LEGAL PROFESSIONALS NEED TO KNOW

PARENTAL ALIENATION: WHAT LEGAL PROFESSIONALS NEED TO KNOW Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC; The Center for Families LLC; (843) 763 -5837; Helen. Wheeler. Counseling. com Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. , LPC-A; Armstrong Family Law, LLC; (843) 670 -3577

What do Legal Professionals need to understand? Legally Counterintuitive • • • These are not regular “high conflict” cases Child protection is the # 1 priority Mediation and co-parenting are usually not successful Rules to Show Cause are almost always ineffective Alienation is a legitimate concept— identifiable and quantifiable world wide. It is distinguishable from bona fide abuse 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 2

What do Legal Professionals need to Understand? Therapeutically and Psychologically Counterintuitive • • Parental alienation is consistent with the accepted definition of psychological abuse Long term effects without intervention are as devastating as physical and/or sexual abuse Traditional therapy is contraindicated Children will not naturally reject parents (even if there is actual abuse) 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 3

SC Law • • • Noojin v. Noojin: Visitation refusal (the most prevalent manifestation in alienation cases) is unacceptable and is grounds for a change of custody Watson v. Poole: Unwillingness to foster a relationship with the other parent mandated a change in custody Know when your case fits these precedents: an informed Guardian ad Litem is essential! 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 4

Is Alienation a Legitimate Concept? • • • American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Association of Family and Conciliation courts (AFCC) American Psychological Association (APA Handbook of Forensic Psychology) American Bar Association (ABA) American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) • • American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Spanish Association for Multidisciplinary Research on Parental Interference (ASEMIP) Romanian Association for Common Custody and the Judicial Psychology Institute Italian Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry All these international and professional entities say “YES!” 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 5

The DSM-5 • T 74. 32 Child Psychological Abuse: …. “indicating that the alleged offender [other parent] will harm/abandon—people or things the child cares about…” • Z 62. 820 Parent-Child Relational Problem: “Typically the parent-child relational problem is associated with impaired functioning in behavioral, cognitive, or affective domains. Examples include…. . parental overprotection; excessive parental pressure. ” • Z 62. 898 Child affected by Parental Relationship Distress "This category should be used when the focus of clinical attention is the negative effects of parental relationship discord (e. g. high levels of conflict, distress, or disparagement) on a child in the family, including effects on the child’s mental or other medical disorders. ” 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 6

The DSM-5 • • F 68. 10 Factitious disorder… Falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms. The individual present him/herself as ill impaired, or injured…. (Can be imposed by another: Munchausen by Proxy) F 22 Delusional disorder 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 7

The [Pseudo] Controversy “Is Parental Alienation a Syndrome? ” • Syndrome A grouping of signs and symptoms, based on their frequent co-occurrence that may suggest a common underlying pathogenesis, course, familial pattern, or treatment selection. The actual definition of a syndrome from the DSM-III, DSM-IV-TR, DSM-5 published by the American Psychiatric Association 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 8

Symptoms found in alienated children • • Behaviors unique to alienated children A campaign of • Reflexive support of the denigration against alienating parent (coaching) rejected parent • Absence of guilt Weak, frivolous or • Borrowed scenario (often absurd reasons for the with age inappropriate rejection language) Lack of ambivalence • Rejection of friends and “Independent thinker” extended family All scientists and other experts, phenomenon refusal/ even the critics, agree on these inability to consider alternative explanations symptoms. Is it a syndrome—does 11/27/2020 it meet the Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Knowcriteria? scientific Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 9

Additional observable responses by child Additional Important Symptoms of Alienated children • Although these eight signs are well-known, there are other important indicators, for example: • There was a previously-good baseline relationship between the child and the parent. • The child denies or downplays positive memories of the rejected parent ("erasing of positive memories"). • Over-empowerment of the child. • Signs of pathological enmeshment: • Infantilization. Adultification. Parentification. 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 10

Enmeshment • • • Lack of psychological boundaries between the child and the preferred parent may be cause of visitation refusal The pronoun “we” is often utilized by the child and the parent to describe feeling, opinion, or experiences “Clinginess” and/or refusal to attend school can accompany this issue Must be understood in cases of custody reversal In this situation enmeshment usually is the cause of the child’s alienation 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 11

What do we know about Enmeshed Parents? • • • The parent is emotionally fragile and needy There is often a role reversal—the child becomes the parent They encourage empowered children They are helpless in the face of the empowered child The parent indulges and encourage$$ the child to take advantage of the other parent There is a compromised ability to parent and discipline 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 12

Parental Alienation Strategies 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Badmouthing/brainwashing Limiting contact Interfering with communication Limiting mention and photographs of the targeted parent Withholding love and approval Telling children that the targeted parent does not love them Allowing/Forcing children to choose Creating the impression that the targeted parent is dangerous 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 13

Parental Alienation Strategies 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 11/27/2020 Confiding in the children Forcing the children to reject the targeted parent Asking children to spy on the targeted parent Asking children to keep secrets from the targeted parent Referring to the targeted parent by his/her first name and encouraging the children to do the same Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 14

Parental Alienation Strategies Referring to stepparent as mom or dad and encouraging the children to do the same 15. Withholding medical social academic information from the targeted parent and then removing that parent’s name of those records 16. Changing the children’s name to remove the association with the targeted parent 17. Undermining the authority of the targeted parent 14. 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 15

Alienating behaviors: present unique challenges • • have results that are insidious, malignant and highly resistant to intervention are an understudied form of domestic abuse/intimate violence situation often resulting in PTSD symptoms in the child and the rejected parent; The child and the favored parent become trauma bonded (Stockholm Syndrome) progresses slowly; adjunctive intervention from the court is almost always needed to facilitate any progress motivated by anger or neediness 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 16

Psychological Maltreatment American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Practice Guidelines o The Investigation and Determination of Suspected Psychological Maltreatment of Children and Adolescents o © 2017, 2018 o 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 17

Psychological Maltreatment Federal Child Abuse and Treatment Act of 2010 • • • “…. any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation…. ” Psychological maltreatment: Symbolic/verbal communication from the perpetrator to the child o …. the most prominent lasting feature, central meanings, and impact of the victim’s maltreatment experience are mental, affecting the thoughts and feelings the child has in response to the abuse or neglect. o The major psychological domains affected are thinking (cognitive), feeling/emotion (affective), and from these, impulse or will to act (conative/volitional). o 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 18

Psychological Maltreatment • Definition: “a repeated pattern or extreme incident(s) of caretaker behavior that thwart the child’s basic psychological needs (e. g. safety, socialization, emotional and social support, cognitive stimulation, respect) and convey a child is worthless, defective, damaged goods, unloved, unwanted, endangered, primarily useful in meeting another’s needs, and/or expendable” 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 19

Psychological Maltreatment • Forms: Terrorizing embodies caregiver behavior that threatens or is likely to physically hurt, abandon, or place the child or child’s loved one/objects in recognizably dangerous or frightening situations. Placing the child in a loyalty conflict by making the child unnecessarily choose to have a relationship with one parent or the other Setting rigid or unrealistic expectations with threat of loss, harm, or danger if they are not met 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 20

Psychological Maltreatment • Exploiting/corrupting embodies caregiver acts that encourage the child to develop inappropriate behaviors and attitudes Restricting or interfering with or directly undermining the child's important relationships (e. g. restricting a child’s communication with his/her other parent and telling the child the lack of communication is due to the other parent’s lack of love for the child) Modeling, permitting, or encouraging developmentally inappropriate behavior (e. g. parentification, adultification, infantilization, and living the parent’s dreams) 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 21

Psychological Maltreatment • Exploiting/corrupting embodies caregiver acts that encourage the child to develop inappropriate behaviors and attitudes Coercing the child’s submission through extreme overinvolvement, intrusiveness, or dominance, allowing little or no opportunity for support for child’s feelings and wishes; micromanaging child’s life, and/or manipulating (e. g. inducing guilt, fostering anxiety, threatening withdrawal of love, placing a child in a double bind in which the child is doomed to fail or disappoint, or disorienting the child by stating something is true (or false) when it patently is not so. 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 22

Long-term Consequences of Psychological Maltreatment Without Intervention Medical Illnesses (heart and cardiovascular or lung disease, cancer, resulting in premature death)This is the so-called ACE study by Felitti, V. J. , et. al 1998. Study of 9500+ individuals and was first published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2. Permanent structural damage (“rewiring” the brain), functional impairment, changes in brain structure resulting in behavioral abnormalities and mental health problems. Anda, R. F. Felitti, V. J. , et. al. Utilizing the same study subjects from the ACE Study consisting of 17, 337 people first appeared in 2006; published in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 3. Interference with cognitive development, reduction in gray matter in the brain. Edmiston, E. E. , Wang, F, et. al. 2011 first published in Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine 2011. Ø 4. Psychological and emotional abuse is at least as damaging to children as physical and sexual abuse. Spinazzola, J. Hogdon, H. , et. al. First published in Psychological Trauma Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need 2014. to Know 1. 11/27/2020 Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 23

Long-term Consequences of Psychological Maltreatment Without Intervention 5. 6. 7. Psychiatric impairment and mental health disorders. Nurius, P. S. , Green, Logan-Greene. , et. al. first published in Child Abuse & Neglect, 2015. Personality disorders and mental health disorders. Taillieu, et. al. First Published in Child Abuse & Neglect, 2016. Analysis of 34, 653 individuals. Structural changes to cells on a molecular level. Mitchell, C. , Mc. Lanahan, et. al. First published in Pediatrics, 2017. This study looked at individuals who had suffered father loss and were found to have shortened telomeres that are markers for aging or injury. There is also evidence that there is the presence of genetic alleles that enhance stress sensitivity. Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know 11/27/2020 Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 24

Long-term Consequences of Psychological Maltreatment Without Intervention 8. 9. Based on guidelines from the Individuals with Disabilities Acts and Amended (IDEAA) it was noted problems of interpersonal thoughts, feelings and behaviors: anxiety, depression, negative self concept, and negative cognitive styles that increase susceptibility to depression, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts. There attachment problems. There is a cognitive, conative, and affective impact. Individuals develop an inability to form or to sustain healthy relationships—often resulting in their own abusive relationships and often alienate or are alienated from their own children. 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 25

Critical aspects of Interventions Mental health professionals who understand parental alienation; it is not intuitive • Utilizing parallel parenting rather than coparenting sessions • Legal professionals who recognize parental alienation • • Guardians ad litem who recognize parental alienation and are willing to request appropriate assessment/evaluations • Attorneys who are willing to “think outside the box” in drawing up Court Orders with specific requirements as to visitation. • Judges who are willing to reverse custody—on temporary/emergency basis--as well as declaring periods of “protective separation” (AKA no contact orders) 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 26

o s l a is t Counterintuitive i t u b. it… s i “Therapists who insist on a trial of nly o t No conventional therapy are exceedingly unlikely to succeed…. Such an approach is worse than worthless because while therapist provides futile treatment, the child, already injured , is deprived of effective intervention—including protection. ” Contraindicated Miller, Steven G. Working with Alienated Children and Families. A Clinical Guidebook. Ed. Amy Baker and Richard Sauber. Chapter 2: “Clinical Reasoning and Decisionmaking in Cases of Child Alignment. ” (Page 16) (Emphasis added. ) 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 27

Who is the effective therapist? One who understands: • • Intervening requires the power and control of the favored parent over the child must be stopped There will be continued manifestation of power dynamic as favored parent switches their efforts to maintain control--to the practioner even after court orders Practioners might find themselves facing allegations as the favored parents attempts to triangulate the professionals Practioners find themselves caught in the coercive control when they try to use reason and persuasions to win an alienated child back 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 28

Effects of Psychological Maltreatment Learning problems and behavioral problems in academic setting, such as impaired learning despite adequate ability and instruction, decline in IQ over time o Physical health problems such as delays in almost all areas of physical and behavioral development, lifestyle risk behaviors in adolescence o In summary: cognitive, conative, and affective disruptions o Ø 11/27/2020 These outcomes have been found in a wide range of settings in the US and around the world and in different types of research studies. The damaging correlates of consequences of PM are common among those who experience it and are Parental Alienation: What Legalsubgroups Professionals Need to Know not limited to particular of children Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 29 and youth.

Bottom line: • • Effective handling of alienation cases requires wellinformed, courageous Judges, attorneys, mental health professionals, Guardians ad Litem Professionals need to interface effectively across disciplines Innovative forward-thinking actions and professionals willing to move beyond the status quo can protect these vulnerable children The incidence of so-called “spontaneous reconciliation” with a previously rejected parent is abysmally small: estimated to be about 10%. The average length of time of separation and alienation is as short as about 7 years (representing the bulk of the an individual’s childhood) to 46 years. 11/27/2020 Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 30

When you’re asked “Why rock the boat? ” when looking at change of custody: You have to remember that the boat has been hijacked! Parental Alienation: What Legal Professionals Need to Know 11/27/2020 Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC. Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. 31

PARENTAL ALIENATION: WHAT LEGAL PROFESSIONALS NEED TO KNOW Helen Elliott Wheeler, LPC; The Center for Families LLC; (843) 763 -5837; Helen. Wheeler. Counseling. com Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. , LPC-A; Armstrong Family Law, LLC; (843) 670 -3577