THERAPEUTIC WORK WITH ALIENATED CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES |
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| Authors: | Janet R. Johnston Marjorie Gans Walters Steven Friedlander |
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| Affiliation: | Janet R. Johnston, Ph. D., is a professor of administration of justice at San Jose State University, executive director of the Judith Wallerstein Center for the Family in Transition, and a specialist in high conflict and violent divorcing families. She is co-author of the books Impasses and Divorceand In the Name of the Child.;Marjorie Gans Walters, Ph. D. is in private practice, where she does psychotherapy and assessment of children and adults, as well as consultation, teaching, supervision and research. Her forensic work includes juvenile evaluations, custody evaluations, and Special Master work. A past President of the Marin County Psychological Association, she helped write the Marin Custody Evaluation Guidelines.;Steven Friedlander, Ph. D., is an associate clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco and Marin County. His practice includes psychotherapy with children, adolescents and adults, psychological evaluations, custody evaluations, mediation, consultation, and parent counseling. He also serves as special master in high conflict divorce cases. |
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| Abstract: | This article describes goals and strategies for family-focused counseling and therapy when children are alienated from a parent after separation and divorce. The confidential intervention takes place within a legally defined contract and is based on a careful assessment of the dynamics of the multiple factors that contribute to the alienation and how the chilďs development is affected. Strategies for forming multiple therapeutic alliances with often reluctant, recalcitrant, and polarized parents are discussed together with ways of helping the child directly. |
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