Key topics
Parental alienation
FAQs
What can be done to prevent parental alienation?
First, be careful before attaching the label “Parental Alienation” (PA) to something which is worrying but not as extreme. Children of separated parents can find it very hard to manage their divided loyalties, and may show signs that they are rejecting a parent, whether or not they have been influenced by the parent they live with most.
The signs of the far more worrying PA are more extreme, as listed here. As noted by Dr William Bernet, these symptoms still need to be studied further but do give a strong indication of the disorder. At the simplest level, building up contact with the child is the best way to prevent alienation. And if the child is already so hostile that this is impossible, there are now family therapists and child psychologists who have experience of working with children to undo the alienation. Amongst the mass of information on this topic, try Nick Child’s Alienation Experience, and Karen Woodall’s blog.
Guides/Publications
Useful Books

Parental Alienation Guide
Billed as a “Definitive Guide for Parents, Professionals, Practitioners and Policymakers”, this new book from Professor Ben Hine is a good start for all these categories of people. He explains his intentions further on the opening page, saying that “Th…

Two new accounts of Parental Alienation
Losing all contact with your children is a traumatic experience, particularly if it happens after a long, expensive and painful court experience. Two recent books tell about personal experience of parental alienation and also call for significant chan…

Serpent Child – childhood experiences of parental alienation
Patricia Riley’s new book tells the story of her experience of parental separation and subsequent parental alienation. In his introduction to the book |(above) Anthony Douglas the former Chief Executive Officer of CAFCASS stresses the importance of per…

Parents Acting Badly
The sub-title of this new book sets the scene: “How institutions and societies promote the alienation of children from their families”. In explaining their view of how this happens, Harman and Biringen also provide a very readable guide to what brings…