I am thankful to the University of Adelaide, Australia and SAHMRI for hosting the parental alienation symposium in September 2017.
In the video, I am presenting to a group of approximately 100 alienated parents, extended family members, legal and affiliated professionals and practitioners who have a stake (personal and professional) in parental alienation.
This was followed by a panel discussion with parental alienation specialists, legal practitioners and parent representatives. The discussion was lively, informative and collaborative. It became apparent that extended family members (grandparents, aunties, uncles) who have also been rejected remain unheard by our socio-legal institutions.
Practitioners of various persuasions were also frustrated at being unable to adequately respond to what they experienced as a flood of allegations of violence and abuse. These allegations,occurring in the context of alienation, often cannot be substantiated yet are required to be considered and are influential in terms of the family law mandate about child safety.
It seems that a large gap was identified between the legal expectations that our family law systems responds to presentations such as parental alienation and the lived experience of the alienated parents and extended family in whose experience adverse decisions are made against them. Parental alienation is poorly understood as a form of abuse.
Significantly, there appears to be a large gap between the functional description of parental alienation as a form of family violence (Section 4AB of the Family Law Act, 1975) and kits implications for formulating a case based upon parental alienation.
Similar Posts:
- Parental Alienation in Australia, A Year in Review
- Parental Alienation in the Australian Media!
- Is there an Epidemic of False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse and Family Violence?
- False Allegations and Parental Alienation in Australian Family Law
- Accredited Professional Development in Parental Alienation Presentations and Behaviours
Thank you very much Stan
I am being alienated from my daughter now for 8 years.
In the family court and very happy for you to contact me as part of your PhD.
Thank you for your significant contributions to the discussion of Parental Alienation. I am a single mother, alienated from my 11 year old son. After twelve years of physical, psychological, and financial abuse I am now losing my children one at a time, tearing apart what remains of my livelihood and threatening the mental health of all three children. I understand the Federal Circuit Court in Tasmania does not recognize this syndrome. I am prepared to help raise awareness in any way possible should any agency be gathering information or research, please share my email address.
Yes, parental alienation is insidious. If not addressed it is like an emotional acid corroding and eating away at the loving relationship ships between parents and children and adversely changing alienated children forever.
There are signs that attitudes and understandings of parental alienation in family law are changing for the better-there are are cases where at least in the family court judges are prepared to accept evidence that support alienation and are much clearer about distinguishing alienation from estrangement. However, it is likely that a common understanding has not permeated thought the entire family law system and that more work needs to be done to accept alienation as a form of abuse for which restoration of a parent-child relationship with the targeted parent is the remedy.