Professionals
EMMM considers that the minimum key areas of expertise required of a single expert include:
- Parental alienation dynamics
- Family Violence and child maltreatment
- Sexual abuse
- Attachment theory
- Personality disorders
- Anxieties, fears and phobias
- Child Development
- Family systems
- Complex trauma
- False confessions
- False memories
- Repressed memories
- Assessment and diagnosis
- Trauma-informed practice
- Risk Assessments (risk of harm to self, others and child safety risk)
- Interviewing Children (see note)
Note: It must be determined whether the interviewing, questioning and counselling techniques used with the child were so suggestive that they had the capacity to substantially alter the child's recollections of events and thus compromise the reliability of the child's personal knowledge.
Parental alienation cases are counterintuitive and can externally look very similar. Identifying and presenting a case to the family court is not a one size fits all.
Childhood Psychological Abuse as Harmful as Sexual or Physical Abuse
Latest Research
Visit our RESEARCH page, which lists the most recent and past academic articles on parental alienation by experts from around the world. We regularly update our website with the latest research.
Can a child be influenced by suggestive questioning from parents, interviewers or other individuals?
Yes. Anyone, especially a child, is susceptible to influence through coercive, suggestive, or even benign questioning. An understanding of whether the questioning, interviews, interrogation or counselling of the child was unduly suggestive requires a highly nuanced inquiry into the atmosphere and demeanour surrounding verbal interactions between the child and adults.
Recommended Resources for Lawyers & Mental Health Professionals
Parental Alienation | Science and Law (2020)
By Demosthenes Lorandos and William Bernet.
CC Thomas
Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation | A Guide to Assessment and Intervention (2020)
By Janet Haines, Mandy Matthewson and Marcus Turnball
Routledge
Litigating Parental Alienation | Evaluating and Presenting an Effective Case in Court (2021)
By Ashish S Joshi
American Bar Association
By Amy JL Baker, Paul R Fine and Alianna Lacheen-Baker
Rowman & Littlefield
Children Held Hostage | Identifying Brainwashed Children, Presenting a Case, and Crafting Solutions
By Stanley Clawar & Brynne Rivlin
PARENTAL ALIENATION STUDY GROUP
Parental Alienation Database
A large bibliography regarding parental alienation has been jointly developed by PASG and the Eskind Biomedical Library of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Access the Parental Alienation Database at https://ckm.vumc.org/pasg.
PASG on YouTube [Videos]
Videos about Parental Alienation, written by members of the Parental Alienation Study Group, and produced by The Law Center. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkj28_4yhpqYjg9j2aY-y1x7j7ZY44T61
Resources
A list of extensive resources
Books by PASG Members
Many PASG members are faculty members of universities in the United States and other countries. They have engaged in extensive clinical work and research regarding parental alienation. As a group, they have published hundreds of scholarly papers, book chapters, and books, some of which are listed here. The inclusion of any book on this website does not confer approval of the book or its author by the PASG Board of Directors. https://pasg.info/books/
Online Parental Alienation Education
Together with the National Coalition Against Parental Alienation (NCAPA), the Parental Alienation Study Group offers two online courses regarding parental alienation – at no cost to the participants. Access the online courses at http://ncapa.thinkific.com/.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity.
The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect.
Children's Rights Litigation
Trauma Caused by Separation of Children from Parents
Trauma Caused by Separation of Children from Parents
AIFS Library on Parental Alienation
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
The latest material added to the Australian Institute of Family Studies library database is displayed. Where available online, a link to the document is provided. Many items can be borrowed from the Institute's library via the Interlibrary loan system.
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
A critical issue faced by researchers working in the area of child maltreatment concerns the definition of child maltreatment.
What is child abuse and neglect?
Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?
What is child abuse and neglect?
Child maltreatment refers to any non-accidental behaviour by parents, caregivers, other adults or older adolescents that is outside the norms of conduct and entails a substantial risk of causing physical or emotional harm to a child or young person.
UNHRC
Convention on the Rights of the Child
An important international convention, agreed to by the nations of the world. Of itself, it has little legal weight, but its contents have been incorporated, to varying degrees, into the laws of individual countries.
Children of Parents with Mental Illness (COPMI)
This series of videos were created for young people (from 10 years and above) who have a parent who experiences a mental illness.
- What is Mental Illness?
- What is a Personality Disorder?
- What is Depression?
- What is Psychosis?
- What is Anxiety?
- What is BiPolar?
- What are Eating Disorders?
- Getting Better
- Looking After You
Our SUPPORTERS
Please Sign Our Petition
Parental Alienating Behaviours
are Child Abuse & Family Violence.
This serious form of abuse and family violence can no longer be ignored. Parental alienating behaviours must be acknowledged in Australia as it is in other parts of the world. We need legislation that not only acknowledges its existence but firmly and clearly legislates against it.