Amy J. L. Baker

An examination of adults who have been manipulated by divorcing parents.

Breaking the Ties that Bind

Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome

Mel Schneiderman

Child abuse is crushing and may lead to a lifetime of negative outcomes, including poor health, and mental illness. More wrenching is the bond victims often form with their abusers, one so strong they may attempt to protect and defend their victimizers. This book uncovers the realities of these relationships through an examination of abuse memoirs.

How Victims Make Sense of Childhood Abuse

Bonded to the Abuser

Paul R. Fine

A nationally renowned child expert and a licensed clinical social worker offer a positive parenting approach to those involved in a messy and hostile divorce describing techniques to avoid parental alienation and to foster open and honest communication with children. Original.

What to Do When Your Ex-Spouse Tries to Turn the Kids Against You

Co-Parenting with a Toxic Ex

Alianna LaCheen-Baker

Broken relationships between adult children and their parents is a widespread phenomenon. While the parent-child attachment relationship is of critical importance for the child in the early years of life, the parent-child relationship continues to be a source of great importance over the course of the individual’s life span for both the child and the parent. For adults and adult children who are estranged/alienated from each other, the pain and dissatisfaction never fully go away. Despite the prevalence of the problem of ruptured relationships, there are few resources available for mental health professionals working with this population. This book provides a tool for clinicians to turn to when they are working with adult children and their parents seeking to resolve conflict, improve communication, and enhance their relationships.

Helping Targeted Parents and Adult Alienated Children Work through Conflict, Improve Communication, and Enhance Relationships

Restoring Family Connections

Katherine Andre

Divorce is often stressful for kids. But for kids who have parents in conflict with one another, or where one parent is so hostile that he or she is actively trying to undermine the kids' relationship with the other parent, divorce can be unbearable. InBut I Love You Both, two psychologists and experts in parental alienation offer a workbook for kids who are feeling torn between two parents in a hostile divorce. The book also deals with the negative impact of custody disputes and helps children understand and identify their feelings, learn to cope with stress and other complex emotions, and feel safe and loved.

A Workbook for Children Coping with Divorce, Parental Alienation, and Loyalty Conflicts

Getting Through My Parents' Divorce

S. Richard Sauber

This edited volume is written by and for mental health professionals who work directly with alienated children and their parents. The chapters are written by leaders in the field, all of whom know how vexing parental alienation can be for mental health professionals. No matter how the professional intersects with families affected by alienation, be it through individual treatment, reunification therapy, a school setting, or support groups, he or she needs to consider how to make proper assessments, how to guard against bias, and when and how to involve the court system, among other challenges. The cutting edge clinical interventions presented in this book will help professionals answer these questions and help them to help their clients. The authors present a range of clinical options such as parent education, psycho-educational programs for children, and reunification programs for children and parents that make this volume a useful reference and practical guide.

A Clinical Guidebook

Working With Alienated Children and Families

Paul R Fine

Protect your child from alienation and loyalty conflicts. During and after a difficult divorce, it’s easy for your relationship with your kids to become strained—especially if you are dealing with a toxic ex who bad-mouths you in front of your children, accuses you of being a bad parent, and even attempts to “replace” you with a new partner in your children’s lives. Your children may become confused, conflicted, angry, anxious, or depressed—and you may feel powerless. But there is help. In this guide, you’ll discover a positive parenting approach to dealing with a hostile ex-spouse. You'll learn the best ways to protect your children from painful loyalty conflicts, how to avoid parental alienation syndrome, and techniques for talking to your children in a way that fosters honesty and trust. Co-parenting with a toxic ex can be challenging, but with the right tools you can protect your kids and make your relationship with them stronger than ever.

Co-parenting with a Toxic Ex

J. Michael Bone

Brian Ludmer

Is your ex-spouse trying to gain custody of your kids? Has he or she launched a campaign to make you look like a bad parent, both in the eyes of your children and the law? You aren’t alone. Unfortunately, high-conflict custody battles are all-too-common in today’s world. So how can you arm yourself with the mental and legal resources needed to survive this difficult time and keep your kids safe? In The High-Conflict Custody Battle, a team of legal and psychology experts present a practical guidebook for people like you who are engaged in a high-conflict custody battle. If you are dealing with an overtly hostile, inflammatory, deceitful, or manipulative ex-spouse, you will learn how to find and work with an attorney and prepare for a custody evaluation. The book also provides helpful tips you can use to defend yourself against false accusations, and gives a realistic portrayal of what to expect during a legal fight. Going through a divorce is hard, but going through a custody battle can feel like war. Don’t go in unprepared. With this book as your guide, you will be able to navigate this difficult process and learn powerful skills that will help you maintain a healthy relationship with your kids, fight unfair accusations, and uphold your rights as a parent.

Protect Yourself and Your Kids from a Toxic Divorce, False Accusations, and Parental Alienation

The High-Conflict Custody Battle

Tens of thousands of children are removed from home each year due to some form of child maltreatment, usually physical neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse, although sometimes for emotional abuse as well. An additional significant number of children are victims of child maltreatment but remain in their home. Extensive research reveals the far reaching and long lasting negative impact of maltreatment on child victims, including on their physical, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. One particularly troubling and complicated aspect is how the child victim forms (and maintains) a “traumatic bond” with his abuser, even becoming protective and defensive of that person despite the pain and suffering they have caused. This book will provide the reader with the essential experience of understanding how children make meaning of being maltreated by a parent, and how these traumatic bonds form and last. Through an examination of published memoirs of abuse, the authors analyze and reveal the commonalities in the stories to uncover the ways in which adult victims of childhood abuse understand and digest the traumatic experiences of their childhoods. This understanding can inform interventions and treatments designed for this vulnerable population and can help family and friends of victims understand more fully the maltreatment experience “from the inside out.”

An examination of adults who have been manipulated by divorcing parents. Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) occurs when divorcing parents use children as pawns, trying to turn the child against the other parent. This book examines the impact of PAS on adults and offers strategies and hope for dealing with the long-term effects.

Amy J. L. Baker

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