On April 29, 2017,  I will be the keynote speaker at the:

Parental Alienation Symposium 2017:

Solutions for Professionals and Families

I’ll be speaking along with Dorcy Pruter, Rod McCall, Shelbie Michaels, Rebecca Bradley, and Eric Ransleben on the solutions to “parental alienation” across the spectrum of systems.

In my talk, I intend to address practical solutions in three areas:

The Mental Health System:  The mental health assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the attachment-related family pathology of “parental alienation.”

The Legal System:  Approaches for attorneys in collaborating with mental health professionals in obtaining the necessary professional documentation for presentation to the Court.

The Family System:  What targeted parents can do while waiting for the solution; how to respond to the alienated child’s hostility and rejection.

CPS Social Workers:  I also urge child protection social workers to attend to learn what is coming in the mental health assessment and diagnosis of psychological child abuse.  As AB-PA becomes the standard of care for the assessment and diagnosis of the attachment-related pathology of “parental alienation,” more and more mental health professionals will be filing child abuse reports with child protection agencies based on a confirmed DSM-5 diagnosis of V995.51 Child Psychological Abuse.

It is time for children’s protective services to begin considering how they will respond to these reports from mental health professionals that include a confirmed DSM-5 diagnosis of V995.51 Child Psychological Abuse.

I have a lot of material to cover at this symposium in a short period of time.  I do not intend to waste your time with tired lamentations of how bad things are, and worn-out complaints about how we wish change would happen.  We are creating the change.  Now.

From 8:45 to 10:00, I’m scheduled to present the opening Keynote address, Real Solutions to Parental Alienation – Now.  In this talk I’m planning to focus on the treatment-focused assessment protocol for mental health professionals (with a description of the behavior-chain assessment format), and on approaches to the interface of attorneys with the mental health professionals to obtain the necessary psychological documentation for presentation to the Court.

Court-involved therapists, child custody evaluators, and attorneys will be interested in the information contained in this talk.

From 1:15 to 2:15, I’m scheduled to present For Therapists: Treating the Attachment-Related Pathology of Parental Alienation.  This is going to be a very interesting therapist-to-therapist presentation on how to resolve the attachment-related pathology of “disordered mourning” created by a narcissistic/(borderline) parent in a cross-generational coalition with the child.

Toward the end of this talk, based on a deeper-level understanding for the attachment-related pathology of “disordered mourning,” I am going to discuss how the targeted parent can respond to the child’s angry-hostile rejection prior to achieving the protective separation period necessary for treatment and recovery.

AB-PA is going to replace Gardnerian PAS as the professional-level definition for the attachment pathology of a child rejecting a normal-range and affectionally available parent following divorce.  A treatment-focused assessment protocol using the Diagnostic Checklist for Pathogenic Parenting and the Parenting Practices Rating Scale is going to become the professional standard of practice in assessing and diagnosing attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce.

On April 29, 2017, I will describe the roadmap for this fundamental change in how we address the family pathology of “parental alienation.”

Court-involved therapists, child custody evaluators, and child protection social workers will find the content of what I discuss valuable.  Legal professionals working with the family pathology of “parental alienation” will find the content of what I discuss valuable.  Targeted parents will find the content of what I discuss valuable.

If you cannot be at this Symposium, not to worry (too much).  This is just the start.  The changes we will be discussing on April 29 will be rolling into the mental health and legal systems generally.  AB-PA is an accurate description of the pathology from within standard and established psychological principles and constructs.  There is nothing for establishment mental health to accept or reject, because all of the pathology-constructs have ALREADY been accepted.

I’m working with therapists and attorneys across the country one-on-one to create these changes.  Symposiums and presentations to larger groups speeds the process, but the change is coming.  It is no longer a matter of “if only” – it has now become a matter of “how soon.”

Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857