On June 1 from 3:30 to 5:00 in Boston, Dorcy Pruter and I will be presenting on AB-PA and the High Road protocol. In this presentation, we will unpack the High Road protocol at a professional level of analysis and we will explain exactly how the High Road protocol both gently and effectively restores the normal-range functioning of the child’s attachment system within a matter of days.
I just finished my Powerpoint slides for my professional-level description of the High Road protocol. They are amazing. I guarantee – guarantee – that by the end of our presentation everyone at that presentation will know exactly how the High Road protocol restores the child’s normal-range attachment bonding motivations toward the targeted parent within a matter of days. Guaranteed.
I said Dallas was going to be powerful – and it was. Boston is going to be equally amazing, but in a different way. Boston is for the professional organization that unites family law professionals with psychology professionals, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC). This is a high-level professional organization for legal professionals and court-involved mental health professionals.
In Dallas, Dorcy and I presented separately and our overarching agenda was to describe the framework for the solution to “parental alienation.”
In Boston, Dorcy and I are presenting collaboratively on a tight framework describing assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, with a particular focus on the catalytic psycho-educational intervention of the High Road protocol as an augmentation to traditional therapeutic approaches.
In Dallas, I described the general framework in which the High Road workshop fits within the overall recovery of the child.
In Boston, I’m going to unpack the protocol itself at a professional level of analysis, and I’ll describe exactly how it achieves the success it does. If anyone wants to know exactly how the High Road protocol achieves the restoration of the child’s normal-range attachment bonding motivations toward the formerly targeted-rejected parent in a matter of days – come to Boston.
If you are a family law attorney who works with cases of “parental alienation” – you will want to hear this talk. If you are a legal professional (judge, minor’s counsel, GAL) who wants to know how the High Road achieves the success it does – you’ll want to hear this talk. If you are a child custody evaluator or court-involved therapist; you will most definitely want to hear this talk. Guaranteed. I’ve seen my Powerpoint slides describing the High Road protocol. Guaranteed, you’ll want to hear this.
For legal and mental health professionals who can’t attend this talk… sucks for you. I am not going to release my Powerpoint slides for this particular talk. Dorcy’s protocol is hers. It is her intellectual property. In Boston I will provide a professional-level description of exactly how the High Road protocol restores the child’s normal-range attachment bonding motivations toward the targeted parent, and I will do so while also protecting the intellectual property rights of Dorcy. Can I do both? Absolutely. I’ve already done it. I’ve already created my Powerpoint slides for my description for how the High Road protocol achieves the success it does.
But following Boston, I am not going to release this professional-level analysis generally because I want to respect Dorcy and her rights. It’s her protocol. I am going to give my slides describing the High Road protocol to Dorcy and she can choose to use them as she sees fit. It’s her protocol.
I’m anticipating speaking for about 45 minutes on AB-PA. I’ll then present a professional-level analysis of the High Road protocol. Then Dorcy and I will transition into her talk.
If you’re a legal or court-involved mental health professional who wants to know how the High Road protocol achieves its success… come to Boston. If you’re not at Boston on June 1 from 3:30 to 5:00… sucks for you. Or talk to Dorcy.
Will this be the only talk Dorcy and I give together? Probably not. We’ll probably submit joint presentation proposals to various organizations in the future. Most likely she and I will submit to the Family Law division of the APA during the fall proposal submission period. It’s up to the APA if they want to hear from us. I’ll also likely be submitting to the APA for a solo convention presentation on just AB-PA. But the submission period is in the fall for the presentations at the 2018 convention. Long ways away. And who knows if the APA will accept our presentation proposals.
So Boston’s it. Nothing’s on the calendar after Boston. And the information that’s on its way for Boston is guaranteed amazing. Remember how I said there’s going to be a before Dallas and an after Dallas. Well in terms of the family law and professional psychology interface, there’s going to be a before Boston and an after Boston.
If you have any interest in understanding how the High Road protocol achieves its success in restoring the child’s normal-range attachment bonding motivations toward the targeted parent in a matter of days, come to Boston. If you’re not in Boston June 1… oh well, sucks for you. Maybe later.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857
Dr. Craig Childress: Attachment Based "Parental Alienation" (AB-PA) 
Dear Dr Childress,
Your slides from Texas were stupendous, I’m grateful to have them as a resource. Do you intend to post your slides from the Boston symposium also, or is the information considered too proprietary?
Thanks for all your incisive critical thinking, it’s wonderful ! Also to Dorcy for her part of the model.
I will not be posting my slides from Boston. Dorcy’s protocol is successful. She has the right catalytic interventions in the right sequence. Because she is successful, there will be those that seek to copy her. She is concerned that this could lead to bad intervention models created by ignorant people. I can appreciate her concern. Catalytic interventions depend BOTH on identifying the proper catalytic intervention AND on the proper sequencing of these catalytic change interventions. A wrong intervention in the wrong sequence, and everything comes to a complete stop. That’s why we almost never see this type of intervention.
So out of respect for Dorcy’s ability to conduct proper training of the facilitators who will implement the High Road protocol, I will provide her with my slides describing a professional-level analysis of her protocol and allow her to use these slides and this description as she sees fit.
Fundamentally, it’s not important. What’s important is the results. The diagnostic model of AB-PA will identify the pathology 100% of the time. The High Road protocol will gently and effectively restore the normal-range functioning of the child’s attachment system within a matter of days, 100% of the time. Understanding AB-PA and the High Road protocol is valuable for professionals working with the pathology, but it’s actualizing the solution that is the important thing.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Dr C,
Simply put, I believe in your work and your capabilities to make change but I’m always at a loss as to how to implement your findings!
One example of my confusion , if the Judge in my case finds that my child has been severely manipulated and used for revenge which in turn has skewed his normal range thinking against me, how do I introduce Dorcey Pruters protocol so she can order this high road approach. It’s this piece of the intervention that first starts with bringing my son back to healthy perception, so to give the follow up professionals the best chance at success and an adjusted child . How do we get this to be recognized and ordered in such cases of pathological parenting. I don’t know how to get this in an order?
Sorry, I am still weary about these uneducated Judges.
Thanks you,
Alessandra
I’m sorry for your struggles. I understand.
Here is the fundamental issue: We cannot solve “parental alienation” for any one child or one family until we solve it for all children and all families.
The mental health and legal systems are massively broken. We start by fixing the mental health system. We are still early in the process of this. Once we fix the mental health system we can then use the solution in the mental health system to fix the legal system.
Until we fix the mental health system and the legal system there is no solution. We cannot solve this for any one child or one family until we solve it for all children and all families. Targeted parents must come together and work for each other – work for each other’s children by advocating with the APA, with your legislative representatives, and in filing licensing board complaints against ignorant and incompetent mental health professionals.
I see so many parents asking, how do I use this information to solve my family situation? There is no solution as long as the mental health system is broken. The mental health system is broken because of rampant and unchecked professional ignorance and incompetence. There is rampant and unchecked professional ignorance and incompetence because the Gardnerian PAS model for the pathology allows it – and in fact encourages it. If the Gardnerians can simply make stuff up, everyone can simply make stuff up.
We must switch to an AB-PA model of the pathology in which we can hold ALL mental health professionals accountable. How do we do that? How do we change the paradigm for a pathology used within professional mental health? I’m just a single lone psychologist in Southern California. A single voice. I could use your help in making our voices heard. In 10 your are powerless. In 100 you have reclaimed your voice. In 1,000 you have reclaimed your power. In 10,000 you become an unstoppable force for change. Become an unstoppable force for change. Come together. Bring your voices together. Become a tsunami of change.
I have given you the Foundations on which to stand. But it is your voice that is key. I am just a single lone psychologist. I need your voices. Your children need your voices.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Psychologist, PSY 18857
I understand that and know this is much bigger than my case and want to help other families but I asked how do I get Dorcy porters therapy ordered by a Judge if this case of triangulation had been proven.
That is different than asking a way to prove PAS with of course using that term by way of the MHP’s?
So I am unsure how the answer you gave applies.
If it does , I apologize for repeati g the question .
Greetings
My daughter is connected and restored to me–age 23. My son is completely alienated –age 30. My daughter told me “Dads” side of the family wants NO cross over whatso ever with me–the mothers side of the family . However my daughter has an opportunity to end this pathological parenting—she’s the mother now of our grandson–there will be events for him in life that grandparents attend
She said “Dad” wants them seperste “and I (daughter) need to respect that”
So when you all say that there is a fix to PA there is NOT—especially when on parent (and their family members) won’t communicate or allow cross overs.
I’d love to be there Dr Childress but flying from Perth Western Australia would be prohibitively expensive. I’m interested on two counts:
1) From my own personal experience with a suspected borderline/narcissist ex wife and her behaviour post separation and
2) As a youth and family counsellor with a not for profit here in Perth.
Love your work!
Kind regards,
Phil
Philip Gatt M. Couns (Murdoch Univ.) Youth and Family Counsellor
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Right back atcha Phil. I’d love to come to Australia, but the costs would be prohibitively expensive. Perhaps one day Dorcy and l will have the opportunity to come to Australian to provide training and certification in AB-PA and training for facilitators in the High Road.
I’m aware of the international situation. By returning to established constructs and principles of professional psychology, once the solution is achieved in the U.S. the foundations of the solution are directly applicable internationally. The key is assessment. We just need mental health professionals to start to assess for the three diagnostic indicators of pathogenic parenting associated with attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce (notice I didn’t say “parental alienation”). The attachment system NEVER spontaneously dysfunctions. It only becomes dysfunctional in response to pathogenic parenting (patho=pathology; genic=genesis, creation).
There is absolutely zero reason why mental health professionals – all mental health professionals everywhere – should not assess for pathogenic parenting whenever the child presents with attachment-related pathology. The attachment system is the brain system that governs all aspects of love and bonding across the lifespan, including grief and loss. A child’s rejection of a parent is clearly an attachment-related pathology.
Once we get the mental health professional to simply assess for the pathology of pathogenic parenting – the three diagnostic indicators of AB-PA – if the mental health professional finds the presence of the three diagnostic indicators in the child’s symptom display, the clear DSM-5 diagnosis is V995.51 Child Psychological Abuse (the ICD-10 diagnosis is F-24 Shared Psychotic Disorder based on the presence of diagnostic indicator 3, and T74.32 Child Psychological Abuse).
All we’re asking is that mental health professionals simply assess for these standard symptoms in the child’s symptom display, attachment system suppression, narcissistic personality traits, and an encapsulted persecutory delusion. These are all standard symptoms within professional psychology. Just assess to see if they are present. If they’re not present, they’re not present. Just assess for them. That’s all we want.
And when the mental health professional assesses for these standard types of symptoms, just document their presence or absence on the Diagnostic Checklist for Pathogenic Parenting. That is an entirely reasonable request. That’s an entirely reasonable request in the U.S. That’s an entirely reasonable request in England. That’s an entirely reasonable request in Australia. Just assess to see if these three symptoms are present. If they’re not present, that’s okay. Just document the results of the assessment.
I’m aware of the international situation, and this solution applies internationally.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857