Collaboration

I wish to announce a partnership collaboration of The Childress Institute with Children 4 Tomorrow in Houston, Texas (CEO & Founder: Dwilene Lindsey) to jointly develop a proposal for an AB-PA Key Solution pilot program for the Houston area family law system.

The Key Solution offered by AB-PA (an attachment-based model of “parental alienation”) is to create a mental health/legal system partnership that teams an AB-PA Certified mental health professional with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney to effectively resolve the attachment-related family pathology of AB-PA (attachment-based “parental alienation”).

This AB-PA Key Solution is designed to resolve the pathology contained in high-conflict families which is currently responsible for an overabundance of litigation in the family court system surrounding post-divorce custody and visitation conflict.

The teaming of an AB-PA Certified mental health professional with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney provides the Key to unlocking the entrenched family conflict created as a result of parental personality pathology surrounding divorce.

Treatment-Focused Assessment

At the first indication of concern for possible attachment-related pathology within the family, the Court can order a Treatment-Focused Assessment from an AB-PA Certified mental health professional.

The proposed pilot program will provide the Court with a pool of available AB-PA Certified mental health professionals (i.e., with a pool of mental health professionals who possess the required professional expertise in attachment-related pathology, personality disorder pathology, family systems pathology, and complex trauma pathology) from which the Court and the represented parties can select for conducting the Treatment-Focused Assessment.

Following a six to eight week structured clinical assessment protocol (Treatment-Focused Assessment), the AB-PA Certified mental health professional will produce a targeted data-driven treatment-focused report for the Court regarding the treatment-related needs of the family required to resolve the family conflict.

Assembling the AB-PA Treatment Key

If the clinical data from the Treatment-Focused Assessment results in the recommendation for an AB-PA treatment Key, then the Court can assemble the treatment Key by teaming a new AB-PA Certified mental health professional (not the assessing mental health professional) with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney.

The treatment-related goal is to effectively resolve the family conflict within a mental health context, with appropriate Court support, and to successfully facilitate the family’s transition from the pre-divorce intact family structure to a normal-range post-divorce separated family structure that allows for the child’s healthy emotional and psychological development.

Children have the right of childhood to love both parents, and children have the right to receive the love of both parents in return.  The AB-PA Key Solution seeks to ensure that right of childhood for all children.

The proposal for a pilot program will be to provide the training and Certification needed to create a pool of available AB-PA Certified mental health professionals on which the Court can rely for the professional mental health expertise in attachment-related pathology, personality disorder pathology, family systems pathology, and complex trauma pathology needed to conduct a Treatment-Focused Assessment, and to create for the Court the mental health and legal expertise needed to assemble an AB-PA treatment Key that teams an AB-PA Certified mental health professional with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney.

The inherent adversarial structure of the legal system tends to support and feed any existing conflict in families rather than reduce it.  The teaming of an AB-PA Certified mental health professional with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney creates a collaborative legal/mental health context that supports the resolution of family conflict rather than feeding it, while still allowing each party to retain separate legal counsel as desired to ensure protection of their legal rights.

The goal of The Childress Institute’s collaboration with Houston’s Children 4 Tomorrow is to provide the family law court system in the Houston area with the required professional expertise in attachment-related pathology, personality disorder pathology, family systems pathology, and complex trauma pathology necessary to create effective solutions for resolving the ongoing and intransigent family conflict surrounding parental personality pathology and child custody following divorce; family conflict that currently congests the family law courts with endless litigation.

Structure of the AB-PA Key Solution

The proposal for a pilot program in the Houston family law system will have four components:

Certification in AB-PA for Mental Health Professionals

The proposed pilot program will provide the family law court system in Houston with a select group of AB-PA trained and Certified mental health professionals who are skilled and competent in conducting high-quality, data driven, treatment-focused clinical assessments for the attachment-related family pathology of AB-PA, and who possess the professional mental health expertise required for the treatment resolution and long-term stabilization of the family pathology of AB-PA.

Training of Legal Professionals in AB-PA

The pilot program proposal will include training for a select group of legal professionals who will serve as AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorneys for the court.  These AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorneys will team with the AB-PA Certified mental health professionals in establishing the needed mental health/legal system collaboration required for the long-term stabilization of AB-PA in high-conflict families.

Training AB-PA Specialists in CPS

The proposed pilot program for the family law court system will also include training for a select set of Child Protective Services social workers in the assessment and diagnosis of AB-PA.  This select group of AB-PA Specialists in the CPS system will coordinate the CPS assessment and response to a confirmed DSM-5 diagnosis of V995.51 Child Psychological Abuse (pathogenic parenting; AB-PA) made by the AB-PA Certified mental health professional.

Program Evaluation Research

The final component of the pilot program proposal will be to establish and maintain a program evaluation data component that will ground the pilot program in empirically validated and data-driven professional practice.  Program evaluation research and data-driven decision-making will be incorporated into the structure of the pilot program, and additional collaboration with Houston area graduate psychology programs will be sought for long-term program efficacy and program evaluation studies.

The goal is to assist all families in making a healthy and successful transition from the pre-divorce intact family structure that was united by the marriage, to the new post-divorce separated family structure that is now united by the child, and by the shared bonds of affection between the child and both parents.

Collaboration

I am delighted to be working with Dwilene Lindsey and Children 4 Tomorrow  in our efforts to actualize the solution offered by an attachment-based model of “parental alienation” (AB-PA) to the psychological child abuse of “parental alienation.”  In October of 2017, Ms. Lindsey is looking to bring me out to Houston to present a seminar for mental health and legal professionals on the attachment-related pathology of AB-PA, culminating in a description of the pilot program proposal for the family law system.

The solution to “parental alienation” (AB-PA) is available today – right now.  The only barrier is ignorance.  The solution is knowledge.  Step-by-step we will roll back the ignorance that allows, and indeed colludes with the pathology of “parental alienation” (AB-PA).

We will not stop until all of your beloved and authentic children are back in your arms.  Step-by-step…

Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Psychologist, PSY 18857