Venice, Italy

I’m going to Venice, June 20-22.

My submission for a presentation to the EFCAP Congress in Venice, Italy has been accepted.

EFCAP Congress

 The title of my presentation is:

An Attachment-Based Model of Parental Alienation: Solutions for the Family Court.

There are separate discussions underway, that as long as I will be in Europe for the EFCAP presentation, for me to also hold a separate longer seminar at a location to be determined.  So there may be additional information about this in the days ahead.

In my Venice presentation, I will be introducing the pathology of AB-PA in an abbreviated way, moving into a structured and standardized assessment protocol, DSM-5 diagnosis, the Contingent Visitation Schedule, and the AB-PA Pilot Program for the family courts. A lot of ground to cover in a brief talk.

The central core of my Venice talk will be: Solutions for the Family Court

The world is changing.  The change is not incremental.  It is a reliance on the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology. 

Professional psychology can absolutely solve the pathology, and help the family courts solve the pathology, of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.  We know what the pathology is:

Clinical Psychology:  The trans-generational transmission of attachment trauma from the childhood of the allied narcissistic/(borderline) parent to the current family relationships, mediated by the personality disorder pathology of the allied parent that is itself a product of this parent’s childhood attachment trauma.

(Bowlby, Beck, Millon).

Family Systems Therapy: The child’s “triangulation” into the spousal conflict through the formation of a “cross-generational coalition” with an allied parent against the targeted parent, resulting in an “emotional cutoff” in the child’s relationship with the targeted parent.

(Bowen, Minuchin, Haley)

We absolutely know what the pathology is.  It’s simply a matter of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, i.e., standard clinical psychology.

It is axiomatic in clinical psychology:

Assessment leads to diagnosis, and diagnosis guides treatment. 

This is the foundation of professional clinical practice.  It all begins with assessment.  Attachment-related pathology is always created by pathogenic parenting.  It’s simply a matter of differential diagnosis… which parent?

This becomes the differential diagnosis between child abuse (the targeted-rejected parent) and a cross-generational coalition (the allied and supposedly “favored” parent).

Children are not weapons.  A parent should never use a child as a weapon in the spousal conflict.  Children are not weapons.

If a parent weaponizes the child (a cross-generational coalition), professional psychology needs to stop this.  Using the child as a weapon in the spousal conflict is extremely bad parenting and is extremely destructive to the child.

Professional psychology needs to stop the parent from using the child as a weapon, and professional psychology must de-weaponize the child, restoring a healthy child and allowing the child to return to a normal childhood.  Children are not weapons.  Children should never be used as weapons.

Professional psychology will need the help of the Court.  This is a tough pathology.  In order to obtain the support of the Court, professional psychology must first bring the Court professional expertise.  Professional psychology must bring a solution.

The solution is found in the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology: assessment leads to diagnosis, and diagnosis guides treatment.

We know what the pathology is, and we know how to solve it.  It’s simply a matter of returning to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

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