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It is with excitement and great pleasure that I announce a 4-hour seminar with Dorcy Pruter and Dr. Childress in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 9 at the Darcy Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton.  Any hotel that includes the name, “Curio Collection” makes me smile.  Registration is through the Childress Institute for Child Development Website.

Dorcy Pruter & Dr. Childress
Parental Alienation:  Assessment, Diagnosis, Solution

Registration

A 4-hour seminar with Dorcy Pruter and Dr. Childress is guaranteed to be powerful.  There are limited seats.

I tried to keep the cost of the seminar as inexpensive as possible to cover expenses in hopes of bringing the cost within the reasonable range of parents.

The seminar will be directed toward mental health professionals and family law attorneys, but the information will be highly valuable to parents as well.  If we have only limited participation from the AFCC membership, then Dorcy and I will adjust the content more toward parents… we’ll work the room.

On Saturday, June 9^th at the Darcy Hotel in Washington DC, Dorcy Pruter and Dr. Childress will present the solution to “parental alienation” from start to finish, from assessment through to solution.

If you are a mental health professional or family law attorney, you will learn about the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts in Houston, you will learn about assessment and diagnosis of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce, you will learn about the Contingent Visitation Schedule as a remedy solution, and you will learn about how Dorcy and her coaches bring solutions to restoring a healthy family and authentic child.

If you are a parent, you will learn about the steps that are needed to solve the pathology in your family, from obtaining proper mental health assessment, to seeking court orders for the components of the solution, to collaborating with mental health professionals in achieving the solution. 

And then there’s the Higher Purpose Parenting class offered by Dorcy… a solution that does not involve therapists or attorneys.  Dorcy will describe this class and how parents can reunite with their children despite the pathology of the allied parent.  Pretty impressive stuff.

Dorcy & Dr. Childress, 6/9/18 at the Darcy Hotel in Washington DC.  Solution, from start to finish.  Guaranteed powerful information.

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

 

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts will provide the Court with the highest caliber of professional knowledge and professional standards of practice. The highest caliber.

If any aspect of an attachment-based model of “parental alienation” is not at the highest caliber of professional knowledge and professional standards of practice, then I fully expect and invite professional critique and criticism.

When the Court turns to professional psychology for consultation, for assessment of pathology, and for treatment of pathology, it should expect and receive the highest caliber of professional knowledge and professional standards of practice.  

If you are a mental health professional who will be seeking to work with the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts as this model begins to be replicated as a standard of practice in jurisdictions beyond Houston, you are expected to bring you’re A-game.  Nothing less is acceptable.

AB-PA is a scaffolding of professional knowledge until we achieve the required standard of professional knowledge and professional standards of practice across all court-involved mental health professionals.  We will start with AB-PA, but then AB-PA will gradually fade away, replaced by the actual knowledge from the actual source material within professional psychology, Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck, Bowen, Millon, Kernberg, Haley, Linehan, Haley, Perry, van der Kolk, Fonagy, Stern, Sroufe, Tronick, and all of the scientific literature surrounding the attachment system, narcissistic/borderline personality pathology, and complex trauma in childhood – will all be required reading for standards of professional practice.

Required reading:  My 40-page reference list for AB-PA is online (Dr. Childress Personal Reference List).  If you are a court-involved mental health professional working with attachment-related pathology, start with this reference list.  Start with Bowlby regarding the attachment system and attachment pathology, expand to Minuchin, Bowen, and Haley regarding family systems pathology, and extend this into Beck, Millon, Kernberg, and Linehan regarding personality pathology.  Then move into the research literature, particularly the research literature linking attachment pathology to personality disorder pathology.  

If you are a mental health professional and this seems like a lot of work… then go away.  You are not of the professional caliber required to provide services through the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts.  AB-PA is a scaffolding of knowledge, it is not a replacement for knowledge.

John Houseman: The Paper Chase -1 – Be Prepared to Work

The days of tolerance for professional ignorance and incompetence are over.  This is NOT about the comfort level of court-involved mental health professionals, this is NOT about the comfort level of the American Psychological Association, this is NOT about the comfort level of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts – this is about solving pathology, attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce. 

It is about providing the Court with the highest caliber of professional knowledge and professional standards of practice in psychological consultation, court-involved assessment of pathology, and court-involved treatment of pathology.

We have been led into, and have become mired in, profound professional ignorance and incompetence by the conceptually lazy and indolent construct of “parental alienation” and by the passivity and indolence of professional psychology generally surrounding court-involved mental health, and it will take some time for mental health professionals working within the AB-PA pilot program to catch up on their reading list.  They have a lot to learn, and we need that knowledge today… right now.

AB-PA and the diagnostic workup of Foundations provide a scaffolding during this catching up period.  The scaffolding diagnostic framework of AB-PA is not a replacement for the core knowledge, Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck, Bowen, Millon…

Once we have returned to standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology and professional standards of practice, then AB-PA as a construct will disappear into Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck and the scientifically established ground of professional psychology.  There is no such thing as AB-PA, it is Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck, and the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

Any mental health professional who claims that AB-PA is “new” or that AB-PA is “Dr. Childress’ work” is simply displaying their profound ignorance of actual constructs and principles in professional psychology; Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck.  If they don’t know Bowlby, Minuchin, and Beck, then what I’m saying may sound “new” to them.  AB-PA is not “new,” they’re just ignorant.

Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck.

Do you really want to display your ignorance to John Housman? 

John Houseman: Paper Chase – 2 – Engaging the Material

Nothing about AB-PA is Dr. Childress. I am just a clinical psychologist.  AB-PA is diagnosis.  Foundations is a diagnostic treatise on the pathology, explaining the origins of three incredibly disparate, highly unusual and unlikely child symptoms by grounding the description of these symptoms into a full diagnostic treatise on the origins of these symptoms in attachment pathology, personality pathology, family systems pathology, and complex trauma.

None of these constructs are Dr. Childress, they are all fully established and scientifically supported domains of information (information sets) within professional psychology – Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck.

Because something is “new” to you does not make it new, it simply means you’re ignorant.  Don’t be ignorant.  Preventing the destruction of the lives of children, ending the psychological abuse of children, is depending on you NOT being ignorant.

No AB-PA Certified mental health professional is ignorant.  On May 22, 23, and 24th I will be providing seminars in Houston to ensure that.  We will then have monthly online clinical case consultation groups within the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts to provide additional application knowledge regarding the principles of standard and established constructs and principles.

Then… once this is completed,… then the work begins for the mental health professional. AB-PA is not the end… it’s the start of professional knowledge and professional competence.  We will then build on this foundation to create the highest standard of professional knowledge and professional standard of practice.

Nothing less than the highest standards of professional knowledge and professional practice is acceptable.  Because the children need this, because the court requires this, and because our moral compass as professionals compels this.

If you are a mental heath professional and you are not willing to acquire the knowledge, go away.  Go work with some other form of pathology.  Do NOT work with attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.

My 40-page reference list is on my website. If you are a mental health professional working with attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce and have NOT read every book and article on that reference list… why not?  You don’t think knowledge about pathology is necessary to solve pathology?

Paper Chase Scene – 3 – Professional Caliber Work

Dr. Childress:  From a professional psychology perspective, we will start with the knowledge of the attachment system, then we’ll work our way into personality disorder pathology, then family systems therapy, and then complex trauma within the family.

If you are a mental health professional who does not want to learn this material.  Go away.  Go work with some other pathology.  Do not work with attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.  If you are a mental health professional who is lazy or indolent.  Go away.  Go work with some other pathology.  I am stone-cold serious.

John Houseman Paper Chase – 4 – Here’s a Dime

Unfortunately, I could only find a poor quality YouTube for this scene, and it ends one sentence too soon.  

Here is the complete dialogue:

Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.:  Mr. Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer.

James T. Hart: [pause, as he is leaving the room] You… are a son of a bitch, Kingsfield!

Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.:  Mr. Hart! That is the most intelligent thing you’ve said today.  You may take your seat.

If you are passive, go away.  If you have fire, if you are willing to work, if excellence is the only caliber of professional practice acceptable to you, stay… learn.

Professional Standards of Practice

We are returning to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.  In Houston Texas, the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts will establish a baseline of professional knowledge required and professional standards of practice expected in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of pathology.

The court has a right to expect the highest caliber of professional knowledge and standards of practice in consultation, court-involved professional assessment, and court-involved treatment of pathology.

Parents and children have the right to expect the highest caliber of professional knowledge and standards of practice in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of child and family pathology.

Nothing less is acceptable.

Dr. Childress, you are a son of a bitch.  That is the most intelligent thing I’ve heard so far. So let’s sit down and get to work, because there are kids and families whose lives are being destroyed, and who deserve and require the highest caliber of professional knowledge and standards of practice

Clinical Leadership

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts uses a clinical treatment team model (because this represents the highest caliber of professional practice), and leading this clinical team in Houston is Jayna Haney, MS.

I am excited and immensely pleased that Jayna Haney, MS is providing this leadership for the clinical team of the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts.  She is EXACTLY the type of high caliber professional who will bring solution.  What the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts provides is the proper framework of establishment psychology from which to work.

Jayna Haney is Advanced Certified in AB-PA through three days of seminars she took with me last November, and he has also trained directly with Karen Woodall.  I couldn’t imagine a better mental health professional to lead the clinical team in the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts.

Jayna Haney, MS is currently the clinical coordinator for the treatment team in Houston, and I am hopeful she will accept the position of Clinical Director for the AB-PA program for the Houston family court system once the structure for the pilot program is in place.

Jayna Haney is immensely smart and capable.  She is fully aware of the pathology in its various presentations and displays.  I am exceptionally pleased that she will be directing the clinical psychology team of the AB-PA pilot program.

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

 

 

I just finished the nine-week Higher Purpose Parenting course from Dorcy Pruter.  I am immensely impressed by the quality of her professional work and for what she’s accomplished.  Dorcy does stuff that I didn’t think was possible… until I see her do it.  Oh.  I get it.   Wow.  That’s really impressive.

I’m a clinical psychologist who knows a lot of psychology stuff.  Everything Dorcy says in Higher Purpose Parenting is true, and I can support everything she says at a professional level of explanation.  What’s truly impressive is that I’ve never seen these particular constructs woven together in this way. 

As a clinical psychologist, her weaving of constructs was like being on a roller coaster, I recognized every single construct she was using, but holy cow I’ve never seen them arranged in that pattern and at that speed.  Whooosh, hold on psychologists, you’re in for a conceptual ride.

It’s skill based.  Dorcy teaches skills which, when used, will create certain types of change.  The skills Dorcy teaches are catalysts, and very interesting catalysts that activate extremely powerful change agents. 

She starts with some highly powerful skills, which leads into opening important change factors, and she finishes with spiritual skill sets that will open amazing change processes.  And I repeat, everything Dorcy says in Higher Purpose Parenting is true, and I can explain it all at a professional level of analysis.

The thing is, I’ve never seen anything like what Dorcy does and has accomplished.  From my world of clinical psychology (normal carbon-based life forms), what Dorcy does is a silicon-based life form.  It is unlike anything I’ve seen.  And it is absolutely true, and she’s accomplished something incredibly impressive.

Professional psychology needs to become aware of what Dorcy Pruter is doing.  It is different, and it is impressive.  It is catalytic.  Professional psychology heals.  We use synthesizing meme-structures.  Dorcy teaches skills.  She uses catalytic meme-structures.

Catalytic meme-structures are extremely powerful but very hard to construct, because catalysts work in sequence and if any aspect of the sequencing of catalysts is wrong, the whole thing crashes and zero happens.

But if the catalytic meme structures are correct and in the proper sequence, look out.  Catalytic meme-structures can be incredibly powerful change agents.  Much faster and more complete than healing meme structures.  With catalytic meme-structures, healing takes place, but not in the same way.  It’s a mindfulness, transformative kind of understanding insight healing. 

Professional psychology needs to see this.  We can’t do this yet.  The mind of professional psychology is going to be disoriented at first.  Once it processes what she’s doing, I suspect they’re going to be highly intrigued, and interested in exploring other possible applications of a catalytic approach to change. 

I can’t wait until I have the chance to serve as a conceptual conduit from what Dorcy is doing with her workshops to professional psychology.  I’m a clinical psychologist.  I know a lot of psychology stuff.  Professional psychology is going to be impressed by what Dorcy has accomplished.  There will be haters, no doubt.  Always are.  And Dorcy has her beloved flying monkeys.  And she goes into spiritual meme structures, which can always generate controversy no matter.

And what Dorcy Pruter has accomplished is truly impressive professional work.  Congratulations, Dorcy.  Impressive work.

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

In my younger days I used to work in the construction industry, hanging drywall.   The construction of any structure occurs in phases and is based on a plan, a blueprint. 

In building any structure, we begin by laying the foundation.  Upon this foundation, the framing of the structure is then built.  As the framing is constructed, the electricians and plumbers weave in their infrastructures.  Then the drywall is hung which constructs the functional spaces of the structure.  The structure is then completed by installing the doors, windows, and roofing.

The structure for the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts begins with the blueprint, the plan, and will be constructed in integrated phases. 

First, we lay the foundation in the standard and established, scientifically grounded, constructs and principles of professional psychology.   This will occur with the three AB-PA Certification seminars on May 22, 23, and 24, and it will continue throughout the project.  The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts is based on the standard and established, scientifically grounded, constructs and principles of professional psychology.

The AB-PA Certification seminars frame the structure for the treatment team, the pairing of an AB-PA Certified family therapist with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney to stabilize family pathology and ensure the family’s successful transition to a normal-range separated family structure.

Within the professionally and scientifically grounded structure of the AB-PA pilot program, we then construct the inner structure of professional knowledge and expertise, the professional skill sets, of the AB-PA pilot program for the Court;  

1.)  Treatment Focused Assessment Protocol: A structured and standardized six-session treatment focused assessment protocol for attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce,

2.)  Contingent Visitation Schedule: A defined and structured Strategic family systems intervention for stabilizing pathogenic parenting in high-conflict divorce.

The next phase in the development of the AB-PA pilot program structure is to create the “rooms” comprised of the actual clinical care, consisting of monthly online clinical consultation groups that build the treatment team. 

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts will rely on a treatment team clinical care model.  This is a critical aspect of the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts, the creation of a treatment team approach.  This improves all aspects of clinical care and development of professional expertise.

Finally, we add the doors and windows to our structure, the program evaluation research component of the project.

There is also a house paint and landscaping phase of the pilot program for the family courts.  This represents partnerships with local area universities for additional research projects regarding high-conflict family pathology, and clinical internship training programs for building the next generation of professional knowledge and expertise.

Baseline of Professional Knowledge

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts creates a baseline of professional knowledge and competence in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.  We then build upon this structure.

The goal of the AB-PA pilot program is to provide the Court with the highest caliber of professional expertise in clinical psychology; assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.   Decisions within the AB-PA pilot program are based on current scientific foundations and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

Ultimately, the highest caliber of professional knowledge is expected in four domains of professional psychology:

The Attachment System:  Bowlby and the research literature on the attachment system.

Personality Disorder Pathology:  Beck, Millon, Linehan, Kernberg and the research literature on personality disorder pathology (including the linkages of personality disorder pathology to attachment pathology).

Family Systems Therapy:  Bowen, Minuchin, Haley, and the family systems literature in professional psychology.

Complex Trauma: Perry, van der Kolk, and the research literature on the origins and impact of complex trauma in childhood.

These are grounded domains of professional knowledge with established and defined professional information sets directly relevant and applicable to the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.

The days of tolerance for professional ignorance and incompetence are over.  The Courts deserve the highest caliber of professional knowledge and expertise from professional psychology, and it is the obligation of professional psychology to provide the highest caliber of professional expertise to the Court.  The goal of the AB-PA pilot program will be to provide the Court with this professional knowledge and professional skill.

Court-Involved Clinical Psychology

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts in Houston represents the return of clinical psychology to court-involved professional practice.

Child custody evaluations are over-broad in their referral question, are arbitrary and lack scientific validity, and deny equal access to justice by being prohibitively expensive ($20,000 – $40,000 per assessment).

A foundational axiomatic principle of assessment in clinical psychology is to always assess to the referral question.  A well-formulated referral question for assessment defines and focuses the assessment procedures.  A focused referral question also substantially improves the psychometic qualities of the assessment procedure.

The referral question from the Court is NOT what the child custody time-share should be.  The information to answer such an over-broad referral question is not available from professional psychology that would allow for an answer. 

The only scientifically and theoretically supported answer from professional psychology would be for shared 50-50% custody based on the equal valuation of all four primary parent-child relationships; mother-son, mother-daughter, father-son, father-daughter.  Each of these relationships is unique, each is critical to healthy child development, they are each of equal value, and none of these relationship types are expendable.

Based on an equal valuation of all four primary parenting types (father-son, father-daughter, mother-son, mother-daughter), the only supported professional opinion would be for shared 50-50% custody visitation time-share in all cases except child abuse.  There is no scientific or theoretical justification for giving primacy to any of these relationship types over any other.

The referral question from the Court is not about the custody visitation time-share schedule.  The Court can exercise its normal-range judgement for cases where a deviation from a professional recommendation for a 50-50% custody visitation time-share is warranted.

The issue before the Court is what orders are needed to resolve the high family conflict that is creating excessive litigation and destructive family processes.  The referral question from the Court to professional psychology is to identify which parent is creating the child’s attachment-related pathology, and what are the treatment implications?

This is a much more focused and targeted referral question that is fully within the scope of clinical psychology to answer.  A structured and standardized six-session treatment focused assessment protocol for attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce can provide the Court with this answer.

Based on the family data from the treatment focused assessment, the Court can make data-driven decisions regarding the course of action.  If significant pathology is identified in the treatment focused assessment (documented on the Parenting Practices Rating Scale and the Diagnostic Checklist for Pathogenic Parenting for Court review), then an AB-PA treatment team can be constructed by pairing an AB-PA Certified stabilizing family therapist with an AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney.  The role of the AB-PA Knowledgeable amicus attorney is to serve as the interface between the stabilizing family therapist and the Court.

Treatment Team

The AB-PA Certified mental health professionals in the pilot program for the family courts will participate in monthly online Clinical Case Consultation groups of approximately six mental health professionals.  Each mental health professional will be expected to present at least one case during the year of case consultation groups.  In addition, all intake assessments will be reviewed within the Clinical Case Consultation group.  The amicus attorneys can participate in Clinical Case Consultation groups as warranted (for example, when a particular patient is being staffed in the consultation group).

The treatment team model in clinical psychology helps standardize and improve assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, the treatment team model of case consultation improves clinical decision-making, and the treatment team model in clinical psychology fosters the acquisition of professional knowledge and professional skill sets.

Foundations

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts serves as the ground foundation on which to build the highest caliber of scientifically based professional practice and professional expertise.

We build any structure by first laying the foundation.  The foundation for the AB-PA pilot program in the family courts are the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology, including established professional standards of practice in clinical psychology for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

We can absolutely solve attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce, once we return to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

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

 

 

The AB-PA pilot program for the family court begins May 22, 23, and 24 in Houston, Texas.  It represents the solution to attachment-related family pathology surrounding high-conflict divorce.

How can I be so sure?  Because nothing about the pilot program is Dr. Childress.  Everything is standard and established professional clinical psychology.

We can absolutely solve attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce, once we return to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

Introduction to the Court:  Clinical Director

I will soon be working collaboratively with the court system in Houston.  When I testify as an expert witness for the Court, my testimony typically begins with the attorney reviewing my qualifications as an expert.

I wish to take a blog post to introduce myself to the Court surrounding the AB-PA pilot program.

This is not my first time putting something like this together.  Two similar projects I’ve done in the past are my Clinical Director experiences:

FEMA/Department of Justice:  This project involved developing a national model for the mental health assessment of juvenile firesetting behavior in collaboration with fire agencies.  I worked closely with an internationally recognized expert in juvenile firesetting behavior, Dr. Kenneth Fineman, and an organizational psychologist, Dr. Brett Patterson, to develop a national model for a structured and standardized mental health assessment protocol for juvenile firesetting behavior, including an initial screening of risk factors by fire agencies.  This project was funded through FEMA and the Department of Justice.

Early Childhood Assessment and Treatment Center:  As Clinical Director for an early childhood assessment and treatment center, I developed the structured assessment and treatment protocols for trauma impacted children in the foster care system.  The clinic was operated under the auspices of California State University, San Bernardino’s (CSUSB) Institute for Child Development and Family Relations, and included integrated assessment and treatment coordination with Loma Linda University’s occupational therapy department and the University of Redlands Truesdail Center for Communicative Disorders, both of whom provided senior staff and trainees on site to the clinic.

As part of this early childhood treatment clinic, we also developed and implemented a teacher training program for preschool teachers regarding child development and intervention with children presenting behavior problems in the classroom.  This extended to providing training opportunities to undergraduate students at CSUSB, beginning with their providing childcare at the clinic’s parenting education classes, progressing to providing therapeutic childcare at the clinic itself, and leading to advanced training to provide in-classroom support services to children in the preschool system. 

If you look on my resume, that’s what all the preschool teacher trainings were about.  We first recruited undergraduate students from CSUSB to serve as childcare staff at our parent training courses.  In return for the student’s time, we offered a series of seminars to them on child development, including pathology in early childhood.  We then recruited the best of these childcare staff to serve as therapeutic childcare staff at our clinic, and we provided these students with an even more advanced set of educational seminars.  The best of these therapeutic childcare staff we then recruited to serve as paid para-professional staff to provide direct support services to children in the classroom or directly in the foster home placement.  These trained para-professional student aides were supervised by senior clinical staff on individual cases.

Clinical Research Foundation

I have also worked with a variety of high-level clinical research projects over the years:

UCLA Schizophrenia:  For a major portion of my early career development I coordinated the research arm of a multi-faceted longitudinal clinical research project on schizophrenia at UCLA with Dr. Keith Nuechterlein.  I understand how major clinical research projects are structured and how they operate.  I was also trained to diagnostic reliability on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), an 18-item seven-point symptom inventory, and for nearly 15 years I participated in annual inter-rater reliability standardization training on diagnostic symptom identification and rating provided through the Diagnostic Unit at the Brentwood VA. 

I know what symptom features look like across 18 standard symptoms in professional psychology, each symptom rated along a seven-point scale.  I also know what inter-rater reliability training looks like.

UCLA Prader-Willi Syndrome:  Also earlier in my career, I was involved in a research project on Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder that results in severe pediatric over-eating and obesity, cognitive deficits, and potential mental retardation.  I was not responsible for developing the assessment protocol for this project.  My role with this project was to administer a structured and standardized assessment protocol, including the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM (SCID). The SCID is a structured clinical interview assessment protocol for diagnosis of pathology.  The SCID is a long and thorough structured assessment instrument that is often used in clinical research projects to establish and confirm diagnosis.

CHLA Cognitive Remediation in Pediatric Cancer Patients:  While at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, I participated in a clinical research project on the cognitive remediation of attention deficits in children with neurologically involved cancer treatments (brain surgery or chemotherapy affecting the cerebrospinal fluid; “intrathecal” chemotherapy).  This was a multi-site research project involving the top pediatric cancer programs in the country, headed by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Center for Childhood Cancer Research.  While I was with this project, I traveled to the University of Texas, MD Anderson Childhood Cancer Center for training in a standardized assessment and treatment protocol for attention deficits in pediatric cancer patients.

UCI Child Development Center Preschool ADHD:  This was a collaborative project between Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the University of California, Irvine Child Development Center (UCI-CDC; James Swanson, Ph.D.) on the identification and remediation of attention deficits in preschool-age children.  I was the lead clinical psychologist on this project, hired through the CHOC part of the collaboration.  We developed a comprehensive parenting training program across several counties for families of preschool age children.  Layered into this program was a research intervention component for the cognitive remediation of attention deficits using a computerized intervention.  We also developed a teacher training component for preschool teachers in Functional Behavioral Analysis.

Clinical Psychologist

I’m an old clinical psychologist who received his foundational training in behavioral psychology as an undergraduate at UCLA.  I might be one of the few remaining clinical psychologists who learned the principles of behavior therapy from teaching a rat to press a lever in the laboratory.  Behavior is controlled by the cue, not the consequence.

Since my early professional career as a behavior therapist, I have extended my psychotherapy skill set into humanistic-existential psychology, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and family systems therapy.  My primary model of therapy for children is family systems therapy.

I have taught courses at the graduate level in:

Assessment and Treatment Planning
Diagnosis and Psychopathology
Psychometrics of Assessment
Research Methodology
Models of Psychotherapy
Child Development

I fully understand the content from each of these domains of professional practice.

I understand how to develop and implement clinical intervention programs.  

I know how to integrate a clinical intervention program into high-level research collaborations with university partners. 

I understand how to develop and implement structured and standardized assessment protocols that are consistent with the highest standards of professional clinical psychology, and with the requirements of structured research protocols.

Attachment Pathology:  I have a strong professional background in attachment-related pathology from my role as Clinical Director for an early childhood assessment and treatment center.  Early childhood is the formative period for the “internal working models” of attachment bonding.  It is essential for early childhood mental health professionals to have a strong professional understanding for the attachment system, it’s formation, functioning, and characteristic dysfunctioning.

In addition, our clinic dealt primarily with children in the foster care system who had been exposed to childhood trauma (or neuro-developmental damage from prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol).  Child abuse severely damages attachment bonding and the development of schemas (“internal working models”) within the attachment system.  I understand what trauma looks like and how it affects attachment bonding and the attachment system.  This also means that I know what trauma DOESN’T look like, when the attachment-related pathology is a false construction of a parent weaponizing a child in the spousal conflict.

My doctoral degree is in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University.  The doctoral program at Pepperdine University is a strong and substantial program for education and training in clinical psychology.

The Court System

You’ll note that none of my foundational professional background is with high-conflict divorce in the court system.  That domain of professional expertise began approximately a decade ago when I entered private practice.  It was when I entered private practice that I encountered first hand the attachment-related pathology commonly called “parental alienation” in the popular culture.

As a clinical psychologist, I do not recognize the pathology of “parental alienation” as an established clinical pathology.  In my view, it is a common culture term used to describe a particular type of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.  In my clinical psychology work, I prefer to rely solely on the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

I am a clinical psychologist.  The role of a clinical psychologist is to solve pathology, whether that pathology is juvenile delinquency, childhood attachment problems, childhood trauma, or spousal and family conflicts.  The solution to all forms of pathology is the same, through the application of the standard and established, scientifically grounded, constructs and principles of professional psychology to the solution.

For the past decade I have worked toward providing a clinical psychology solution to the attachment-related family pathology surrounding high-conflict divorce.  This solution is available through the application of standard and established psychological constructs and principles, including established professional standards of practice, to the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.

I am the author of:

An Attachment-Based Model of Parental Alienation: Foundations

The Assessment of Attachment-Related Pathology Surrounding Divorce

Strategic Family Systems Intervention for AB-PA: Contingent Visitation Schedule

The Narcissistic Parent: A Guidebook for Legal Professionals Working with Families in High-Conflict Divorce

The Petition to the APA

I have presentations available online for viewing regarding attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce:

Master Lecture Series; California Southern University.
Theoretical Foundations of Attachment-Based Model of “Parental Alienation.” 
July 18, 2014; Irvine, CA.

Master Lecture Series; California Southern University:
An Attachment-Based Model of “Parental Alienation”: Diagnosis and Treatment.
November 21, 2014; Irvine, CA.

Legislature Briefing.  Pennsylvania State Legislature; House Children and Youth Committee:
Solutions to High-Conflict Divorce in the Family Court.
November 15, 2017; Harrisburg, PA

I have made additional presentations, such as a 6/1/17 seminar at the annual convention of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts on an attachment-based model of “parental alienation,” only these additional seminars are not available online for viewing.

I recently presented with Clarke Young, a family law attorney, at the California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors on 4/20/18 regarding:

Emerging Career Opportunities for LPCCs in Family Law: Parent Alienation Testing, Orders and Treatment in BPD/NPD Custody Proceedings.

This seminar was filmed and should be available for viewing online within the next several weeks.

I am scheduled to present on 6/20/18 at the EFCAP Congress (European Association for Forensic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychology, and other involved Professions) in Venice, Italy regarding:

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

The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts will provide the necessary professional knowledge and skill sets to the Court that are needed to solve attachment-related family pathology surrounding high-conflict divorce.

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

 

“When someone seeks,” said Siddhartha, “then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”       — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

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Diagnosis is not seeking, diagnosis is following, diagnosis is discovering.

The goal of clinical assessment is to follow the symptom pattern to discover the cause.  In court-involved mental health, the findings of the assessment should be carefully documented in the patient record.  

The goal of clinical assessment is not to “find” something, like ADHD or autism or bipolar disorder.  The goal of clinical assessment is to follow the symptoms into the pattern that discloses the cause, discloses the ADHD diagnosis or the bipolar diagnosis.  As a clinical psychologist, I don’t care what pathology is identified through the assessment.  We will fix whatever it is. 

We simply need an accurate diagnosis in order to develop an effective treatment plan.  In clinical psychology, we follow the symptoms into the pattern that discloses the diagnosis.

Diagnostic Prediction

The application of standard and established constructs and principles to a set of symptoms is called diagnosis.  A description of pathology using the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology is called a diagnostic model; it explains why we see a particular symptom pattern.

The diagnostic model of attachment-based “parental alienation” (AB-PA) makes a prediction about the child’s symptom pattern.  AB-PA predicts the presence of three disparate, extremely rare, and seemingly unconnected child symptoms:

1.)  Attachment system suppression toward a normal-range parent,
2.)  Specific personality pathology in the child’s symptom display,
3.)  An encapsulated persecutory delusion.

If these symptoms are not present in the child’s symptoms, then the assessment and diagnosis follows the symptoms wherever they lead to discover the cause. 

However, if these three a-priori predicted symptoms of AB-PA are present in the child’s symptom display, they need explanation.

How does a child acquire this specific set of three highly unusual and disparate symptoms?

How does a child develop an attachment bonding rejection pathology toward a normal-range and affectionally available parent? 

AND…

AND…  How does the same child develop five specific narcissistic personality traits expressed specifically toward a parent?  AND…

AND… How does the same child develop an encapsulated persecutory delusion about the normal-range parenting of a normal-range parent?  This symptom is impossible to explain other than AB-PA.

If these three symptoms are present, they require an explanation.  An attachment-based model for the pathology of “parental alienation” surrounding divorce not only explains these symptoms, it predicts these specific symptoms.

The presence of these three symptoms in the child’s symptom display confirms the diagnostic model that makes this prediction. 

Each of these symptoms is exceedingly rare generally, and exceptionally rare in children.  Attachment bonding rejection from a child toward a normal-range parent is essentially unheard of beyond the age of 18 months, except in severe cases of child abuse such as incest or severe physical abuse.  Personality disorder pathology is also extremely unusual in a child.  An encapsulated persecutory delusion toward a normal-range parent is not only rare, it is impossible to explain outside of the pathology of AB-PA.  There is no method by which a child acquires an encapsulated persecutory delusion regarding a normal-range parent except through the pathology of AB-PA (a cross-generational coalition with an allied parent against the targeted parent).

Not only does a Bowlby-Minuchin-Beck model of attachment-based “parental alienation”  explain the presence of these three disparate and unusual symptoms in the child’s symptom display, a Bowlby-Minuchin-Beck diagnostic model predicts these symptoms.

The presence of these three symptoms in the child’s symptom display is confirmatory evidence for the diagnostic model that predicts these symptoms.

Assessment leads to diagnosis, and diagnosis guides treatment.

It begins with assessment.  Three symptoms.

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

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson

We are returning to the ground foundation of science to solve the attachment-related family pathology of a child rejecting a parent surrounding divorce.

There is no such thing as AB-PA.  What AB-PA does is simply integrate the current scientific knowledge of professional psychology in order to diagnose attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce.

AB-PA is Bowlby, and Beck, and Millon, and Kernberg, and Minuchin, and Haley, and Bowen, and Fonagy, and Stern and all of the scientifically grounded research in professional psychology.

AB-PA is not the moon.  AB-PA is the finger pointing at the moon.

We are returning to the foundational ground of science to solve an attachment-related pathology that emerges surrounding divorce. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson: “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

Can the scientifically grounded foundational knowledge of professional psychology solve attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce?  Absolutely, without a doubt. 

Then why aren’t we solving it? 

A: Because of professional ignorance and incompetence.  It’s as simple as that.  The mental health professionals who are assessing, diagnosing and treating attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce are simply ignorant and incompetent regarding the scientifically established constructs and principles of professional psychology – Bowlby, Minuchin, Beck – and in the professional practice of assessment and differential diagnosis.

Professional Knowledge

Five domains of scientifically grounded fields of professional psychology – five information sets drawn from the scientifically grounded research in professional psychology – are required to solve attachment-related family pathology that emerges surrounding divorce:

The Attachment System:  The attachment system is the neurological brain system that governs all aspects of love and bonding throughout the lifespan, including grief and loss.  There is substantial scientifically grounded research surrounding the nature and functioning of the attachment system.

Principle Professional Figures: Bowlby, Ainsworth, Main, Lyons-Ruth, Bretherton, Shroufe.  There is a substantial scientific research and professional literature foundation describing the attachment system.

Personality disorders:  Personality disorders are stable constellations of maladaptive psychological traits that affect relationships, behavior, and daily functioning.

Principle Professional Figures:  Beck, Millon, Kernberg, Linehan.  There is a substantial research and scientifically grounded professional literature regarding personality disorder pathology.

Family systems therapy:  Family systems therapy is one of the four primary schools of psychotherapy (the others being psychoanalytic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and humanistic-existential therapy).  Family systems therapy is the ONLY school of  psychotherapy that provides treatment models for solving current family relationships. All of the other schools of psychotherapy only provide models for individual psychotherapy, not family therapy.

Principle Professional Figures:  Bowen, Minuchin, Haley, Madanes, Satir, Goldenberg.  There is a substantial scientifically grounded research and professional literature for family system therapy.

Intersubjectivity:  The “intersubjective” brain system is a neurologically based (mirror neurons) primary motivational system of the brain responsible for creating the psychological connection of a shared psychological state.  The scientific study of the relationship systems of attachment and intersubjectivity are closely associated, with considerable linkages, cross-pollination, and associations of constructs.

Principle Professional Figures:  Stern, Tronick, Trevarthan, Fonagy, Stolorow, Siegel. There is a substantial research and professional literature foundation in the scientifically grounded field of intersubjectivity.

Complex Trauma:  The field of complex trauma contains extensive scientific literature on the impact of relationship-based complex trauma on the developing brain of the child.  The literature and scientific research surrounding complex trauma is closely linked to the literature and scientific research on the attachment system, since parent-created trauma will substantially impact the love-and-bonding system of the brain; the attachment system

Principle Professional Figures:  Perry, van der Kolk. There is a substantial research and professional literature foundation surrounding complex trauma.

Acquiring Professional Knowledge

There are a variety of ways that a mental health professional can acquire the professional knowledge and competence needed to assess and diagnose attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce.  I have made my 40-page AB-PA reference list available on my website.  Reading the material on that reference list is one way. 

Reference List of Dr. Childress

Start with Bowlby, Minuchin, Millon, Beck, and Kernberg.  Then expand into Lyons-Ruth and disorganized attachment, Stern and Tronick on intersubjectivity, Linehan on personality disorder pathology, and Minuchin, Haley, and Bowen regarding family systems therapy.  Goldenberg and Goldenberg provide a nice summary of family systems therapy and its constructs.

Look to the research literature on the attachment origins of personality pathology, Fonagy is particularly valuable.  Van der Kolk on developmental trauma and the trans-generational transmission of trauma is also particularly valuable.

The pathology of concern is called “pathological mourning” (Bowlby, 1980).  It’s being caused by the psychological collapse of self-structure organization in a narcissistic/(borderline) parent (Beck; Millon; Linehan) triggered by the rejection and abandonment of the spousal attachment figure through the divorce. 

The characterological structure of the narcissistic/(borderline) parent is inherently unable to process the sadness, grief, and loss surrounding the divorce (the loss of the attachment-figure), and is instead translating “feelings of sadness and mournful longing” into “anger and resentment loaded with revengeful wishes” (Kernberg, 1977).

In response to the collapse of the narcissistic/(borderline) personality structure triggered by the inherent spousal rejection and abandonment of divorce, the narcissistic/(borderline) personality parent triangulates the child (Bowen, 1978, Minuchin, 1974; Juni, 1995) into the spousal conflict through the formation of a cross-generational coalition with the child against the targeted parent (Minuchin, 1974; Haley, 1977).

The loss of psychological boundaries discussed by Minuchin as an “enmeshed relationship” involves the “intersubjective field” described by Stern, Tronick, Fonagy, Siegel.  In his seminal work describing family systems, Bowen describes that poor “differentiation” of psychological boundaries within the family, originating from unprocessed “multigenerational trauma,” represents the causal factor in creating “emotional cutoffs” in families.

This is all standard and established, scientifically supported professional literature.  The fact that this scientifically grounded information is not being applied to the solution of attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce speaks more to the ignorance and incompetence of the mental health professionals than it does to our inability to solve pathology.  We can absolutely solve this pathology, once we return to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.

The issue is knowledge, professional level knowledge.  Mental health professionals can acquire the necessary knowledge and competence in a variety of ways.  My personal AB-PA reference list is available (Dr. Childress: AB-PA Reference List). 

What I do in Foundations is to pull together all of the relevant scientifically established information from professional psychology and apply it to the attachment-related family pathology of a child rejecting a parent surrounding divorce.  Foundations and the attachment-based description of the pathology it provides makes it easier for mental health professionals to acquire broad basic levels of professional knowledge and competence necessary to solve the pathology.

But AB-PA is not the moon, it is not the scientifically grounded knowledge of professional psychology itself.  AB-PA merely points to the moon.  AB-PA simply applies the already existing scientifically grounded knowledge of professional psychology to the attachment-related family pathology of a child rejecting a parent surrounding divorce.

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

Science: Verifiable Predictions

The thing that I like about science is that it is verfiable.  Scientifically established constructs provide predictions that are testable.

AB-PA is a scientifically based model of pathology and it makes a verifiable prediction:

Verifiable Prediction: Weaponization of the child into the spousal conflict by a narcissistic/(borderline) personality parent creates a constellation of three disparate, distinctive, and otherwise impossible to explain symptoms;

1)  Attachment system suppression toward a normal-range and affectionally available parent,

2)  Narcissistic personality disorder traits in the child’s symptom display (the “psychological fingerprints” of control by a narcissistic/(borderline) parent);

3) An ecapsulated persecutory delusional belief evidenced in the child’s symptom display regarding the child’s supposed “victimization” by the normal-range parenting of the targeted parent.

This represents a verifiable or refutable prediction made by AB-PA.  Are these three disparate symptoms found in the child’s symptom display?  Look.  See if they are there.  Test the prediction.  Are these three symptoms evident in the child’s symptom display?

This is called the scientific method.  Collect evidence to test the prediction.

If these three symptoms are present in the child’s symptom display… then this set of symptoms requires explanation.  AB-PA not only explains the symptoms – it predicts exactly this symptom pattern.

This is called scientifically based practice.  The model makes a verifiable or refutable prediction.  Evidence is collected, and the prediction is either confirmed or disconfirmed.  Scientifically based practice.

The thing that I like about science is it is provable.  It produces predictions that can be tested and verified.  Are these three symptoms present in the child’s symptom display?  Testable.  Provable.

AB-PA Pilot Program for the Family Courts

We are now beginning the process of actualizing the solution provided by scientifically grounded professional practice.  The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts is designed to solve the attachment-related family pathology of “parental alienation” as defined through the scientifically established constructs and principles of professional psychology;

Family Systems Clinical Definition:  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.

Attachment System Clinical Definition:  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.

Notice that I did not rely on any construct called “parental alienation” in either of these professional-level clinical descriptions of pathology.  We are returning to the standard and established – scientifically validated – constructs and principles of professional psychology.

We can absolutely solve this pathology once we return to the standard and established constructs and principles of professional psychology.  The AB-PA pilot program for the family courts does this.   The goal of the AB-PA pilot program for the family courts is to provide the Court with the highest caliber of professional knowledge and expertise in solving attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce. 

Scientifically grounded professional practice.

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

The Key to Solving High-Conflict Divorce in the Family Courts: Proposal for a Pilot Program in the Family Law Courts

Assessment:
The Assessment of Attachment-Related Pathology Surrounding Divorce

Remedy:
Strategic Family Systems Intervention for AB-PA: Contingent Visitation Schedule

 

This pathology hides.  It’s power comes from concealment.

The antidote is light.  Everything in the open, everything disclosed.  No secrets. 

This is the time.  We know what the pathology is and we need to make it stop.  Now.  Today.  No excuses.  Professional psychology can absolutely solve this pathology.  It requires professional knowledge and expertise, but we can absolutely solve it.

So why aren’t we?  A: Because of profound and rampant professional ignorance and incompetence in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce.

Clinical Definition 1: Family Systems

The child’s “triangulation” into the spousal conflict through the formation of a “cross-generational coalition” with one parent against the other parent, that results in an “emotional cutoff” in the child’s relationship with the targeted parent.

Clinical Definition 2: Attachment Trauma

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

June 6-9, we are taking your voice to the American Psychological Association.  You have the right to professional knowledge and competence in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of your children and families.  We are asking that the APA become your ally in achieving that.

APA & Washington, D.C.

I am beginning my outreach to the American Psychological Association asking to schedule an appropriate handoff of the Petition to the APA to a representative of the APA. 

The Board of Directors for the American Psychological Association is meeting June 8-12.  I am respectfully requesting of the APA the possibility of a meeting with a representative from the Board of Directors to hear your voice, 17,817 strong and growing, as carried by Wendy and Rod, with my professional support.

Professional decorum typically keeps negotiations private.  However, not with this pathology.  This  pathology hides in concealment and darkness, and it’s malevolent.  With this pathology, everything must be in the open, everything must be entirely visible.  When everything is in the open, the pathogen can be seen.

I am therefore blogging the outreach letter I sent to the American Psychological Association requesting a meeting June 6-9th to receive the Petition to the APA.  I sent it to several contacts identified by Howie and to the entire Board of Directors.

Letter to the APA:

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I am a clinical psychologist and APA member.  I am also the author of the Petition to the American Psychological Association posted to Change.org in January, 2018.  The Petition to the APA currently has over 17,000 signatures since January, 2018.

Petition to the APA

During the first week of June (6/6 through 6/9), a delegation comprised of myself and two parent and child advocates, Wendy Perry and Rod McCall, will be traveling to the APA offices in Washington, D.C. to present this Petition to the APA.   The voices of thousands of parents are reaching out to the APA for help.

Wendy Perry is a leading parent and child advocate for families involved in post-divorce conflict surrounding child custody, and Rod McCall is a parent-child advocate and speaker, having lost his son to a murder-suicide by the mother because of this devastating family pathology surrounding divorce and child custody.

We are reaching out to the APA at this time to explore planning and scheduling for a meeting with a representative of the American Psychological Association during this period from June 6-9 to receive the Petition to the APA. 

We are aware that the Board of Directors for the APA is meeting from June 8-12 in Washington, D.C., and, if possible, we would respectfully request to meet with a representative of the Board of Directors, either on June 7^th prior to the start of the BoD meeting (to limit our intrusion into the scheduled agenda for the BoD), or on June 8^th the first day of the BoD meeting if this is gauged to be more appropriate.

We are asking that this request for a meeting be forwarded to the appropriate representatives within the American Psychological Association to discuss scheduling for our delivery of the Petition to the APA during the first week of June.

Thank you for your cooperation, and we look forward to working with the American Psychological Association.

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

Wendy Perry
Parent & Child Advocate

Rod McCall
Parent & Child Advocate

Wendy Perry, Rod McCall, and I are in the midst of planning our trip to Washington, D.C. to deliver the Petition to the American Psychological Association, bringing your voice to the APA and calling on them to become your allies in solving the pathology of “parental alienation.”

We have a question for you…

Do you, the community of parents fighting for your children, want us to hold a press conference when we arrive in Washington?

I’d strongly recommend it. 

The power of the Petition to the APA is in the content of the petition introduced into the structure of the APA.   But media attention and focus on the pathology of “parental alienation” is an important weapon in our fight for your children, and our Washington, D.C. trip provides a valuable opportunity to begin generating this media attention.

I would strongly recommend a press conference to begin our trip to Washington.

The problem is… Wendy, Rod, and I cannot financially afford to put on a press conference.  We need help.  To put on a press conference will cost $500 for a room at the National Press Club and an additional $3,000 for a press consultant to help us get the press to the press conference. 

With all of the other financial expenses that Wendy, Rod, and I are personally incurring surrounding our trip to Washington, we simply don’t have the money to create a press conference.  We need your support.

If you want a press conference for your voice in Washington and with the APA, you will need to help us finance it.  We need your help.

I have formed a nonprofit 501c3, The Childress Institute for Child Development, with the goal of bringing education, training, and solution to the pathology of “parental alienation” in high-conflict divorce.  Working with my attorney, The Childress Institute for Child Development is now available to accept donations to support its work.

The Childress Institute for Child Development: Donations

We are asking for your help in funding a press conference.  If The Childress Institute for Child Development receives enough donations, then we will hire a press consultant ($3,000) and schedule a room at the National Press Club ($500), and we will host a press conference for your voice.

If we don’t receive enough donations, then we will figure that a press conference is not something that the community of parents is interested in.

Additional Funding:

The Childress Institute for Child Development would also like to host an Erasing Family event on Friday evening in Washington, D.C.  The documentary Erasing Family is an important voice for parents and children caught in the pathology of “parental alienation.”  Supporting the documentary is exceedingly valuable and important.

The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the major legal-psychological professional organization involved in child custody, is holding its annual convention in Washington, D.C. during the period of our trip to Washington.  The Childress Institute for Child Development will be purchasing a vendors table at the AFCC convention ($750), paid for by me personally. 

We would like to use this forum of The Childress Institute for Child Development table at the AFCC convention to drive the family law attorneys, child custody evaluators, and court-involved therapists to an Erasing Family event on Friday evening.  At the Erasing Family event, the legal and psychological professionals will be treated to clips from the documentary, and cocktail party access to Dorcy and I for professional-level cocktail party discussion, professional dialogue, and conversation.

What we want to achieve is to make watching the documentary Erasing Family a requirement of professional responsibility when it is released, for all family law attorneys, guardians ad litem, minors counsels, child custody evaluators, and court-involved therapists.  Promoting a Friday evening Erasing Family event to the AFCC convention is immensely valuable in achieving this goal.

Our goal in Washington with the APA is also to schedule a meeting with representatives of the APA’s Board of Directors while we are in Washington.  The APA’s Board of Directors is meeting from June 8-12 (we are in Washington from June 6-9, overlapping with the BoD meeting).

In addition to increasing the awareness of the AFCC, we would also like to make watching of the documentary Erasing Family a requirement of professional responsibility for the Board of Directors for the APA.  Erasing Family is your voice, the voice of parents and children caught in the devastating family pathology of “parental alienation.”  We would like to provide the Board of Directors of the APA with complimentary tickets to the Friday evening (June 8^th) Erasing Family event.

We will also be scheduling meetings with our congressional representative’s offices while we are in Washington.  We would like to encourage the congressional staffers we meet with to also come to the Erasing Family event, to increase the knowledge of congressional representatives regarding the devastating family pathology of “parental alienation.”

If parents choose to fund a press conference, then promoting the upcoming release of the documentary, Erasing Family, will also go a long way in our next phase of enlisting media attention to the pathology of “parental alienation.”

A Friday evening Erasing Family event is immensely valuable for a variety of reasons.  The problem again is financing.  Wendy, Rod, and I cannot afford to personally finance such an event (location and appetizer nosh).  We need your help.

Your contributions to The Childress Institute for Child Development will go toward funding this Friday evening Erasing Family event, allowing us to keep ticket prices to the event reasonable ($25) rather than a barrier to attendance ($150) to cover expenses.  Tickets to the Erasing Family event at $25 sold through an ipad at the Childress Institute for Child Development vendors table at the AFCC convention, and provided as complimentary to the Board of Directors of the APA and to congressional staffers, will encourage the greatest level of participation from family law attorneys, child custody evaluators, and court-involved therapists (the nominal cost encourages commitment to attend and provides us with a head count for the event).

We need your help.  If The Childress Institute for Child Development receives enough donations from the community of targeted parents, then we will pay for the Erasing Family event.  Otherwise, we cannot personally afford to finance such an event.

This is your voice.  We need your help.

Personal Note

On a personal note, I am deeply appreciative of both Wendy Perry and Rod McCall in agreeing for come with me to Washington, D.C. to deliver the Petition to the APA.  They are doing so at their own personal expense.  Their hotel and airfare costs are not inconsequential for them at a personal level.

I would like to use any additional money that may be collected by The Childress Institute for Child Development surrounding the Washington trip to help Wendy and Rod with their travel expenses.  They are traveling to Washington to represent your voice and the voice of your children.  Helping them with travel expenses is the right thing to do.

Donations

The time is now.  We are on the battlefield for your children and families now.  We need your support.

If you, the community of targeted parents, want a press conference for your voice, then we need your help in funding it.

If you, the community of targeted parents, want an Erasing Family event on Friday night for family law attorneys, child custody evaluators, court-involved therapists, the Board of Directors for the APA, and congressional staffers, then we need your help in funding it.

If you, the community of targeted parents, want to provide support to Wendy and Rod in representing your voice to the APA, to the AFCC, and to Congress, then we need your help.

I established The Childress Institute for Child Development specifically to serve as the organizing core in education, training, and solution for the attachment-related family pathology of “parental alienation” in high-conflict divorce.  Funding a press conference, funding an Erasing Family event in Washington, D.C., and supporting travel for parent-child advocates carrying your voice and the voice of your children, is consistent with the mission and goals of The Childress Institute for Child Development.

Please consider making a financial contribution to The Childress Institute for Child Development.  Whatever you can afford, $25, $50, more if you can. 

I know fighting the pathology of “parental alienation” is expensive for parents.  I know you’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars fighting against the lies and trying to restore the healthy emotional and psychological development of your children.  I understand.

I am also asking you to consider where the solution is.  Did the money spent on attorneys lead to a solution?  Did the money spent on “reunification therapy” result in a solution?

Supporting a press conference, Erasing Family event, and travel for your parent-child representatives to speak your voice in Washington, D.C. will lead to a solution.  Please join us in solutions.

The Washington, D.C. trip is the empowerment of voice, your voice.  It is time.  We are on the battlefield for your children and families now, to end this pathology for all children everywhere.  Please consider our request for your support.

The Childress Institute for Child Development:
Donations

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

To my professional colleagues…

The field of professional psychology surrounding high-conflict divorce is rife with professional ignorance and incompetence. 

Prove me wrong.  I dare you.  I double-dog dare you.  Go ahead, prove me wrong.

Because you know what?  I’m not wrong.  The field of professional psychology surrounding high-conflict divorce is rife with professional ignorance and incompetence.

A Bowlby-Minuchin-Beck description of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce identifies four domains of professional knowledge required for professional competence:

The attachment system;

Personality disorder pathology;

Family systems pathology;

Complex trauma.

The vast majority of mental health professionals who are assessing, diagnosing, and treating attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce do NOT possess the professional knowledge required for competence.

Prove me wrong. 

You can’t.  Because I’m right.  This needs to change.

High-conflict divorce surrounding child custody is not a legal problem, it’s a professional psychology problem.  Interpersonal family conflict is not illegal, it’s unhealthy… and it’s solvable through professional psychology.

The abject failure of professional psychology in solving the attachment-related family pathology of parent-child bonding and in helping the family to successfully adjust to a new and healthy post-divorce separated family structure is then spilling into the legal system through continual litigation of family conflict.

The attachment-related family pathology of “parental alienation” is NOT a legal issue, it is a professional psychology issue.  It only becomes a legal issue because professional psychology is failing in its obligation to solve the pathology. 

Why is professional psychology failing in its responsibility to solve pathology?  Because of professional ignorance and incompetence. 

Prove me wrong.

Trauma Informed Care

The pathology of “parental alienation” (Bowlby-Minuchin-Beck; AB-PA) is a trauma pathology. 

Clinical Definition:  Prominent attachment-related pathology surrounding divorce represents the trans-generational transmission of attachment trauma from the childhood of an allied narcissistic/(borderline) parent to the current family relationships, mediated by the personality pathology of the parent that is itself a product of this parent’s childhood attachment trauma.

The attachment-related family pathology of “parental alienation” (Bowlby-Minuchin-Beck; AB-PA) is a trauma pathology.  This pathology requires “trauma-informed care” in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. 

Failure to possess the professional knowledge required for trauma-informed assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of attachment-related family pathology surrounding divorce represents practice beyond the boundaries of professional competence, in violation of Standard 2.01a of the APA ethics code. 

If professional ignorance of trauma-informed care leads to harm to the child and parent in their bonding following divorce, such as by preventing or delaying their bonding through inadequate assessment, inaccurate diagnosis, and ineffective treatment, then this would be a violation of Standard 3.04 of the APA ethics code.

To my professional colleagues… prove me wrong.

Because if I’m not wrong – and I’m not – then things need to change, and change quickly.  Causing harm to clients, potentially irrevocable harm to children and families, because of professional ignorance and incompetence is entirely unacceptable.

We are done tolerating professional ignorance and incompetence.  Those days are over.  All mental health professionals will be held accountable for the professional knowledge and expertise required to SOLVE pathology.

Trauma informed care.

Professional-level knowledge and expertise in:

The attachment system;

Personality disorder pathology;

Family systems pathology;

Complex trauma.

The world is changing.  Professional ignorance and incompetence are no longer acceptable.

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