Short version:

Examiner columnist Gayle Trent uncritically quotes claims that Parental Alienation "has been repeatedly debunked by leading professional organizations" and is "junk science." This is dead wrong--Parental Alienation has not been debunked and is viewed as valid by many, many mental health professionals. It is also the life experience of hundreds of thousands of noncustodial parents.

Write to Trent and tell her Parental Alienation is real and harms our kids--click on gd830@hotmail.com.

Remember to be polite and to stick to the point.

Longer version

Gayle Trent is an author and a parenting columnist with www.examiner.com. Trend's recent column Abuse Story Follow Up discusses the controversy over Parental Alienation and comes down pretty solidly on the side of those who claim that Parental Alienation doesn't exist and is a fathers' rights scam.

As you know, Parental Alienation often arises after a divorce, as one parent turns his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed.

Trent does acknowledge that mothers also abuse, and makes some effort to be fair. However, she uncritically quotes claims that Parental Alienation "has been repeatedly debunked by leading professional organizations" and is "junk science." This is dead wrong--Parental Alienation has not been debunked and is viewed as valid by many, many mental health professionals.

Trent also narrates the story of Holly Collins, who fled to Holland with her two children in 1994, claiming that her husband had abused the children and that she needed to flee to protect them. I was on a television show recently with Collins' daughter Jennifer, who is now 23 and supports her mother's version of events.

I don't know details about the case and have no position as to whether Holly Collins is telling the truth or not. As I've said before, I've no doubt that claims of Parental Alienation can be used by abusive fathers (or mothers) to gain custody, but there's little evidence that abusers are actually successful at this. Perhaps the Collins case is an example--I don't know.

There is one fact revealed in the article that does cast some suspicion on Collins case--the custody evaluator who said the father was abusive was Dr. Eli Newberger, a member of the Leadership Council’s Board. The Leadership Council is in the forefront of fighting fathers' access to their children in custody disputes, and in disparaging Parental Alienation. The fact that Newberger said that Collins' kids were abused means little, though it's certainly possible that he got it right in this case.

Write to Trent and tell her Parental Alienation is real and harms our kids--click on gd830@hotmail.com or on her contact page here.

If you have been the target of Parental Alienation, tell her your story. Be polite and remember that the point here is not to hammer Trent but to help her understand what Parental Alienation is and show her that there is another side to this debate.

To learn more about Parental Alienation, see my co-authored column AB 612 Will Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/2/07) or click here.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Parental Alienation/PAS, Men and the Media, Family Court Reform Movement. You can trackback from your own site.