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Mercer, Andrew W.; Kreuter, Frauke; Keeter, Scott; Stuart, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1093/poq/nfx004

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“…In a journal article, Mercer defended her selection of exclusively negative anecdotes about Family Bridges by claiming, "[n]o reports are available from individuals who felt the intervention had a positive effect." 81 Mercer was wrong. The top result of a Google search for the term "Family Bridges" is a page that lists at least ten positive comments about the intervention from participants, guardians ad litem, and judges.…”

Section: Media Coverage and Professionals' Commentary: Exercises mentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Warshak¹

2020

Family Court Review

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Involvement in custody cases that include accusations of parental alienation-whether as an evaluator, expert witness, lawyer, judge, therapist, provider of a specialized intervention, or researcher-incurs both professional and personal risks. Some risks relate to false negative or false positive identifications of parental alienation that can lead to regulatory agency complaints and public condemnation by the parent who feels wronged by the case outcome. Other risks stem from providing services in an emerging area of practice and working with children who overtly oppose repairing the relationship with their rejected parent. These risks include: unfounded accusations of mistreating children; negatively biased commentary and sensationalist attacks in the media and in social media, professional conferences and journals, and in courtroom testimony; harassment, vilification, and invasion of privacy; threats of violence and public humiliation; shunning and rumor spreading by colleagues; and complaints to regulatory agencies. This article examines circumstances, beliefs, and dynamics that give rise to these risks, suggests precautions to reduce the risk of false accusations against professionals, and offers recommendations for dealing with regulatory agencies. Criticisms that a court or service provider has mistreated a child merit careful scrutiny in the context of the case evidence and empirical data. While some interventions for alienated children raise legitimate concerns, others have been maligned by anecdotal complaints that studies show do not represent the experience of most participants. Practitioner's Key Points:Professional risks in an emerging area of practice can be mitigated by using approaches informed by concepts derived from empirical research, professional knowledge, and professional experience, and by adhering to applicable professional standards and guidelines.Biases, superficial understanding of the complexity of parental alienation issues and dynamics, and inexperience can lead to inappropriate generalizations about the nature, roots, and remedies of parent-child relationship problems, and result in false positive and false negative errors regarding parental alienation.When faced with accusations of misconduct, practitioners should inform the regulatory agency of case evidence and court findings of prior false accusations and malicious complaints, ask the agency to evaluate whether complaints against the professional reflect similar dynamics to those identified during the litigation, and stress the importance of the rejected parent's observations of how the professional treated the children.Accusations of mistreatment of children who participate in specialized interventions for alienated children should be evaluated in the context of empirical data on the interventions.Outcome research on Family Bridges and Overcoming Barriers found high levels of satisfaction among child and adult participants and do not support assertions that these specialized services harm children.

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Section: Media Coverage and Professionals' Commentary: Exercises mentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Warshak¹

2020

Family Court Review

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Cited by 1 publication

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Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

Risks and Realities of Working with Alienated Children

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