Articles
Woodall, N. (2021). The alienated child: Responding to cases of post separation parental rejection.
'Whilst alienation may, on the surface, look like a problem of a child not spending time with one of their parents, the more serious problem for the child is the unconscious mechanism that enables a child to act counter to the evolutionary imperative to remain in relationship with, and in proximity to, their attachment figures.'
Woodall, K. (2019). Developing new approaches to therapeutic work with alienated children and families. Parental Alienation International, 4(3), 7-8.
'Successful therapies are those in which the child is helped to encounter the rejected parent as early as possible in the process. Waiting for an alienated child to say he or she is ready to see a parent is futile. Persuasion or desensitization approaches simply re-expose the child to the dilemma of the double bind the child faces. In these circumstances, the defense is heightened and the child remains fixed and refusing.'
Woodall, K. (2018). Alienated children and families: Learning from practice. Parental Alienation International, 3(4), 6-8.
'Assessment is always accompanied by intervention. We do not believe that the two things are separate and we do not believe that static assessment is particularly useful in alienation cases. Additionally, an assessment is not complete until we have seen the rejected parent with the child and so our intervention begins as part of the assessment process.'