Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention

In Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention, Janet Haines, Mandy Matthewson and Marcus Turnbull offer a comprehensive analysis of contemporary understanding of parental alienation. Grounded in recent scientific advances, this is the first book of its kind providing resources on how to identify parental alienation and a guide to evidence-based intervention.

Parental alienation is a process in which one parent manipulates their child to negatively perceive and reject the other parent. Recognising this phenomenon and knowing when to intervene is often the biggest challenge faced by practitioners and this book provides a guide to this process. Divided into six parts, it examines what parental alienation is and how it is caused, how it affects each family member as a mental health concern and form of violence, and how to assess, identify and intervene successfully from a legal and therapy standpoint. Taking on a gender-neutral approach, the book is filled with contemporary case examples from male and female perspectives, cutting-edge research, practitioner-client dialogues, and practitioners’ reflections to show the difficult realities of parental alienation.

Practical and accessible, this is an essential resource for mental health professionals working with families experiencing parental alienation, as well as postgraduate students of clinical psychology, counselling, family therapy, social work, and child and family psychology. This book will also be of immense interest to family lawyers and mediators due to its multidisciplinary approach.

Janet Haines is a psychologist with over 20 years’ experience in private clinical practice. She has extensive experience in matters involving psychology and family law, including acting as a single expert for the Family Law Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court.

Mandy Matthewson is a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and a clinical psychologist in private practice. She is the lead researcher in the Family and Interpersonal Relationships Research Lab at UTAS and Chair of the Parental Alienation Study Group’s Research Committee.

Marcus Turnbull is a senior partner specialising in family law, including child support and de facto relationship matters. Marcus is a child representative in the child protection jurisdiction and an independent children’s lawyer in the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court of Australia. Currently, Marcus is the Tasmanian representative of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, the Chair of the Family Law Practitioners’ Association of Tasmania, and member of the executive of the Australian Institute of Family Lawyers and Mediators.