The Invisible Parent

What happens when the very same system designed to protect children fails?

That’s exactly what is happening right now in the UK family courts in cases of Parental Alienation, a form of post-divorce abuse.

Cafcass define Parental Alienation as ‘when a child’s resistance or hostility towards one parent is not justified and is the result of psychological manipulation by the other parent’; yet experts, therapists and social workers are not trained to assess or deal with cases involving Parental Alienation. “Author A” spent years making his case to judges, experts and lawyers, all of whom failed to agree on what was actually happening between his ex-wife, his children and himself. At the time it seemed like he was constantly trying to prove a negative, to find a new direction to reach his kids, and while all were promising, all ended in expensive dead ends as his ex-wife pursued her agenda.

“If I had to sum up the experience of trying to prove Parental Alienation in the courts, I would describe it as being trapped in the backseat of a car while it crashes in slow motion.

The system is not fit for purpose. The family courts are slow and busy, burdened by the backlog of cases. Once you do get a hearing, they are often set months away and even then, traditional safeguarding assessments fail to detect Parental Alienation. The longer the child is away from a parent, the harder it is to stop the alienation, and the longer the issue remains unaddressed, the risk of the children suffering mental health and behavioural problems increases. Alienated parents also often display signs of post-traumatic stress: paranoia, anxiety and in some cases are suicidal.

It is my hope that this book will not only draw attention to the potential injustice in cases of Parental Alienation and the need for meaningful reform to prevent further irreparable damage, but that it will help a parent going through a family separation spot signs before it’s too late.”

There are very few accounts of Parental Alienation first-hand due to family court privacy, which is why it’s imperative that the author remains anonymous, so that this powerful book can explicitly detail and expose the harsh, raw realities of Parental Alienation. Anonymity for the author means he can speak freely and openly about the events in his life regarding the deeply painful experience of Parental Alienation.

Parental Alienation Awareness Day – 25th April 2022