Parental Alienation Syndrome

Parental alienation syndrome usually occurs during and after a divorce and is a serious problem increasingly recognized by the courts, the American Bar Association, and psychotherapists. It shatters relationships and destroys lives. So, what is it?

PAS is when one parent (called the “alienating parent”) systematically and malignantly sets out to destroy their child’s relationship with the other parent (called the “target parent”) — and doesn’t care the main victim is the child. The motivation is revenge.

Is Therapy The Answer?

When I first posted the title question (and my answer, see below) on PsychCentral, I got a lot of responses—ranging from people who thanked me for broaching the subject to people who castigated me for broaching the subject!

Still, I think the conversation is one worth having.

New Site Welcome

A Note to Readers:

Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was simply time for a change.

You probably have noticed our new format on RichardZwolinski.com—we’ve decided to switch to a WordPress blog format for now. We’ve been getting so much traffic at our Therapy Soup blog at PsychCentral.com that we kind of fell behind with our other posts here at my site.

Now we hope to share updated content and new ideas with you all here in the near future. In the meantime, please keep reading Therapy Soup.

Your therapy and addiction treatment advocate,

Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC