STORE

SSL Certificate
Books, Articles, Videos, and Speeches by Dr. Richard A. Warshak

These links go to pages with information about each item: CR01 | CR03 | CR04 | CR05 | CR07 | CR08 | CR09 | CR12 | CR13 | CR14 | CR15 | CR16 | CR17 | CR18 | CR19 | CR20 | CR21 | CR22 | CR23 | CR24 | CR25 | CR27 | CR28 | CR30 | CR31 | CR32 | CR37| CR41 | CR43 | CR44 | CR45 | CR48 | CR52 | CR53 | CR54 | CR55 | CR56 | CR57 | CR61 | CR62 | CR63 | CR64 | CR66 | CR68 | CR71 | WBP01-02 | WBP-DL | WPQ | DP 

CR32 - Set of Four Articles on Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships

The following four articles describe, report the results of outcomes studies, and correct misconceptions about the program for severely alienated children and adolescents that has captured world-wide attention.

 

Family Bridges: Using Insights From Social Science To Reconnect Parents and Alienated Children

This article is the first in a refereed journal on the program for severely alienated children that has captured world-wide attention. The article passed a rigorous peer review process and provides the first detailed account of Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships. We received more than 100 requests throughout the world for advanced copies of this article before it was even published! This groundbreaking article became the centerpiece of an entire issue of a professional journal.

The article examines the benefits, drawbacks, controversies, and ethical issues regarding various options available to courts and parents in responding to alienated children, including reunification therapy, custodial transfers, boarding schools, and suspending attempts to repair damaged parent-child relationships.

Next, the article describes an innovative educational and experiential program, Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships, that draws on social science research to help severely and unreasonably alienated children and adolescents and recovered abducted children adjust to court orders that place them with a parent they claim to hate or fear. The program's goals, principles, structure, procedures, syllabus, limitations, and outcomes are presented.

The article reports on Dr. Warshak's study of the outcomes of the first 12 families in which he was involved with Family Bridges. The sample was composed of 23 children, 8 of whom were 14 or older. The children had been alienated an average of 28 months. Seven of the rejected parents were mothers, five were fathers. At the workshop's conclusion, 22 of 23 children, all of whom had failed experiences with counseling prior to enrollment, restored a positive relationship with the rejected parent. At follow-up, 18 of the 22 children maintained their gains; those who relapsed had premature contact with the alienating parent. 34 journal pages with 99 endnotes and citations to 79 social science and legal references.

Helping Alienated Children With Family Bridges:
Practice, Research, and the Pursuit of Humbition

This article briefly summarizes and responds to feedback offered by Dr. Joan Kelly regarding Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships. The article emphasize principles that promote an educational atmosphere as opposed to a therapeutic one, and the court's role in contributing to successful interventions with severely alienated children. Among the considerations discussed are: working with favored parents, economic comparisons of Family Bridges with counseling approaches, modifying the program for use in prevention and with milder cases of alienation, and issues related to training additional team leaders and conducting outcome research. 6 journal pages with citations to 12 references.

Alienating Audiences from Innovation:
The Perils of Polemics, Ideology, and Innuendo

This article discusses the importance of balancing careful scrutiny with openness to new ideas when judging innovative programs like Family Bridges. Dr. Warshak proposes that judicial responses to children who reject a parent are best governed by a multi-factor individualized approach. He shows how a presumption that allows children and one parent to regulate the other parent's access to the children is unsupported by research. A custody decision based solely on the severity of alienation leaves children vulnerable to intensification of efforts to poison their affections toward a parent. Dr. Warshak concludes that concern with possible short-term distress for some children who are required to repair a damaged relationship should not blind us to the long-term trauma of doing nothing. Professionals are urged to minimize the infusion of polemics, rigid ideology, and rumors when offering opinions with inadequate information, particularly public statements that risk harming children. 10 journal pages with citations to 28 references.

Reclaiming Parent–Child Relationships
Outcomes of Family Bridges with Alienated Children

This article reports on a study of 83 children who participated in a Family Bridges workshop, a structured, 4-day, educational and experiential workshop for alienated children and rejected parents. The parents who participated with the children, and the workshop leaders, reported statistically significant and large improvements in the children’s alienated behavior. The children’s contact refusal with the rejected parent dropped from a pre-workshop rate of 85% to a post-workshop rate of 6%. Depending on the outcome measure, between 75% and 96% of the children overcame their alienation. The study found that a significant number of intractable and severely alienated children and adolescents who participated in the Family Bridges workshop repaired their damaged relationship with a parent whom they had previously rejected for an average of 3–4 years. 23 journal pages with 25 references.