Concept ‘risks abusive parents getting custody’
THE concept of parental alienation is highly contested and opinions are split on whether it exists at all, according to a recent Government policy paper.
Some argue it is a concept proposed by abusive parents to further abuse and control the other parent. A 2023 report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, said that the concept was ‘unfounded and unscientific’. However, others insist parental alienation is a real and painful experience of estrangement from a child.
The Government policy paper notes that Jim Sheehan – who was director of family therapy training for the Mater/UCD MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy before he set up his own practice – recommends the transfer of custody to the ‘targeted parent’ in conjunction with therapy in cases of confirmed parental alienation.
Mr Sheehan was noted as saying ‘awarding primary parental responsibility to the targeted parent and providing specialist family therapy is effective in ameliorating parental alienation’. However, the policy paper also noted how other research found there is a ‘real risk of custody of a child being granted to an abusive parent’.
A range of support groups, including Women’s Aid and Survivors Informing Services and Institutions, have reportedly expressed concerns at the increasing use of parental alienation in disputes involving domestic abuse and coercive control.
The Rape Crisis Network has questioned if the concept results in the child victim being silenced, and the protective parent being punished by the State for supporting their child’s disclosure and safety.
However, the Family Therapists Association of Ireland (FTAI), of which Mr Sheehan is a registered member, argues parental alienation is a treatable mental disorder.
In a recent research paper, Mr Sheehan said that children who experienced parental alienation spoke of ‘missing out on a childhood and their experience of an early loss of innocence’.
Mr Sheehan noted: ‘Clinicians treating adults who were sexually abused as children will be aware of the similarity in such experiences between the two groups.’
In a submission to the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTAI – which was later withdrawn – Mr Sheehan wrote that parental alienation can be perpetrated by fathers as well as mothers and is ‘not a gendered issue’.
A statement on the FTAI website says it has withdrawn a submission to the Department of Justice on parental alienation.
It added it is ‘aware that, as a concept, parental alienation is contested’ and it has facilitated the establishment of a working group to ‘examine the issues and complexities of the term’.