THE FAMILY THERAPISTS TELL ALL

Angelina Jolie suffers another major setback in her bitter custody battle with Brad Pitt

For the past four months, a team of therapists has been monitoring Brad Pitt’s and Angelina Jolie’s every move. As part of the exes’ temporary custody agreement, mental-health professionals have been working closely with the pair’s children, Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8, overseeing family therapy sessions with each parent and supervising their visits with Brad. The entire time, Angelina’s team has insisted her children were traumatized by the September plane incident involving Brad and Maddox that instigated one of the most contentious splits in Hollywood history.

Now those therapists are revealing everything. On Jan. 9, Brad, 53, and Angelina, 41, issued a joint statement — their first since they split — confirming that they have agreed to seal all custody documents in order to protect the privacy of their six children and saying they would move forward by engaging a private judge to settle their issues. “The therapists have been preparing an assessment of the entire conflict to send to the judge,” an insider tells In Touch, adding that Angelina’s concerns about Brad’s visitation with the kids turned out to be unwarranted. “The therapists have said there is no need for further treatment or intervention and monitoring of his visits with them. Their report will encourage both Brad and Angelina to parent the kids together.”

Brad was in the hot seat because of Angie’s allegations, but the therapists are critical of her. “They want her to take a parenting class because she doesn’t grasp that the kids need a stable home environment and shouldn’t be moved all over the world because of her work,” the insider says. And while Brad “will be described as a loving, devoted father, deeply impacted emotionally by the events of the past four months,” Angelina will be painted as bitter and hostile, adds the insider. “In fact, the therapists had become concerned that Angie was engaging in tactics of parental alienation” — a term for the psychological manipulation of a child into showing unwarranted fear, disrespect or hostility toward a parent. “Angie has not only smeared Brad publicly,” says the source, “but also tried to turn the kids against him, people close to him believe.”

She’s failed miserably on all fronts. Part of the reason Angelina finally “caved and agreed to Brad’s request to seal the proceedings was she realized she was getting destroyed in the court of public opinion,” says the source. When Brad appeared at the Golden Globes on Jan. 8, he received wild applause from his Hollywood peers. “It really sent a message,” adds the source, “about how people have seen him as acting responsibly during Angelina’s entire smear campaign against him.”

Even people on Angie’s side have objected to her methods. Another reason she finally agreed to work with a private judge to settle their case, says the insider, is because at least one member of her team “threatened to quit” over the actress’s unrelenting and unrealistic quest to gain sole custody despite the fact that Brad — who’s always pushed for joint custody — was cleared of child abuse allegations by both the FBI and LA County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and given the green light by the therapists to be alone with his kids. She’ll have to accept that she won’t get sole custody, says the source, adding, “there’s no question Brad has won this battle.”

Still, the war is far from over. While the therapists plan to tell the judge that Angie needs to get past her hostility toward Brad and make peace, says the insider, “she’s still refusing to meet with Brad in person, even with their lawyers present,” and is still fighting for sole custody. “She’s hell-bent on holding on to this anger, and that is scary.” ◼

HIS BIG WIN “The fact that Angelina has agreed to seal the case is a huge victory for Brad and a tremendous loss for her,” says a source close to the situation.

Angelina (with, from left, Vivienne, Knox and Shiloh) “wants the kids full-time so she can do whatever she wants, travel wherever she wants,” says a source close to the situation, “and she was willing to try to make Brad look like a villain to do it.”