Alienation & The Child

There are two terms we are going to discuss here: 

Parental Alienation – Parental alienation is a debunked theory that is now synonymous with post-separation abuse and aims to silence abuse victims, whether adults or children.

Alienating Behaviours – Alienating behaviours is described in the Cafcass website as “circumstances where there is an ongoing pattern of negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of one parent (or carer) that have the potential or expressed intent to undermine or obstruct the child’s relationship with the other parent.” 

On the surface you may think the two terms are referring to the same thing as do many organisations whom inadvertently use the term ‘parental alienation’ when referring to ‘alienating behaviours’. But this is changing with even Cafcass recently changing its position on ‘parental alienation’.