ABSTRACT

High-Conflict Parenting Post-Separation: The Making and Breaking of Family Ties describes an innovative approach for families where children are caught up in their parents’ acrimonious relationship - before, during and after formal legal proceedings have been initiated and concluded.

This first book in a brand-new series by researchers and clinicians at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (AFNCCF) outlines a model of therapeutic work which involves children, their parents and the wider family and social network. The aim is to protect children from conflict between their parents and thus enable them to have healthy relationships across both ‘sides’ of their family network.

High-Conflict Parenting Post-Separation is written for professionals who work with high-conflict families – be that psychologists, psychiatrists, child and adult psychotherapists, family therapists, social workers, children’s guardians and legal professionals including solicitors and mediators, as well as students and trainees in all these different disciplines. The book should also be of considerable interest for parents who struggle with post-separation issues that involve their children.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|13 pages

High-conflict parenting

The family context

chapter 2|16 pages

Family Ties

Conceptual framework and evaluation

chapter 3|13 pages

Legal frameworks and planning the work

chapter 4|18 pages

Assessing children

chapter 5|19 pages

Assessing parents

chapter 7|15 pages

Re-establishing and sustaining contact

chapter 8|9 pages

Ensuring safe and reflective practice