ABSTRACT
This chapter is written from the perspective of 25 years of experience working with the English Courts. The author assesses parenting and the emotional and psychological impact on children caught up in the dynamics of high conflict parental separation. Systemic constructs which explain the patterns found in such families are identified. Systemic family therapy and the Dynamic Maturational Model of attachment are employed to help understand and deconstruct the meanings of safety and protection in families where threat and fear are the prevailing experience of all involved: parents, children and professionals. The emphasis here is on the experience of the child.
