Rebuilding fractured bonds with an alienated child can be challenging for any parent. This step-by-step guide serves as a beacon, illuminating the path towards restoring trust, understanding, and warmth in your relationship.
How to Win Back an Alienated Child?
Winning back an alienated child can be challenging and requires patience, resilience, and often professional help from a child custody lawyer. It’s essential to approach the situation with understanding and compassion while protecting the child’s best interests. Here are some steps that may help:
- Understand Parental Alienation: Learn about parental alienation and its causes and effects on the child. Understanding this can help you approach your child more empathetically and informally.
- Maintain Communication: Keep the lines of communication open with your child. Regularly express your love and interest in their lives without discussing the alienating parent or the conflict.
- Seek Professional Help: Counsellors, psychologists, or therapists experienced in dealing with parental alienation can offer valuable strategies and guide you through rebuilding the relationship with your child.
- Avoid Negative Talk About the Alienating Parent: Even if the alienating parent is responsible for the estrangement, avoid criticising them in front of your child. This can put the child in a difficult position and increase their stress and confusion.
- Be Patient and Consistent: Healing from parental alienation takes time. Be patient with your child and consistent in your efforts to reconnect with them. Celebrate small steps and remain hopeful and persistent.
- Support Their Interests: Show interest in their hobbies, school activities, or anything important to them. This helps establish a bond based on shared interests.
- Legal Advice: If you suspect parental alienation is happening and affecting your relationship with your child, it might be necessary to seek legal advice. Courts can intervene when one parent deliberately alienates the child from the other parent.
How Does Australian Family Law Handle Parental Alienation Cases?
Parental alienation cases can be complex and challenging. Australian Family Law takes a child-centric approach and prioritises the child’s best interests in all decisions. Here’s how parental alienation cases are generally addressed:
- Recognition of Parental Alienation: Australian courts recognise parental alienation and acknowledge its potential harm to the child’s psychological well-being. It is seen as a form of emotional abuse.
- Best Interests of the Child: The Family Law Act 1975 stipulates that the child’s best interests are paramount. The court considers various factors to determine this, such as the child’s views, the child’s relationship with each parent, and the effect of any changes in the child’s circumstances.
- Court-Ordered Therapy or Counselling: If the court finds evidence of alienation, it may order family counselling or therapy to help repair the damaged relationship between the parent and the child. The alienating parent might also be required to participate in programs or counselling to change their behaviour.
- Parenting Orders: The court may issue parenting orders that outline the responsibilities of each parent and the time the child spends with each parent. If one parent is found to be contributing to the alienation, the court may order a change in the child’s living arrangements to ensure the child has a meaningful relationship with both parents.
- Penalties for Breaching Parenting Orders: If the alienating parent disobeys a parenting order, they may face penalties such as fines, bonds, community service, or, in extreme cases, imprisonment.
How to Win Back an Alienated Child?
Our client, feeling helpless, sought help from us at Justice Family Lawyers. Post-divorce, her ex-spouse relocated with their 14-year-old son, restricting her access. The once solid mother-son relationship began to falter, with her son showing a preference for his father.
Allegedly, her ex-spouse fed their son false, damaging information about her, poisoning their relationship further. Our heartbroken and determined client wished to repair this strained bond and counteract the manipulation. She needed legal support to contest the alienation, regain shared custody, and create a healing environment for their relationship.
Also read: Key Insights About Coparenting in Australia
How to Win Back an Alienated Child in Australia?
Are you feeling distant from your child due to a complicated divorce?
Our compassionate legal team is here to help you rebuild that invaluable bond. Don’t let distance deter your rights. Contact us today to begin restoring your cherished relationship.
Principal of Justice Family Lawyers, Hayder specialises in complex parenting and property family law matters. He is based in Sydney and holds a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Communications from UTS.
3 thoughts on “Steps on How to Win Back an Alienated Child”
Thank you for your information it was interesting time to read the article. It’s good to know that we are not alone.
What can you do when the child is an adult now legally 🙄 can courts force them to do counselling?
No, courts cannot force an adult child to attend counselling to resolve parental alienation disputes.