NEWS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1/30/2017
For more information, contact:
Howie Dennison, Advocate for Children
Central Ohio Parental Alienation
howie.dennison@gmail.com
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The APA and the Mental Health Child Abuse Scandal
Jan 30, 2017 Columbus, OH - Howie Dennison has released the sixth edition of a free eBook entitled “The APA and the Mental Health Child Abuse Scandal” that identifies American Psychological Association (APA) documents that:
1. reveal that parental alienation exists and classifies it as psychological child abuse
2. admit that mental health professionals commonly miss the diagnosis of parental alienation
3. announce that “child psychological abuse is as harmful as child sexual abuse”
4. identify child abuse as a national emergency and asserts the APA’s role as the “dissemination of psychological knowledge about child abuse and neglect to the public”
Because the APA currently has no official position against parental alienation, Howie Dennison calls on the APA to acknowledge the underlying pathology and to designate affected children as a special population that requires its own highly trained and experienced psychological experts.
Parental alienation is the unwarranted rejection of a parent by a manipulated child.
In January 2014, Steven Miller, MD, an expert in clinical reasoning and a specialist in alienation and estrangement, testified in front of a legislative task force that was investigating the family court system. Among other things, he pointed out that "this field is highly counter-intuitive to anyone who does not have extensive training and experience dealing with it . . . most people will usually get it wrong."
Craig Childress, PsyD, a clinical psychologist, said, "The mental health response to the family pathology created by narcissistic and borderline personality parents is marked by rampant and clear professional incompetence, yet the APA remains silent to the pleas of loving parents for professional competence."
The APA documents include a 2015 technical paper in a copyrighted APA technical journal entitled “Ten parental alienation fallacies”, the “2015 APA Handbook of Forensic Psychology,” the 2014 APA press release on child psychological abuse, the 2012 APA Parenting Coordinator Guidelines, and the 2008 APA policy on parental alienation.
Howie Dennison is an advocate for children at Central Ohio Parental Alienation who believes that no abused child should be left behind.
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