Professional Alliance for Child Centered Safety

03/06/2026

This month, as we focus on mental health and PTSD awareness, we need to talk about a deeply hidden form of trauma: parental alienation (PA).

The physical and psychological impact of being weaponized against a parent doesn't end in childhood. It lasts a lifetime. 💔

A comprehensive worldwide review by Dr. Wilfrid von Boch-Galhau highlighted the devastating long-term consequences for adults who experienced PA as children. The study identified 4 major themes:

🧠 Mental Health Struggles: Severe anxiety disorders and trauma reactions.
❤️🩹 Deep Emotional Pain: Lasting confusion and emotional wounds.
🚫 Addiction: High rates of substance use as a coping mechanism.
🌱 Resilience: Navigating the complex journey of coping and survival.

The findings are a stark wake-up call. Adults who went through PA frequently experience elevated levels of suicidal ideation and often unintentionally pass these alienating behaviors down to their own children (intergenerational transmission).

This isn't just a family dispute—parental alienation is a form of insidious emotional abuse.

As one survivor powerfully shared:

"I was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and all I was doing was hiding like a mollusc [sic] in a shell, away from the world... I didn’t understand why I was in a perpetual state of anxiety, and I couldn’t switch it off. It’s taken me 30 years to be able to understand that.”

If you or someone you know is healing from this form of trauma, please know you are not alone, and it is never too late to seek understanding and peace. 🕊️

📖 Read the full study here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9026878/

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.

Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here
Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

01/06/2026

June is Mental Health and PTSD Awareness Month 🧠💚

Over the next few weeks, we will explore how these two closely related themes intersect with the critical work of child protection. Specifically, we will be exploring a reality that is too often overlooked: the profound, lasting impact that child abduction, custodial interference, and parental alienation have on the mental health of both children and parents.

These challenging family dynamics are more than legal battles; they are also deeply traumatic events that can trigger complex PTSD and lifelong mental health challenges.

The most important takeaway? It is preventable.

Throughout June, we will be sharing resources, legal insights, and evidence-based standards to highlight how proper enforcement and systemic reform can protect the psychological well-being of families.

Let’s spend this month breaking the silence, correcting the misconceptions, and advocating for true child-centered safety.

👇 Drop a 💚 if you are standing with us this month, and follow along for our upcoming resources.

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.
Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here
Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

👇 Drop a 💚 if you are standing with us this month, and follow along for our upcoming resources.

30/05/2026

29/05/2026

As we close out the month of May for Child Abduction and Custodial Interference Awareness Month, it is crucial to highlight vital information regarding these serious issues.

Here are three key takeaways we must remember:

1. Child Abduction and Custodial Interference are severe crimes with lasting impacts. Child abduction isn't just a parental dispute; in many instances, it is a federal crime that inflicts immediate and lifelong trauma on the child. Recent stories published by the Department of Justice heavily showcase the profound reality of these survivor stories.

2. Prevention and recovery resources exist. The FBI recently published an actionable guide outlining the critical steps families can take to help prevent abduction and navigate the recovery process if a child is taken.

3. Custodial interference is NOT just a "civil matter." It is a crime in all 50 states. One of our biggest hurdles is overcoming the decades-long misconception that if a parent withholds a child, the child isn't in harm's way, or that families "just need to go back to family court." It is a real crime, enforceable by law.

Let’s continue to spread awareness, correct the misconceptions, and protect our children. 🛑👇

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.

Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here

Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

27/05/2026

From a child-centered safety standpoint, the problem isn't whether someone calls themselves protective-it's whether the behavior is:
• grounded in objectively verifiable risk, and
• pursued through lawful, reviewable channels, and
• proportionate to the actual threat to the child.
When those elements are missing, the same behaviors-withholding, concealing, cutting off contact-stop looking like protection and start looking like risk factors in themselves.
٠ # #

27/05/2026

💔 “Divorce is about watching your parents fight and your family take sides. Family abduction is about your family being eradicated from the face of the earth.”

As we continue Child Abduction and Custodial Interference Awareness Month, we are sharing a devastatingly powerful account published by the Department of Justice.

This is Liss’s Story. It shatters the myth that parental kidnapping is just a private "family dispute." It is a severe form of child emotional abuse that leaves lifelong psychological scars.

Read her words and help us change how society views this hidden crisis:

🚨 "I Literally Became Someone Else Overnight"
"When I was 10 years old someone took me from the street... drove me across the country, gave me a new name, made me lie about who I was... and told me I would never see my family again.

The strangest part of my story is that I did not realize, while it was happening, that I was being abducted. This is because a great many people around me responded by thinking that it was perfectly okay—because that person was my own mother."

🌪️ The Reality of Fugitive Isolation & Brainwashing
Liss spent her childhood in constant survival mode, living in terror under a false identity while her mother descended into emotional collapse. To survive, her child's brain adjusted to the trauma by clinging to her captor:

"My mother was operating out of a desire to inflict a mortal wound upon my father... She became my everything. Which, of course, was just what she had wanted.

When my father first found us, everything he did confirmed in my mind that he was indeed the enemy—the crazy, dangerous, evil enemy—my mother had made him out to be... Before she abducted me, I was a Daddy’s girl. I never once thought of my Dad as dangerous until she told me he was."

🩹 The Adult Consequences: "In My World, Nothing is Forever"
The psychological aftermath of severe parental alienation and international flight doesn't vanish when a child turns 18. Liss shares the agonizing, long-term toll on her adult life:

Eradicated Identity: Spending decades uncertain of what was real.

Inability to Trust: "Desperately seeking family, I pull people in, then do my best to push them away, constantly testing whether or not they can be made to disappear."

Stolen Relationships: Mourning the lost years with a father who went to an early grave from the heartbreak of losing his only child.

🗣️ A Call to Action: Break the Silence
Liss’s story could have been completely different if the adults around her had spoken up instead of minimizing the crime:

"I can’t help but think how much devastation could have been avoided... if those around my mother at the time had recognized her plan to free herself of my father as an act of child abduction and spoken up against it or reported her to the authorities."

We must stop normalizing custodial interference. Family court systems, attorneys, therapists, and communities need to recognize these patterns early, intercept flight risks, and protect a child's right to love both parents safely.

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.

Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here

Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

25/05/2026

✈️ International parental kidnapping is not a custody dispute—it is a federal crime.

In honor of National Missing Children’s Day, the FBI published an essential Q&A article featuring Seattle Special Agent Ingrid Arbuthnot-Stohl, diving deep into the Bureau's critical role in investigating International Parental Kidnapping (IPK).

When a parent illegally crosses global borders with a child, they create a maze of legal and psychological trauma. In this exclusive breakdown, Agent Arbuthnot-Stohl pulls back the curtain on the complex mechanics of global recovery operations, addressing critical questions every advocate, legal professional, and parent needs to understand:

🔍 The Investigation & Global Hurdles

What exactly qualifies as IPK, and how does the FBI officially activate and become involved in an investigation?

What makes these cases a legal minefield from an international standpoint?

How does the FBI navigate cases when the abducted child holds dual U.S. citizenship?

How do federal agents approach recovery when a child has been taken to a country where the U.S. has limited, strained, or non-existent diplomatic channels?

💔 The Human Cost & Teamwork

What is the true, lasting psychological and emotional impact of IPK on a child victim?

How does the FBI partner with external organizations, non-profits, and foreign law enforcement to bring children home?

🛡️ Prevention & Emergency Action Steps

What proactive steps can a parent take to help prevent an IPK scenario before it starts?

What immediate actions should a parent take if they believe their child has already been abducted and taken abroad?

What is the ultimate advice for a left-behind parent holding onto hope for a safe return?

🛑 Protect the Children, Know the Signs
International abductions require massive legal complexity across borders, and recovery is never guaranteed. Awareness and early intervention are our strongest shields.

🔗 Read the full FBI interview and learn the prevention strategies: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/raising-awareness-international-parental-kidnapping

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.

Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here

Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

22/05/2026

Families often struggle with how to communicate when a child becomes emotionally distant, angry, rejecting, or withdrawn.

Join PACCS for our June Book Talk of:

Parenting Under Fire: How to Communicate with Your Hurt, Angry, Rejecting, Distant Child

By Dr. Amy J.L. Baker & Paul R. Fine
Preregister here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/JnVNsGVUTGmPush1mtsl7w #/registration

22/05/2026

Today, as we continue Child Abduction and Custodial Interference Awareness Month, we are pulling back the curtain on a harsh truth:

💔 The trauma of a family abduction doesn’t end when a child is physically rescued. For survivors, the real battle often begins AFTER recovery.

In a chilling and deeply moving account published by the Department of Justice, a survivor named Sam shared the devastating, long-term psychological toll of being abducted and alienated by his own father:

"When I was missing, lying became my life, so naturally once I returned home that is all I did. My trust and love were abused by the one person who I was supposed to trust to take care of me. And throughout this ordeal, I asked myself: If my father didn’t care about me, why should anybody else?

So, I shut down and didn’t trust anybody. My entire reality and support network was obliterated when my father decided to abduct me. So when I was home with my mother, my parent who I was brainwashed to hate, I experienced my loved parent’s deceit and felt alone."

Sam’s words highlight three invisible scars left behind by parental abduction and severe parental alienation:

🧠 Survival Coping Mechanisms: To survive while missing, children are often forced to adopt toxic habits—like compulsive lying. When they return home, turning those habits off isn't as simple as flipping a switch.

🛑 The Destruction of Trust: When a parent weaponizes a child's love to execute an abduction, they shatter that child’s ability to trust anyone else, leading to severe emotional isolation.

🌪️ The Trauma of Brainwashing: Abductors routinely brainwash children to fear or hate the safe, left-behind parent. Rebuilding that relationship after recovery requires immense time, patience, and specialized, trauma-informed therapy.

What Can We Do?

Family abduction is a critical child welfare crisis, not just a private "family dispute." We must advocate for family court systems, attorneys, and therapists to recognize these psychological patterns early, intercept flight risks, and provide intensive reunification support for recovered children.

🔗 Learn the Warning Signs: Visit our page access resources on recognizing parental alienation and preventing custodial interference before it starts.

Learn more about how to help parents manage these complex and traumatizing dynamics in your clinical or legal practice during our weekly Lunch and Learns, hosted by our affiliate therapists and attorneys.

Join our email list: https://www.paccs.global/join-here

Our next book club is Monday, June 8 with author and researcher Dr. Amy J.L. Baker. Dr. Baker will be discussing her book, "Parenting Under Fire." Preregister today!

21/05/2026

Parenting Under Fire: How to Communicate with a Hurt, Angry, Rejecting, Distant Child
Written by Amy J.L. Baker, Ph.D. and Paul R. Fine, LCSW
How to communicate in person with a hurt, angry, rejecting, distant (HARD) child including: enhancing the attachment, avoiding taking the bait, fostering four values, and being a positive parent.

How to communicate by text with a HARD child including: how and why to text, basic techniques, tips and considerations, thirty types of texts, and responding to the responses.

How to communicate by letter with an adult HARD child including: philosophy of the letter, homework, components of the letter, and possible responses.
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The book is published by Rowman & Littlefield a leading publisher of psychological self help books.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WDnRgi-T6XLWmR40GtNq3SF4sMd0eiZT/view?usp=drivesdk