“It is the combination of the detailed account of the author attempting to come to grips with his inability to normalize his relationship with his son, together with Dr. Davies providing a great deal of support and insight to him as to how alienation takes place, that makes this book required reading for any parent who is victimized by parental alienation as well as professionals who treat or evaluate alienation.”

That’s just one excerpt from The American Journal of Family Therapy’s recent review of A Family’s Heartbreak: A Parent’s Introduction to Parental Alienation. The American Journal of Family Therapy published the review in its upcoming issue, Volume 38, Issue 3, 2010, pages 279-280, and is available online. The publication will be out in print on May 28, 2010. 

The American Journal of Family Therapy is the incisive, authoritative, independent voice in an ever-changing field. The publication includes the latest techniques for treating families; theory on normal and dysfunctional family relationships; research on sexuality and intimacy; the effects of traditional and alternative family styles; and community approaches to family intervention. All articles in the publication undergo editorial screening and peer review.

The review also cites author Mike Jeffries for, “providing the reader with a rational understanding of the risk factors that can be potentiated in the alienating parent as a result of the threat of abandonment. The reader is presented with a rational understanding of what could otherwise be an incomprehensible switch of loyalties by the child from being attuned to both parents to the child’s completely disregarding, denigrating, and rejecting the other parent and the other parent’s extended family.”

The review, written by Abe Worenklein, Ph.D., a Clinical Psychologist from Outremont, Quebec, also calls parental alienation a serious form of abuse. “Furthermore,” Worenklein wrote, “Jeffries’ and Davies’ accounts make it very clear that not only is an alienated child being robbed of his childhood but that the alienation should be seen as a serious form of psychological/emotional abuse that can impact significantly on future relationships and on the child’s development.”

A Family’s Heartbreak: A Parent’s Introduction to Parental Alienation, is available at http://www.afamilysheartbreak.com, on Amazon, and through bookstores worldwide.