WHEN A CHILD REJECTS A PARENT: TAILORING THE INTERVENTION TO FIT THE PROBLEM

There has been considerable discussion and debate about the advisability, nature and outcome of interventions with families in which a child expresses reluctance or outright refusal to spend time with a parent, or expresses seemingly unrealistically negative attitudes toward a parent following parental separation (Baker, 2007; Freeman & Freeman, 2003; Garber, 2007; Gardner, 2004; Johnston & Kelly, 2004; Johnston, Walters, & Friedlander, 2001; Kopetski, 2006; Rand & Rand, 2006; Rand, Rand, & Kopetski, 2005; Stoltz & Ney, 2002; Sullivan & Kelly, 2001). Although there have been recent clinical accounts of interventions with such families that appear to be helpful (Baker & Andre, 2008; Everett, 2006; Sullivan, Ward, & Deutsch, 2010; Ward, 2007; Weitzman, 2004; Warshak, 2010), there are no reports of controlled empirical studies of the efficacy of such interventions. The Multi-Modal Family Intervention (MMFI) first described by Johnston, Walters, and Friedlander (2001) has been applied to many cases in which a child rejects or refuses to spend time with a parent and/or there have been allegations or findings of parental alienation. This article presents some refinements in the MMFI based on the authors’ clinical experience which has led both to a better understanding of the nature of resistance or refusal to have contact with a parent as well as to clarification of the factors that complicate its treatment. Preliminary long-term outcome data are also available about families in which the MMFI was used (see Johnston & Goldman, 2010; Johnston, Roseby, & Kuehnle, 2009) that parallel those presented here.fcre_1291 98..111