Parents in conflict

In order to provide equitable care, we do not charge families accessing Family Ties Online. For this reason, we are dependent on funding to run the project. At present, unfortunately, we do not have funding to support the delivery of Family Ties Online. We are actively seeking funding opportunities.

Our specialist team have developed a three-day training course which provides frontline staff with a toolbox of skills that can be used to intervene and support families where there is parental conflict. Visit our training page for more information. 

Overview 

Developed in response to need during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Family Ties Online Help is an online intervention for less complex families, who do meet the threshold for intensive support, but whose needs are not met by parenting programmes or less intensive interventions. Family Ties Online is for parents who want to work on their communication so that they reduce the impact of arguments or breakdowns in communication on their children. The programme takes place through video calls between parents and the therapist over 12 weeks. Each parent will have 10 sessions, sometimes together with their co-parent, and other times with the therapist one-to-one. Parents will also be asked to complete intersession tasks (e.g. watching video clips, and working on parenting agreements) between sessions and to think about these with their support network. The children are involved only at the beginning, where their parents tell them about the help they are getting, and at the end, where parents tell their children about changes they have made.  

Parental conflict may or may not be a result of/ exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, associated stressors, and lockdown conditions. The parents may be living under the same roof, or they may be separated. The intervention focuses on the child’s experience by working with their parents, and their parent's support network to: 

• minimise the negative impact of conflict on their child(ren)'

• gain further understanding of their conflict and stressors (including understanding and managing different cultural expectations) in order to find more effective ways to co-parent;

• build coping strategies in order to help them manage the stress associated with conflict;

• reduce anxiety and loyalty conflicts for the child;

• protect the child against the possibility of their relationship with one parent breaking down as a result of parental conflict.

Learn more about the online therapy for families in this document or read the full evaluation report.   

Costs 

We do not charge families for this service. We are currently seeking funding to support the delivery of this intervention and hope to be able to offer places again within the next few months.

Contact us 

To make a referral, please complete our online referral form.

We accept referrals directly from parents, or through a third party such as healthcare professionals, social workers, or GPs (family doctors). 

This course provides participants with a framework for assessing and treating families where there is:

• chronic conflict between separated parents primarily around the residency of and contact with their children;

• a long history of chronic litigation and allegations (by each parent) around the quality of parenting provided to the child and ‘parental alienation.';

• a wish to intervene early in order to protect the child and reduce the involvement of the Family Court.

The harmful impact on children of involvement in such conflict is well documented however, traditional therapy has been found to be largely ineffective and professionals often find themselves stuck having exhausted existing resources with the family having made little or no progress. 

The training is delivered by a specialist team who have developed an innovative conceptual framework drawing on mentalization, systemic and attachment-based approaches and is based on the book they have recently published, High conflict parenting post separation: The making and breaking of family ties by Eia Asen and Emma Morris.

For more information, please check out our training site.

The specialist team at Anna Freud have developed a three-day training course which provides frontline staff with a toolbox of skills that can be used to intervene and support families where there is parental conflict. The training covers how to:

• use psychoeducation with parents in conflict and their social network (including access to a series of short online videos);

• keep the child at the forefront by identifying and monitoring child centred goals with the parents;

• help parents and their networks recognise their ‘triggers’ and develop coping strategies so that they regulate and manage conflict better;

• help parents and their networks recognise and change problematic communication patterns;

• help parents and the child’s network move away from a blaming narrative so that they can support a child to have a good relationship with both their parents;

• help parents make and experiment with written parenting agreements;

• develop reflective practice when supporting parents in conflict, including managing the emotional impact of working with parental conflict and improving cultural reflexivity.

The course is delivered using the framework of our ‘Family Ties Online Help’ intervention. This is a semi-structured, manualised 10-session treatment package for parents in conflict that can be delivered online or in person. However, the intervention does not have to be delivered in its entirety. Practitioners can pick and choose any component of the treatment package based on their role and the family's needs.

A treatment guide and access to short videos for parents will be provided along with teaching slides for this training as part of this course.

The course itself will involve a combination of didactic teaching, interactive role-play and case discussion in order to develop the practitioner’s skills.