Guest Speaker to Cover 'Widespread Problem' Affecting Families

will host a guest speaker later this week coming in to talk about a particularly insidious problem facing both children and parents.

Developmental psychologist Amy Baker will tackle the subject of parental alienation—“when a parent manipulates a child into rejecting the other parent,” she explained.

Dr. Baker said this problem is a growing concern, primarily in families where the parents are divorced or separated, but also occurs in “what we call ‘intact families.’”

“This is a widespread problem that affects many, many people,” she said, noting the disastrous ripple effect such a rift can have, driving a wedge between not only the child and the alienated parent, but also extended family. “There’s a whole family that gets cut out of that child’s life.

“It’s very damaging to a child … To turn a child against a parent is to turn a child against themself.”

Baker’s talk will cover a lot of ground, explaining how to identify an alienated child, the strategies a parent may employ—either intentionally or unconsciously—to alienate the child, and what targeted parents can do to “mitigate the alienation.”

As a developmental psychologist, Baker studies the relationships between children and parents, with a particular focus on the emotional abuse that can occur in those relationships. Parental alienation is one subset of that field of study, she said.

Baker is the author of the book Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking the Ties that Bind and co-author of I Don’t Want to Choose! How Middle School Kids Can Avoid Choosing One Parent Over the Other.

For more information about Dr. Baker, visit her website amyjlbaker.com.

Her presentation begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Moorestown Library.

Baker’s talk comes the day after the official “Parental Alienation Awareness Day.” To mark the occasion, the library will distribute bubbles from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday—also known as "Bubbles of Love Day"—which is occurring in other places throughout the nation and worldwide to recognize Parental Alienation Awareness Day.

In conjunction with these two events, the library is also holding a "Spring into Action" free raffle on Friday. One ticket per event will be given to each person coming to the library for one or both of the above-mentioned happenings. The entrants will then place their free raffle ticket (one per person per event) into a labeled box of their choosing to be eligible to win a gift card or service from participating local businesses. Entrants do not need to be present to win.