Parental alienation is described as a child’s unreasonable rejection of one parent due to the influence of the other parent combined with the child’s own contributions. This phenomenon arises mainly in families of divorce where elevated levels of parental conflict, and care and contact disputes lead to increased tension and antagonism between the parties. The perspectives of family counsellors, who conduct assessments of children from families of divorce to make best-interest assessments for contact and care arrangements or to formulate and implement interventions, on parental alienation, were explored in this qualitative study. A literature study was undertaken to define parental alienation and to place the phenomenon in a South African context, specifically with reference to children’s legislature, and care and contact issues. From this, a theoretical framework for the study was constructed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight family counsellors in the Western Cape to explore their experience of the problem. Seven themes were identified, by which the perspectives of family counsellors regarding parental alienation were described in detail. The themes are: Theme 1: Parental alienation during divorce Theme 2: Characteristic properties of parental alienation Theme 3: False accusations during parental alienation Theme 4: Assessing for parental alienation Theme 5: Interventions for parental alienation Theme 6: Parental alienation in the judicial context Theme 7: Needs of family counsellors regarding parental alienation / Psychology / M. Diac. (Spelterapie)

Parental alienation is described as a child’s unreasonable rejection of one parent due to the influence of the other parent combined with the child’s own contributions. This phenomenon arises mainly in families of divorce where elevated levels of parental conflict, and care and contact disputes lead to increased tension and antagonism between the parties. The perspectives of family counsellors, who conduct assessments of children from families of divorce to make best-interest assessments for contact and care arrangements or to formulate and implement interventions, on parental alienation, were explored in this qualitative study. A literature study was undertaken to define parental alienation and to place the phenomenon in a South African context, specifically with reference to children’s legislature, and care and contact issues. From this, a theoretical framework for the study was constructed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight family counsellors in the Western Cape to explore their experience of the problem. Seven themes were identified, by which the perspectives of family counsellors regarding parental alienation were described in detail. The themes are: Theme 1: Parental alienation during divorce Theme 2: Characteristic properties of parental alienation Theme 3: False accusations during parental alienation Theme 4: Assessing for parental alienation Theme 5: Interventions for parental alienation Theme 6: Parental alienation in the judicial context Theme 7: Needs of family counsellors regarding parental alienation / Psychology / M. Diac. (Spelterapie)