Parental Alienation Therapist California
Parenting is hard under any circumstances.
When a family is going through separation, divorce, or conflict, it gets harder in ways that are difficult to talk about. The worry about your children. The grief of losing time with them. The strain of co-parenting with someone you’re no longer in a relationship with. The confusion of not understanding what’s happening or why your child has pulled away.
For parents navigating something that doesn't have easy answers.
Maybe you’re co-parenting after a separation and the tension between households is affecting your children in ways you can see but don’t know how to address. Maybe you’re struggling with the emotional weight of parenting through a high-conflict divorce. Maybe you’re a parent whose relationship with your child has become strained or distant in ways that feel connected to what’s happening between the adults in their life.
Parental alienation is a specific and painful experience. If your child has become resistant, hostile, or estranged in ways that feel sudden or out of proportion, and you believe this is connected to the influence of the other parent; that deserves careful, professional attention, not a quick fix, but honest, sustained support.
This page is also for parents dealing with broader challenges that don’t involve separation. Navigating a child’s learning differences. Supporting a child through emotional or behavioral difficulties. Figuring out how to advocate within a school system that feels complicated. Parenting is its own kind of ongoing work, and sometimes you need a space to think through it with someone who understands it.
What Therapy Looks Like
Parenting work and parental alienation work are different, but both require the same thing.
A therapist who will engage seriously with what you’re actually dealing with.
For parents navigating co-parenting conflict or parental alienation, therapy provides a space to process what’s happening emotionally while also thinking practically about how to respond. I help clients understand the dynamics at play, manage the stress of an ongoing difficult situation, and make decisions about their children from a grounded place rather than a reactive one.
I approach parental alienation with care and without assumptions. These situations are often legally complex, emotionally charged, and easy to misread from the outside. I’m not here to take sides or confirm a version of events. I’m here to help you navigate something genuinely hard with as much clarity as possible.
For parents dealing with school-related challenges, my background is directly relevant. I spent 15 years as a teacher and school administrator working with students across a wide range of learning needs. I understand how schools work, how IEP processes unfold, and how to help parents advocate effectively for their children without the process becoming more stressful than it needs to be.
Parents who do this work often say the same thing: they feel less alone in it.
The emotional weight of parenting through conflict, especially when your child is caught in the middle, can be isolating. Having a space to process it clearly, without judgment, makes a practical difference. Decisions get clearer. Reactions become less driven by fear or anger. You get better at separating what you can control from what you can’t.
For parents dealing with parental alienation specifically, progress looks different for every family. But understanding the dynamics more clearly, responding more strategically, and not losing yourself in the process, that counts for a lot, whatever the outcome.
I've worked with parenting challenges and family dynamics throughout my career.
My background as a K-12 educator and administrator gives me a practical understanding of how children develop, how schools operate, and what families are actually up against when they’re trying to support a child through difficulty. Most therapists don’t come to this work with a classroom behind them. I do.
I’m also a parent of five. I’ve been through separation and the complexity of co-parenting. I understand what this costs emotionally, and I know the difference between what’s textbook and what’s real.
If you're dealing with parenting challenges, co-parenting conflict, or parental alienation, you don't have to navigate it alone.
You don’t need to have your situation fully sorted before you get in touch. Most people who contact me about this are in the middle of it.