Coerced alignment and the alienated child: A relational approach to healing

The topic for this listening and learning circle will be:

Coerced alignment and the alienated child: A relational approach to healing.
With Karen Woodall

Wednesday 5 August 2026
This seminar will be delivered on Zoom between 17:00 and 19:00 UK Time.

To check your local start time, please click the link below, ensure ‘Date’ is selected, and enter 17:00 - 2026-08-05 - London in the right-hand boxes, here: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter *

A Zoom link for this event will be included in your order confirmation (if you do not receive this, please check your spam folder).

Cost £40.00 (including tax)

T&Cs: Please read our terms and conditions here

* we are unable to offer refunds for missed events.

About this listening and learning circle

Children who reject, resist or become psychologically aligned against a parent are often understood through adversarial or behaviour focused frameworks which overlook the deeper attachment and relational dynamics shaping the child’s experience. 

At the Family Separation Clinic, we understand these children as living within states of coerced alignment, in which attachment fear, relational pressure and unconscious loyalty conflict can lead a child to organise themselves against one parent in order to preserve emotional safety within an important relationship. 

In this Listening Circle, Karen Woodall will explore a relational and trauma informed understanding of the alienated child, moving beyond simplistic narratives of “rejection” or “bad behaviour” to consider the child’s internal world, survival strategies and capacity for healing. 

Together we will think about: 

• What coerced alignment means and how it develops
• The difference between estrangement and attachment based rejection
• Splitting, alignment and the child’s survival adaptations
• The impact of chronic relational stress upon the developing brain and nervous system
• Why children may appear hostile whilst remaining deeply attached beneath the surface
• The role of attachment fear, loyalty conflict and trauma based identification
• How therapeutic parenting can reduce pressure and support integration
• The importance of emotional regulation and “right action at the right time”
• Why healing requires a relational rather than adversarial approach 

This is not a legal advice session. It is a psychologically informed reflective space designed to help parents think more deeply about the relational dynamics affecting their child and family system. 

This Listening Circle offers a professionally facilitated reflective space in which parents can develop greater understanding of the unconscious processes shaping family relationships, whilst remaining emotionally supported and clinically informed.. 

Please read our terms and conditions here

About Karen Woodall
This series is delivered by Karen Woodall and is based on her successful work with alienated children over fifteen years. Drawing upon her psychotherapeutic experience as well as her research and direct work with alienated children in recovery, Karen offers you a unique insight into the world that the alienated child inhabits whilst helping you to understand how to build a path for the child to walk upon to return to you. Beyond that, Karen will assist you to understand the alienated child in recovery and their unique needs for longer term therapeutic parenting which helps them to integrate all of the lost parts of self. The wealth of knowledge and experience of direct work with families to help them to integrate and recover from this serious trauma that Karen offers, makes this series an experiential, warm and effective opportunity to create your own positive outcomes for your alienated child(ren). Karen's new parenting handbook, The Journey of the Alienated Children, will be published by Routledge later in 2026.