The PASS program aims to provide alienated parents a resource to understand this crippling family disease and guide members with rich expert-led and real-world experiences to help manifest a path to self-discovery, self-recovery, and the elimination of guilt and shame.
A Focus on Need
Parental Alienation is an insidious family disease rooted in one parent’s quest to eliminate the other parent from their child’s life. This is not a new phenomenon, though reporting on the subject has become much more robust in the past decade.
According to a signature poll of North Carolina adults taken in 2015, more than 13% of parents have experienced parental alienation. The same study projects that at least 3.9 million children in the United States are “moderately to severely” alienated from a parent and that nearly half of these cases are severe.
This is a significant need, which is the focus of a new CPTSD Foundation Program, which will launch in earnest this fall and has had immediate, unbuckling support from our senior staff, corporate partners, and constituents.
The Parental Alienation Support Systems (PASS Program) will hold its first online Zoom session on Tuesday, October 1st, at 6 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Program Development
The PASS program has been developed with incredible scrutiny by fellow alienated parents who wish to bring a sense of normalcy and hope for dialogue regarding a situation many people do not feel comfortable discussing.
We are here to start that dialogue.
We are here to provide trauma-informed information. We are here to listen to your stories.
More importantly, we plan on discussing all of the many facets of this disease – in a way that allows alienated parents to shake the foundation of guilt and grief that parallels this affliction at every turn.
A steward will lead our weekly meetings to allow participants to share their stories and learn best practices to focus on healing themselves. We are not providing therapy, but our goal is an open space where we all participate and come together.
User comments
You’re Not Alone
As an alienated parent, I have spent a good part of the past three years walking into rooms (and Zooms) where few could genuinely understand my perspective. Eliminating this personal alienation is a crucial part of our program. Once you realize you are in a room with folks who can understand and empathize with your situation, a consensus builds, and loneliness weans.
We are building a community, and communities need partners, supporters, and constituents to continue to drive messaging via word of mouth. We should not be afraid to tell our truths; it is irrelevant who chooses to believe. In the PASS Program – all of our voices will be heard.
The GRACE Model
Part of building the PASS Program is focusing on other support areas beyond meetings. The GRACE model builds out the program in a way that allows a broader, more focused perspective on areas of parental alienation.
The GRACE model consists of:
Groups (Zoom online support):
Beginning October 1st at 6 p.m. EST and every Tuesday after that, we will meet to listen to each other’s stories and focus on self-care and self-worth. Each meeting will have a distinct topic (though any alienation content may be discussed). These meetings will be secured by only allowing vetted individuals to participate in our safe environment. Topics include:
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Tracing the Family Dynamic
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The Necessity of Self-Care
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Exploring Narcissistic Abuse
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Gaslighting
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Trauma-Bonding
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The Loss of a Living Child
Recovery
Providing members with a list of resources, mental health tools, literature recommendations, and TED-type events/engagements.
Awareness
Executing a media campaign to allow maximum exposure of the perils associated with parental alienation. In 2025, The Foundation will also conduct an independent study to understand the true nature of the prevalence of alienation.
Changing the System
Much like Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, one primary goal is getting the term parental alienation included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which allows parents to have an official diagnosis – and a foundation to fight for their children properly.
Educating the Experts
Educating mental health professionals, attorneys, first responders, and other vital decision-makers ensures that a child’s best interests are always served.
If you’d like to learn more, email Paul Michael Marinello, PASS Program Facilitator, at
[email protected].
Paul Michael Marinello serves as Chief Staff Writer and Blog Manager for CPTSD Foundation. Previous to this role he managed North American Corporate Communications at MSL, a top ten public relations firm where he also served on the board for Diversity & Inclusion for a staff of 80,000. Paul Michael grew up in New York and attended SUNY Farmingdale before starting a ten-year career at Columbia University. He also served as Secretary and Records Management Officer for the Millwood Fire District, appointed annually by an elected board of fire commissioners from 2008 – 2017.