Well… there’s your DSM-5 core of three:
Chapter 1 DSM-5 Diagnosis
Chapter 4 Diagnosing Delusions
Chapter 5 Diagnosing FDIA
Chapter 6 is going to be Diagnosing Attachment Pathology. Chapter 7 will be Diagnosing & Treating Family Systems Pathology. Chapter 8 will be The Dark Personalities.
At least that’s my plan. I don’t lead, I follow.
The family courts are in a crisis – there are no competent mental health services available. Parents, children, and the courts need a diagnostic assessment of the family conflict to the appropriate differential diagnoses for each parent… and they can’t get one.
Anywhere. Clinical diagnostic assessments of the family conflict are not being offered to parents and the courts by professional psychology. They are provided for all other forms of pathology, ADHD, autism, depression, anxiety disorders, everything else.
Parents can get a diagnostic assessment for ADHD or autism easy peasy. Diagnostic assessments are easily available for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
But parents and the courts cannot get a diagnostic assessment for their pathology – a shared persecutory delusion and FDIA – because that’s not offered to them by professional psychology… by forensic psychologists.
The court-involved forensic psychologists do something… different… they do something called a “forensic custody evaluation”… that does not return a diagnosis and it solves nothing.
So you’re kinda stuck until professional psychology – the doctors – decide to offer you clinical diagnostic assessments for the DSM-5 diagnoses of concern.
Hmm… shouldn’t your treatment providers in the family courts diagnose what the pathology is (identify at a professional level what the problem is) BEFORE they start treatment for something… shouldn’t their first identify (diagnose) what that something is?
Yes. Do they? No. They lack the necessary knowledge and information. Google ignorance: lack of knowledge or information.
They’re ignorant mental health providers… which is a problem.
A substantial problem.
The patient should NEVER need to educate the doctor about the pathology, its assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. The doctor should already known, and it’s the doctor who should educate the patient.
The parents in the family courts are educating the doctors about the pathology. THAT… is a substantial problem.
If a doctor needs to be educated about what the pathology is, its diagnosis, and its treatment, then that doctor is not competent in that pathology by demonstrated need to be educated about it.
This is child abuse. This is spousal abuse using the child as the spousal abuse weapon. Don’t all mental health professionals have a duty to protect? Yes.
Aren’t they then failing in their duty to protect by failing to conduct a proper risk assessment for child abuse when a risk assessment is warranted by the symptoms and context?
Yes, they are.
All the involved mental health professionals in the family courts are failing in their duty to protect the child from child abuse by a pathological narcissistic-borderline-dark personality parent – and – they are failing in their duty to protect the targeted parent from spousal psychological abuse using the child (and the child’s induced pathology) as the spousal abuse weapon.
The NY Blue-Ribbon Commission on Forensic Custody Evaluations called what they do, their forensic custody evaluations, “dangerous” and “harmful to children”, and they recommended that forensic custody evaluations be entirely eliminated from the family courts.
But that’s all you have. Clinical psychologists don’t work in the family courts, the pathology is too dangerous (narcissistic-borderline-dark personalities are highly vengeful). You were given your own “special” psychologists just for you – called “forensic psychologists” – they are the worst imaginable.
They are ignorant – lack knowledge and information.
They are unethical – violations to Standards 2.01, 2.04, 9.01.
They are incompetent – they solve nothing.
And that’s all you’re given. Why is that? I don’t think that’s right. You should have standard healthcare services like everyone else has with every other type of pathology (problem).
The patient should NEVER have to explain the pathology to the doctor. If anyone should explain a pathology to a doctor, it should be another doctor.
Okay. You now have somewhere to point your doctors to educate them… here’s Dr. Childress explaining how to diagnose a shared persecutory delusion… here’s Dr. Childress explaining out to diagnose FDIA.
I have a 50-page booklet – Assessment of Attachment Related Pathology Surrounding Divorce. It explains a six-session assessment protocol.
My estimate is that an accurate clinical diagnosis can be rendered within 4 to 6 weeks.
I recommend obtaining a second-opinion on the clinical diagnostic assessment through telehealth for all court-ordered assessments – the appellate system in healthcare for a disputed diagnosis is second opinion.
This is going to be a disputed diagnosis.
In healthcare, we get our second opinions up front at the start because we need our diagnoses accurate and early to guide our treatment.
This is child abuse. We need a – timely – risk assessment that returns an accurate diagnosis 100% of the time, and a diagnosis that the court can rely on for its decision-making surrounding the child.
I have a 50-page booklet – Contingent Visitation Schedule. It’s a strategic family systems intervention for the treatment of an FDIA diagnosis surrounding child custody. It flexes visitation time in a defined and structured way based on child symptoms.
I presented on how to run a Contingent Visitation Schedule at the 2024 APA national convention here in Seattle, then I went home and immediately did the same presentation using the same slides to my YouTube channel.
My oh my. I’m explaining everything. I’m explaining the diagnosis in detail. I’ve provided the assessment protocol. I’ve provided and explained the treatment protocol.
Dum-dee-dum… I don’t know what more I can do. As long as your doctors – the “forensic psychologists” who work in the family courts remain entirely unmotivated (lazy) and incompetent (and unethical: violations to Standards 2.01, 2.04, 9.01, 3.04, failure in duty to protect)… then there is nothing I can do.
I can lead the horse to water… but the horse has to drink from the knowledge. Ignorance solves nothing. Lazy solves nothing. Incompetent doctors cause harm – they are “dangerous” and “harmful to children” – and their “defective” practices lead to “potentially disastrous consequences for parents and children.”
Don’t expect rescue. All the oxygen is being sucked from the room of public attention. You’re on your own… almost. You have me.
I’m just a lone clinical psychologist. We need to find you your treatment providers where you live. I’m in Seattle… and… I can be anywhere on the planet through telehealth.
Just log into my online office (doxy,me/drchildress), flip the monitor around and I’m in the room, howdy. With proper permissions, I can be in any assessment or therapy session as a second opinion consultant.
Isn’t that convenient? You only have one ally… and I’m enough. What you need is motivation in your doctors – they call themselves “forensic psychologists”. They’re not motivated… yet.
This is a motivational pathology. I’m a specialist in motivational pathology – the attachment system is a primary motivational system of the brain. I know motivational systems.
I’m working on it. You work on it too. Forensic custody evaluations are ending – a paradigm shift is occurring BACK to clinical psychology. Perhaps you can convince some of your local psychologists to “switch teams” and go back to clinical psychology (diagnosis & treatment) in the family courts.
Otherwise… parents and the courts will have no competent mental health services available. Too bad. You don’t deserve competent mental health services it appears.
I wonder why that is?
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist
WA 61538481
OR 3942 – CA 18857
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