Family Bridges Program Goals

The two primary goals of Family Bridges are:

To help children adjust to the transition of living with a parent from whom they are alienated while the children’s contact with their other parent is suspended by the court for an extended period of time.
To improve the quality of the parent–child relationship.

To fulfill these primary goals, the Family Bridges Program works to:

Facilitate, repair, and strengthen the children’s ability to maintain healthy relationships with both parents
Help children do what they can to avoid being in the middle of their parents’ conflicts
Strengthen children’s critical thinking skills
Protect children from unreasonably rejecting a parent in the future
Help children maintain balanced views and a more realistic perspective of each parent as well as themselves
Help family members develop compassionate views of each other’s actions rather than excessively harsh or critical views
Strengthen the family’s ability to communicate effectively with each other and to manage conflicts in a productive manner
Strengthen the parents’ skills in nurturing their children by setting and enforcing appropriate limits and avoiding psychologically intrusive interactions

The goals of the Families Bridges program are:

strengthen the family’s ability to communicate effectively with each other and to manage conflicts in a productive manner
repair and strengthen the children’s ability to maintain healthy relationships with both parents
help children avoid being caught in the middle of their parents’ conflicts
help children develop a more realistic perspective of each parent as well as themselves

What Judges, Parents, and Children Say About Building Family Bridges™

“This changed my life. It was like someone un-docked a speedboat from the harbor. I’m honestly still at a loss for
words as to how caught up I was in this ‘selective attention’ nonsense.”
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a 19-year-old who previously participated in the workshop

What Judges, Parents, and Children Say About Building Family Bridges™

“The child “has transformed from a sad and depressed girl who rarely ventured out into the world, had few friends,
and hid behind Goth makeup, to an engaged and active participant in her own life. She loves her school, has many
friends, spends lots of time with her music classes and . . . has a boyfriend, and is looking forward to the future.””

a Court of Appeals decision quoted from the guardian ad litemʼs report

What Judges, Parents, and Children Say About Building Family Bridges™

“The childrenʼs lawyer said in court that she sees no more signs of depression and sadness in my son, and that
there has seen a 180 degree shift in the childrenʼs attitudes towards most things. Both children are now saying
kind things about me. Life feels so good and normal right now, that at times I can almost forget the horrors that
we all had to endure.”

formerly alienated mother of two teens

What Judges, Parents, and Children Say About Building Family Bridges™

“The children’s progress after participating in Family Bridges was “nothing short of remarkable.””

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the Ontario Superior Court