The Alienation Industry: The Pipeline, The Profit, and the Children Caught in Between

Family Court Awareness Month was created because the family court crisis was happening in silence. Survivors were navigating post separation abuse and institutional betrayal alone, while the people around them had no idea what was happening inside the courtroom walls. Awareness was one missing piece to a very large, problematic puzzle.

We cannot talk about the family court crisis without talking about the alienation industry. This industry has become deeply embedded in family court culture, and children are paying the price every single day. It thrives when children are not believed. It profits when abuse is reframed as coaching or alienation.

The process usually begins with a narrative that should terrify every parent: the child is lying, the child has been coached, or the child must be deprogrammed. Once the word alienation enters the courtroom, it overrides evidence, overrides disclosures, overrides fear, overrides abuse, and overrides common sense. Children who report abuse are not treated as credible witnesses. They are reframed as manipulators. They are portrayed as brainwashed and unable to think for themselves. Their history is erased. Their truth is erased. Their entire story is rewritten to fit a narrative that turns children into revenue streams and often places them in danger.

Parents who try to protect them are recast as offenders even when every instinct and every piece of evidence points to danger. The alienation label is not a clinical diagnosis. It is a narrative with no clinical basis, yet it carries enough weight in the courtroom to override what the child has actually lived and reported. It gives the system permission to ignore the child, silence the safe parent, and activate the pipeline that profits from forced reunification.

After the label is accepted, the orders follow. These orders are often shaped by testimony from professionals who are financially incentivized by the very programs they recommend. They authorize transport agents, forced separations, and no contact restrictions against the protective parent. The programs promise to repair the relationship between the child and the rejected parent, but we have yet to see a single credible success story.

Children are told they will be physically restrained if they do not comply. They are told they will be split from siblings. They are told their safe parent could be jailed if they resist. They are told to forget their reality or face consequences. These are not therapeutic interventions. This is coercive control repackaged as treatment, and the survivor stories are truly horrifying.

The declarations from survivors reveal what really happens in these programs. A child pushed down on a couch when he tried to protect himself. A teenager forced onto a plane under threat of being carried on physically. Siblings taken in the night by transport agents and separated. Children told they would never see their mother again. Children held for days watching propaganda videos and forbidden to disagree. Children isolated under ninety day or one year no contact rules. Children threatened with foster care or wilderness camps if they resisted. Children coerced into signing statements saying the abusive parent was safe.

These accounts come from High Road to Reunification, Family Bridges, the Rachel Foundation, and similar programs. They are not rare stories. They are the foundation of the industry, and many have been the subject of national media coverage.

Another truth rarely spoken aloud is the financial targeting behind this system. Families with resources are treated as prime candidates. Before a family is pulled into the pipeline, there is often a financial assessment. The industry knows exactly who can be billed. The pipeline begins with court ordered reunification therapy. This is an unrecognized and unregulated model that attempts to manufacture connection where there is fear, resistance, or real danger. It is forced, not chosen, and it is not therapeutic. Because of this, reunification therapy almost always fails. That failure becomes justification to escalate the case. The child is labeled severely alienated, and this opens the door to the next stage of the pipeline.

Families are then pushed into intensive reunification programs, often called reunification camps. The base cost for a four-day intensive ranges from $20,000 to $40,000, and that fee only covers the program itself. If a child refuses to go, cannot be threatened or coerced into compliance, or expresses fear, transport agents are hired. These agents remove children from their homes, schools, or communities and physically deliver them to the program. The highest transport bill we've heard of, was $33,000.

Once the intensive ends, children are prohibited from seeing their preferred parent, their friends, and their extended family. They are cut off from their school communities and extracurricular activities. The separation often begins at ninety days but frequently extends to a year or more. In some cases we have investigated, parents have gone years without being reunited with their children.

Aftercare brings even more financial devastation. The cost is entirely at the discretion of the professionals involved, with no regulation or oversight. Some parents have spent more than $100,000 in a single year on aftercare alone. Many describe this stage as a continuous opportunity to blame the protective parent and to profit.

Because there is no diagnosis for parental alienation, there is no recognized treatment. Insurance will not cover any of it. Every dollar is cash pay. These programs are bankrupting families and destroying lives. Many advocates believe this will go down in history as one of the largest multilevel marketing schemes of our time. It has been described as the family court version of cash for kids.

During Family Court Awareness Month, it is essential to understand that the alienation industry is not separate from the crisis. It is the crisis. It is what happens when an unregulated court system partners with an unregulated network of professionals and programs that operate without standards, without accountability, and without regard for child safety.

We cannot talk about family court reform without acknowledging how children are being used to generate profit. Family Court Awareness Month exists because these stories are real. It exists because silence protects the system, not the children. It exists because awareness is the first step toward accountability.

The alienation industry grows in the dark. This month, we turn on the light.

The fine print

I am not an attorney and am not qualified to provide legal advice. Everything I share is based on personal experience and over a decade of work supporting others through high conflict custody battles. However, it is essential to consult with your attorney before making any legal decisions or implementing strategies discussed here. Your attorney is your legal voice and your advocate in the courtroom. They can help you understand the law in your jurisdiction, evaluate potential risks, and determine the best approach for your unique situation.

About me

My name is Tina Swithin. I am a survivor, a mom, and someone who understands this battle firsthand. I acted as my own attorney and successfully protected my children in a system that I can only describe as inhumane. I am also a blogger, founder of the High Conflict Divorce Coach Certification Program, best selling author (Divorcing a Narcissist), and a fierce advocate for reform in the family court system. I divorced a narcissist and I prevailed.

You can read more about me here.