Reunification Therapist Exposes the Fraud Behind Reunification Therapy: How Families Are Profiled and Exploited (Part 2 of 3)
Note from Tina Swithin:
In Part 1 of this series, we exposed the pervasive fraud within the reunification therapy industry—an unregulated, profit-driven system that exploits families under the guise of repairing parent-child relationships. In Part 2, our anonymous guest blogger—a therapist with over 20 years of experience working inside this troubling industry—reveals how reunification therapists systematically identify and financially profile their targets, ensuring they extract the maximum profit from custody disputes. Through coercion, court-ordered interventions, and the weaponization of pseudoscience, these practitioners transform family court into a lucrative enterprise at the expense of children's well-being. Featuring testimony from a retired family court judge and firsthand insights from a licensed professional, this installment exposes the devastating financial and psychological toll reunification therapy inflicts on families trapped in its grip.
GUEST BLOG: PART 2 OF 3
I am a reunification therapist and mental health professional with over 20 years of experience, and I feel an ethical obligation to warn the public, legal professionals, and judges about the fraud behind reunification therapy and the devastating psychological damage it causes to children and the financial bankruptcy of their families.
Reunification therapy has been widely criticized for its lack of scientific basis, ethical concerns, and its use as a tool to extract money from desperate and vulnerable families. While it is often presented as a neutral intervention to repair parent-child relationships, in reality, it has become a lucrative industry that preys on families involved in contentious custody battles.
In this blog post, we will explore how reunification therapists find their targets, the financial profiling involved, and the devastating consequences for families.
How Do Reunification Therapists Find Their Targets?
The simple answer: money.
Reunification therapy is not about helping children or families—it’s about generating income for therapists and lawyers who exploit the legal system. Reunification therapists do not target families at random; they use a carefully crafted profiling system to ensure they choose cases where they can extract the most money.
Steps to Becoming a Target for Reunification Therapy
1. Financial Disclosure: The First Step in Profiling
In family court, both parents are required to submit financial statements detailing their assets, income, and debts.
This is where the profiling begins. Lawyers, legal assistants, and reunification therapists analyze these documents to identify potential reunification therapy candidates.
2. Eliminating Families Who Cannot Pay
If both parents report zero assets and low or no income, or very high debt, they are immediately disqualified as reunification therapy targets.
Reunification therapists focus on families where at least one parent has financial stability and disposable assets as reunification therapy is expensive and requires a steady stream of payments. The total costs range between $20,000 to $100,000.
3. Choosing a Financially Viable Target
If one parent has substantial assets, income, or access to financial resources (such as family wealth or high earning potential), then the children and parents become targets for the reunification therapist.
Usually, the father has the financial resources. Since the father often has more money, reunification therapists seek to please them and grant them leverage by making false allegations against the mother, often using the unscientific and rejected term parental alienation to justify their actions.
4. Creating a Narrative to Justify Reunification Therapy
Once a financially viable target is identified, the reunification industry must justify its involvement.
False allegations begin, where the targeted parent (usually the mother) is blamed for the child's reluctance to see the other parent.
The term “parental alienation” is weaponized, despite being a scientifically debunked term.
Biased custody evaluations, psychological assessments, and court-ordered reunification therapy sessions are used to financially drain the target.
5. Court Orders and Coercion
Once reunification therapy is requested by a lawyer and ordered by the court, the targeted parent has little choice but to comply.
The targeted parent is threatened with loss of custody if they do not comply, effectively holding them and their children hostage within the system.
6. The Endless Cycle of Fees and Court Involvement
Reunification therapists extend the process for as long as possible, ensuring they maximize their financial gain.
Even when children resist, complain of serious psychological distress, or outright refuse therapy, the reunification therapists insists on continuing—because stopping would mean cutting off their income stream.
Lawyers and therapists work together to keep families trapped, knowing that ongoing litigation and therapy fees will force the targeted parent to keep paying just to maintain their relationship with their children.
A Judge’s Perspective: The Financial Targeting of Families
A retired family court judge witnessed firsthand how families are profiled and targeted by reunification therapists based on their financial status. They shared the following statement about their experience:
"From my POV from having been on the bench and what I noticed—I was first assigned to an affluent judicial district where I was overseeing family court cases. Then, my second year, I was transferred to a less affluent area. Then suddenly, the people that I was seeing, if they didn't have money, they were somehow able to resolve their cases just using the regular court system—no third parties needed to get involved with a... $15,000 reunification program... In an ironic way, those families that had less financial means escaped trauma from the family court because they had no financial resources for third parties to exploit. It's obscene. It's an industry that I had my eyes opened to as a judge when I realized that somehow families of lesser means were able to make it through and come to a conclusion without these high-paid experts... they're making more than the lawyers."
Why the System Allows This Fraud to Continue
1. Lack of Regulation
Reunification therapy is not recognized, standardized, or evidence-based.
There is no Standard of Care for it by any regulatory bodies. Which means there is no one to complain to about unethical therapists even if they’re licensed as a social worker or mental health professional.
There are no formal qualifications required to be a reunification therapist, meaning virtually anyone can be one and charge exorbitant fees.
2. Court-Enabled Exploitation
Family courts often rubber-stamp the reunification therapists’ draft orders, failing to scrutinize the regulatory, safety, and financial concerns.
Judges, lawyers, and reunification therapists all operate in a system that benefits financially from prolonged conflict.
Another reason this continues is because judges can pawn off the work and responsibility onto the reunification therapists, who even write the draft orders for the judge to sign to prolong reunification therapy. Judges often sign these orders with little to no review so they don't have to handle the case themselves. This allows the reunification therapist to run the show and control the process, effectively turning the legal system into a profit-driven machine for therapists and lawyers.
3. Silencing of Victims
Parents who speak out against reunification therapists’ unethical and abusive practices are labeled as uncooperative or alienators, further reinforcing the false narrative that they are the problem.
Many parents comply out of fear of losing custody of their children.
Some parents are legally silenced when judges issue gag orders or seal their cases, prohibiting them from speaking out.
Conclusion
This should be a wake up call for all legislatures - there needs to be legislation that calls for ending the fraud, exploitation, and severe damage being done to vulnerable children and their families by reunification therapy and the therapists. It is a fraudulent industry that thrives on financial exploitation, coercion, and misinformation. It preys on financially stable and well-off parents by turning custody disputes into lucrative revenue streams for reunification therapists and lawyers. Until family courts recognize the inherent corruption in this system, children and parents’ lives will continue to be harmed, and in many cases, destroyed.
