In this episode, I sat down with multimedia artist and fierce advocate Carmen Pineda-Selva to explore the heartbreaking and often hidden impacts of parental alienation 💔

✨ Key Takeaways:

• 💡 Parental alienation impacts ~15% of divorces, affecting millions each year
• 🧠 Education and self-care are crucial for targeted parents to stay strong and show up for their kids
• 🧒 Understanding manipulation tactics and your child’s experience can help navigate this painful terrain
• 📚 Resources like Dr. Ramani, Ryan Thomas & the Anti-Alienation Project offer support and insight (see links to their resources in the show notes below)

• From losing contact with her daughters to battling false accusations in court
• How a motorcycle tour (yes, really! 🏍️) helped shift her perspective and rekindle hope
• The importance of staying positive and creating choice-rich environments when contact is limited

• 3.9M children are moderately to severely alienated each year
• Over 22M targeted parents in the U.S.
• 💔 54% experience suicidal ideation, with far too many lives lost to the pain of alienation

• 🧭 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it
• 📖 Look out for Carmen’s upcoming book: "The Divorcee’s Guide to Spunk Bubbles and Other Such Atrocities"
• 🧘‍♀️ Encourage self-care, education & support group involvement
• 🌍 Raise awareness — Parental Alienation is real, and it’s hurting families

Dr Ramani

https://youtube.com/@doctorramani?feature=shared

https://doctor-ramani.com/

Ryan Thomas

https://ryanthomasspeaks.com/

https://youtube.com/@ryanthomasspeaks?feature=shared

Anti Alienation Project

https://youtube.com/@theanti-alienationproject?feature=shared

Offers:

Introduction video about Girls Matter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R3-xqzJLZW14om1PhFClcU_oRSZ8zgip/view

Meet Your Unconscious Mind Workshop:

https://amplifyimpactacademy.com/trauma

4 – in – 1 Mind Body Practitioner Certification program https://amplifyimpactacademy.com/90-day-q3

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Episode Summary

Discuss parental alienation, its impacts, and coping strategies with Carmen Pineda-Selva, a multimedia artist and advocate who has experienced parental alienation firsthand.

Key Takeaways

• Parental alienation affects ~15% of divorce cases, impacting millions of children and adults annually
• Self-care, education, and maintaining a positive outlook are crucial for targeted parents to cope and remain present for their children
• Understanding the child's perspective and the manipulative tactics used in alienation can help parents navigate the situation more effectively
• Resources like Dr. Ramani, Ryan Thomas, and the Anti-Alienation Project offer valuable insights and support for those affected

Carmen's Personal Experience with Parental Alienation

• Experienced severe alienation from her two daughters following separation
• Faced false accusations, legal battles, and manipulation of children's perceptions
• Initially struggled with self-care and maintaining hope in the face of alienation
• Found renewal through unexpected experiences (e.g., motorcycle tour) that helped regain perspective

Understanding and Coping with Parental Alienation

• Importance of education about narcissism, alienation tactics, and child psychology
• Recognizing subtle manipulation techniques used by alienating parents
• Maintaining a positive, choice-rich environment during limited contact with children
• Balancing self-preservation with continued efforts to remain present in children's lives

Impact and Statistics of Parental Alienation

• 3.9 million children moderately to severely alienated each year
• Over 22 million adults targeted in the U.S.
• 54% of targeted parents experience suicide ideation, 24% attempt suicide
• 5 men and 10 women die by suicide every 11 days due to parental alienation

Resources and Support for Affected Parents

• Online educators like Dr. Ramani provide insights into narcissism and alienation
• Ryan Thomas offers perspective from a formerly alienated child
• Anti-Alienation Project provides support and strategies
• Support groups crucial for combating isolation and sharing experiences

Next Steps

• Share episode with those who may be experiencing or know someone affected by parental alienation
• Look out for Carmen's upcoming book "The Divorcee's Guide to Spunk Bubbles and Other Such Atrocities"
• Encourage self-care and education for those dealing with parental alienation
• Promote awareness of parental alienation as a significant issue affecting families post-divorce

Carmen is a finalist for the 2025 'Alberta Artist in Residence' award and a five-time Governor General-nominated multi-media filmmaker and artist. She's a passionate creator dedicated to preserving rural Alberta’s history through legacy films. Beyond her artistic work, Carmen has been recognized for her contributions to community, receiving the 2021 ‘Alberta Northern Lights Volunteer’ award.

Carmen also made her mark by launching Canada’s first community online TV channel, as well as the SODA (Speaking Out for Disabled Actively) channel, both of which promote equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities—something close to her heart as she navigates life with MS. Despite her accomplishments, Carmen’s journey hasn’t been smooth. Not due to a lack of success, but because of the overwhelming challenges she faced as a victim of the corrupt family court system.

Her story is a blend of resilience, art, and a deep commitment to advocating for those who often go unheard.

Definitions and Stats:

• Parental Alienation occurs when one parent manipulates a child to reject the other parent without legitimate justification, leaning to emotional and psychological harm for both child and the parented parent.
• A form of PA is present in 15% of divorce cases
• 3.9 million children are moderately to severely alienated each year
• Over 22 million adults in the US have been targeted with and estimated 10 million having suicide attempts
• Approx 54% of targeted parents have experience suicide ideation, and 24% attempt suicide.
• Resulting in a stat of 5 men and 10 women dying by suicide every 11 days.

About the Host:

Melissa is an Integrative Health Practitioner and a Board Designated Trainer of NLP, Time Line Therapy®, Hypnotherapy, and NLP Results Coaching, helping people get to the root cause of their health issues and then get lasting results. Melissa neither diagnoses nor cures but helps bring your body back into balance by helping discover your “toxic load” and then removing the toxins. Melissa offers functional medicine lab testing that helps you “see inside” to know exactly what is going on, and then provides a personalized wellness protocol using natural herbs and supplements. Melissa’s business is 100% virtual – the lab tests are mailed directly to your home and she specializes in holding your hand and guiding the way to healing so that you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.

Melissa has launched Amplify Impact Academy, with business partner, Billie Aadmi and together they train other coaches, practitioners and counsellors in the 4 mind-body healing modalities mentioned above, giving them powerful tools to use with clients to get results with greater ease, speed and grace. These courses teach life skills and anyone can take them, if you wanto be a better leader, parent, partner, be empowered in your own life, these courses are for you!

Melissa’s passion project is her non-profit, Girls Matter (www.girlsmatter.ca), breaking the poverty cycle 1 girl, 1 family, 1 village at a time. The mission is to keep girls in school and stop teenage marriages, because school isn’t free in over 50 countries around the world and when parents have to make the difficult choices of feeding their kids or paying for school, food wins. And when the girls hit their teen years, they will often be married off so that someone else becomes responsible to feed them. Keeping girls in school instead creates a generational ripple effect, because an educated girl is more than twice as likely to ensure her own children are educated. Educating girls also grows the GDP of countries, when they get into the workforce. This is how together, we can change the world. Guests on this podcast are invited to donate to this important cause. Learn more here in this short video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R3-xqzJLZW14om1PhFClcU_oRSZ8zgip/view?usp=share_link

Melissa is the winner of the 2024 Women in Podcasting Awards in the “inspiration & motivation” category and the 2021 & 2022 Quality Care Award by Business From The Heart and is also the recipient of the Alignable “Local Business Person of the Year “Award 2022, 2023 & 2024 for Whistler.

Melissa has been featured at a number of Health & Wellness Summits, such as the Health, Wealth & Wisdom Summit, The Power To Profit Summit, The Feel Fan-freaking-tas-tic Summit, the Aim Higher Summit and many more! She has also guested on over 90 different podcasts teaching people about the importance of prioritizing our health and how to get started.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/yourguidedhealthjourney

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