You managed to survive and then escape an abuser. It's time to rebuild your life, and that's already hard enough. But now your children are angry, disrespectful, even contemptuous towards you. They seem to have forgotten who you are. If you don't understand what happened or know what to do about it, you can wind up depressed, angry, and completely ineffective as a mother.

That's Maternal Alienation. It's more than a child's period of adolescent rebellion, and far more than a time of difficult readjustment after divorce: What we're discussing here is your damaged relationship with your children, who grew up witnessing you be abused - and now that it's over, they've turned away from you. The pain and the loneliness can impact your life to the point where you lose yourself, because you aren't operating from a position of strength and dignity.

THE ALIENATED MOTHER is a coaching series within a handbook, designed to help you find your way to live a meaningful life in spite of the pain of being alienated from your children. After all, you still have a job to do as their mother, and it's the same job you always had: Loving them, teaching them, and living the example you want them to follow.