i’ve experienced the flip side
my ex alienated our children himself by the physical, emotional and verbal abuse of the children, and by his abuse of their mother (concussion, broken bones)etc.
the children tried to call the police many times
the children are old, don’t want to see him, told the court why, and we have proof of his violent behavior,
yet, he played the alienation card, why, it can’t be his behavior that alienated the children? (the oldest used to sleep with a baseball bat and cell phone, and we had safe house plans, they kids knew what to do if they heard him fly into one of his late night/early morning tirades that lasted for hours)
he told the court, it had to be mom, result: mom (stay-at-home) had to pay for 1/2 of his “therapy” to fix his relationship with the kids, which he promptly stopped after 4 sessions (the psychologist was going to tell the court how abuse he was after observing his sessions with the children and speaking to the children)
this “alienation” phenomena is valid in cases, however, it is being abused.
physical abuse is a whole different ballgame.