When “Therapy” Becomes a Weapon

When Therapy Becomes a Weapon: How Family Courts Are Using Mental Health to Justify Separation

In family courts across the country, therapy is no longer just a tool for healing, it’s become a gatekeeping mechanism used to delay, control, and in many cases, permanently sever the bond between fit parents and their children.

The public is told that therapy is part of a reunification process. But behind closed doors, families are learning the hard truth: therapy is being manipulated to serve legal strategy, not the child’s best interest.

Parents are being ordered into therapeutic processes that don’t start for months, or even years. In many cases, a therapist is appointed, only for the other parent or guardian ad litem (GAL) to block the sessions from ever beginning.

During that time, the targeted parent is expected to wait in silence, unable to see, speak to, or even write to their child. And when therapy finally does begin, progress is often used against them.

In multiple cases, as soon as the therapist reports that reunification is progressing, maybe even recommending out-of-session time, the professional is removed and replaced.

Therapists who support healthy reconnection are quietly discredited. New therapists are brought in, often handpicked by opposing counsel or the GAL, and tasked with starting over, or worse, halting the process entirely.

This is not about treatment. It’s about control.

Follow the Money…

Parents are often ordered to pay thousands of dollars to therapists they never agreed to, some of whom were only brought in to dispute the recommendations of those who had already begun helping.

Even when no contempt has occurred, courts issue steep attorney’s fees and expert costsc creating a punishment cycle that disproportionately affects the parent trying to reconnect.

Parents are being forced to write scripted “clarification letters” or apology statements, not because of anything illegal or abusive, but because the system needs a reason to say the child is “not ready.”

Meanwhile, there is no oversight. No accountability. And often, no legal finding justifying the loss of contact in the first place.

What we’re seeing is a systemic pattern:

Fit, loving parents cut off without evidence.

Therapy used to delay rather than heal.

Professionals controlling access, then blaming the parent for the outcome.

This isn’t therapy. It’s psychological punishment dressed in clinical language.

It’s Time for Oversight and Reform!

We need laws that prevent therapy from being used as a tool of delay, and that ensure no parent is forced to “prove” their worth when there is no finding of harm. If therapy is truly for the child, it must be transparent, time-bound, and free from the political agendas of GALs or attorneys.

Until then, reunification will remain a mirage, offered as hope, withheld as leverage.