A common theme for battered mothers in divorce proceedings is that they begin thinking they are holding the winning hand when it comes to domestic violence and child custody. They typically are awarded temporary custody of their minor children and may even have protective orders in place.Then, out of the blue, the tide turns and their children are pulled right from under themhanded over to the custody of their father who is, more often than not, an abuser.Its a devastating blow, like none other. Between the heart-wrenching pain and the primitive rage, little resources remain intact to make sense out of the unconscionable.
How Did This Happen?The legal maneuver that yielded their unfortunate circumstance is also beyond comprehension. Frequently it involves a legal psychiatric ploy of establishing that the mother has a severe personality disorder. But, even this is disturbing. A personality disorder, in and of itself, is not grounds to prohibit a parent free access to their minor children and vise-a-versa. So, one must go deeper to understand what exactly is in play here.The abuser (most often a man in this particular situation) and his legal team have diligently worked to manipulate the psychiatric and psychological healthcare providers/evaluators into establishing false claims about the mother in order to jockey custody. And sadly, these claims are often untrue.