17 primary parental alienation strategies fall into five general categories:
(1) poisonous messages to the child about the targeted parent in which he or she is portrayed as unloving, unsafe, and unavailable;
(2) limiting contact and communication between the child and the targeted parent;
(3) erasing and replacing the targeted parent in the heart and mind of the child;
(4) encouraging the child to betray the targeted parent’s trust;
(5) undermining the authority of the targeted parent.
Taken together these parental alienation strategies foster conflict and psychological distance between the child and the targeted parent.