Now the children have emerged to tell their painful story. by Olivia Gentile (Insider)

A family court judge had put Maya and Sebastian in the sole custody of their mother, even though they’d both accused her of abuse and wanted to stay with their father. The judge had also ordered the children into a treatment program for “parental alienation” and authorized an transport company to take them by force.They were then placed in the sole custody of their mother. They ran away and are now talking about what happened to them at the reunification camp. Maya said that when she and Sebastian raised their abuse allegations with therapists at the reunification program who they say called them liars and threatened them. Maya said they were told that if they didn’t start telling the truth, they’d have to go “somewhere else” where necessities like blankets and food could be withheld. Maya said they were also warned that they could be separated from each other and kept from their father for years. For the remainder of the workshop, Maya said, the therapists focused on how the children had hurt their mom, how pathological this behavior was, and how they could make amends. The clinicians tried to get the children to blame their father, Maya said, but they refused.