Judge Orders Therapy for Dad, Estranged Kids to Repair Relatonship

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The three Bloomfield Hills children who refused to go to a court-ordered lunch with their dad need to attend a five-day therapy program, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

»Via the Detroit Free Press

The therapy was ordered Wednesday by a judge, who hopes the program will help repair the damaged relationship the siblings—boys ages 14 and 10, and a 9-year-old girl—have with their father, Omer Tsimhoni, a prominent traffic safety researcher and GM engineer who travels between the U.S. and Israel, the report stated. The unnamed program, which helps deal with parental alienation, will be held at a hotel, the report added.

The dispute between members of the Tsimhoni family made headlines last month when an Oakland County judge sent the three children to juvenile detention after she found them in contempt of court for not eating lunch with their dad. The contempt charge, however, was dropped by the judge, who then ordered the siblings to attend a summer camp. The Tsimhoni children will leave the camp at the end of August and immediately begin attending the therapy program, according to the report.

Related Patch Coverage of the Tsimhoni Family

• Judge Locks Up Kids for Refusing Lunch with Dad
• New Twist in Case of Kids Sent to Juvie for Refusing Lunch with Dad
• Dad Seeks Custody of Kids Sent to Detention for Refusing Lunch with Him
• New Attorneys Defend Mom Whose Kids Refused Lunch with Dad

These tensions have sprouted up over a heated 2009 divorce between Omer Tsimhoni and the children’s mother, Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, a renowned pediatric eye doctor. The judge accused Eibschitz-Tsimhoni of brainwashing her children against their father, and psychologists for the children also have said the mother has actively tried to sabatoge the siblings’ relationship with their dad, the report stated. Omer Tsimhoni recently filed a motion for sole legal and physical custody of his children.

Eibschitz-Tsimhoni is prohibited from attending the therapy sessions, and the children will spend the 90 days with their father if the program is successful, the report added.