January 28 • 8PM ET

This is a no holds barred and hard-hitting, informative, and educational webinar given by Dean Tong on everything from high-conflict Court cases involving unfounded or false child abuse allegations, to the explanation of hearsay evidence in like cases, to choosing the correct Attorney for your case, to the different Courts within our Judicial System, to the significance of child suggestibility and a child's memories, to forensic interview methods of alleged child victims of abuse, to Parental Alienation, Coercive Control and psychosexual testing of the accused, et al. 

Dean Tong, MSc., CFC holds a combined Master of Science Degree in Psychology and the Law from the Universities of Portsmouth and Leeds in the UK and a Bachelor of Science in Biology with Minors in Pre- Medicine and Psychology from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Tong is a Subject Matter Expert in the field of unfounded and false child sexual abuse allegations in cases in all Courts from all across America. He's worked high-conflict cases from all 50 States over the past 27 years, professionally so, and tendered Expert testimony in Court cases from 16 States in multiple areas of psychology and social science. He's the Author of 3 books including the critically acclaimed Elusive Innocence: Survival Guide for the Falsely Accused, as well as a scientific peer-reviewed journal article on the significance of psychosexual testing of the accused in cases of alleged child sexual assault. His scientific journal article has been read 2500 times and cited in 20 other peer-reviewed journal articles, and Tong's work has been mentioned in a dozen other published books including The Respondent. Dean Tong has appeared as a guest Expert interviewee on Focus on the Family, ABC Prime Time Live, Dr. Phil, CBS 48 Hours, Dateline, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Court-TV, and in scores of print media stories including Rolling Stone Magazine and the National Enquirer (twice in 2022 on Johnny Depp's and Alec Baldwin's cases). He's the recipient of 2018 and 2019 Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Awards for his work. Mr. Tong's educational and informative web site which has been on the Internet since 1997 is http://www.abuse-excuse.com Dean Tong, MSc., CFC abuse-excuse.com

February 4 • 8PM ET

People engaged in alienating behaviors (ABs) often have personality disorders or traits. While they don’t self-reflect and change, they can be very powerful on an emotional level. They tend dominate others, to be vindictive, and to be intrusive, especially into their children’s lives and thinking. Essentially, they have the characteristics and influence of bullies. These characteristics are associated with Cluster B personality disorders according to some research. Their hostility and unpredictability can lead to mental health problems in children as young as four years old. Since they communicate emotionally, their emotions are contagious and can influence children and professionals to believe false information. This talk will give some background on the emotional power of such personalities and some of the ways to deal with that power. ​ Bill Eddy is a family therapist, educational consultant, and family mediator. As an attorney and a therapist, he is internationally known and in high demand for his expertise in dealing with high conflict personalities, giving seminars to organizations about personality disorders all over the world. Bill is the lead author of Splitting: Protecting Yourself While Divorcing Someone With Borderline or Narcissistic Personality Disorder with Randi Kreger, and also the author of Don’t Alienate the Kids: Raising Resilient Children While Avoiding High Conflict Divorce. Bill Eddy is the Training Director for High Conflict Institute and speaks around the world to lawyers, judges, therapists and others on dealing with high conflict personalities in legal disputes. He developed the New Ways for Families® method for managing high conflict separations and divorces in family courts with parent training in basic conflict resolution skills that reduce alienation and other extreme behavior. He has handled approximately 50 family court cases involving alienation as a lawyer or high conflict consultant. www.HighConflictInstitute.com.

February 11 • 8PM ET

The alienation of grandparents from the lives of their grandchildren after parental separation has been largely overlooked in social science research, despite the fact that the importance of the grandparent-grandchild attachment bond is the subject of considerable research. My presentation will report the results of an exploratory study of grandparent alienation, from the perspective of grandparents themselves. There are four primary circumstances associated with grandparent alienation: parental separation, conflict with both parents, death of an adult child, and step-parent adoption following remarriage. In particular, paternal grandparents are at high risk for losing contact with grandchildren when the child-in-law is the custodial mother. Disrupted grandparent-grandchild relationships, which some grandparents describe as a “primal wound,” have profoundly negative consequences for grandparents and grandchildren alike, and this has important implications for legal policy and therapeutic practice. 

Edward Kruk, MSW, PhD, is Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, specializing in child and family policy. His recent research projects have focused on co-parenting after divorce, family mediation, parental alienation and the grandparent-grandchild relationship. He has over 40 years of clinical and community work experience as a professional social worker. He received his BA and MSW degrees from the University of Toronto, and his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied as a National Welfare Fellow. His professional experience also includes a faculty appointment with the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work, family practice with Catholic Family Services in Calgary, medical social work practice with the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, school social work practice with the Metro Separate School Board in Toronto, and child protection work with the Metro and Catholic Children’s Aid Societies in Toronto. He is author of “Divorce and Disengagement: Patterns of Fatherhood Within and Beyond Marriage” (Fernwood, 1993), “Mediation and Conflict Resolution in Social Work and the Human Services” (Nelson-Hall, 1997), “Divorced Fathers: Children’s Needs and Parental Responsibilities” (Fernwood, 2011), “The Equal Parent Presumption” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), and “The Routledge International Handbook of Shared Parenting and the Best Interest of the Child”(Routledge, 2021), and has published widely in a variety of academic and professional journals. His three research articles on the grandparent-grandchild relationship focus on the alienation of grandparents from their grandchildren’s lives, grandparent rights in cases of grandparent-grandchild alienation, and multigenerational family mediation in cases of grandparent alienation.

February 18 • 8PM ET

Most parents have a hard enough time with their child’s alienation, without having to endure abuse from the child. While no one is completely immune to the effects of verbal abuse, our children probably have more power than anyone to make us feel helpless, hopeless, guilt-ridden, and depressed. This is because our children are the people in whom we’ve invested the greatest amount of love, time, and money and for whom we have had the highest hopes of being loved in return. ​In addition, most if not all parents get their self-esteem as parents from how their children treat them. If their children are loving and respectful, most parents feel not only proud of their children’s behavior, but proud of the reflection that the adult child holds up to them as parents. Alienated parents are deprived of this mirror and have to work much harder to maintain their self-esteem and psychological balance. For those with children whose lives haven’t gone well, the parent has the double sorrow of worry about the child, and guilt and sorrow that there isn’t the closeness with that child that they assumed would be there at this point in their lives. In this webinar we’ll learn why alienated adult children behave in disrespectful and abusive ways, how to best respond whey they do. 

Dr. Coleman is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan organization of leading sociologists, historians, psychologists and demographers dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families. He has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, NBC THINK, The Behavioral Scientist, CNN, MarketWatch, the San Francisco Chronicle, Greater Good Magazine, AEON, Huffington Post, Psychology Today and more. He has given talks to the faculties at Harvard, the Weill Cornell Department of Psychiatry and other academic institutions. A frequent guest on the Today Show and NPR he has also been featured on Sesame Street, 20/20, Good Morning America, PBS, America Online Coaches, and numerous news programs for FOX, ABC, CNN, and NBC television. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters and has written four books: The Rules of Estrangement (Random House); The Marriage Makeover: Finding Happiness in Imperfect Harmony (St. Martin's Press); The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework (St. Martin's Press); When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don't Get Along (HarperCollins) He is the co-editor, along with historian Stephanie Coontz of seven online volumes of Unconventional Wisdom: News You Can Use, a compendium of noteworthy research on the contemporary family, gender, sexuality, poverty, and work-family issues. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian, Polish, and Croatian. ​He is the co-editor, along with historian Stephanie Coontz of seven online volumes of Unconventional Wisdom: News You Can Use, a compendium of noteworthy research on the contemporary family, gender, sexuality, poverty, and work-family issues. Dr Coleman also writes music for film and television. His music has been featured on Lethal Weapon, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Longmire, Shameless, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Fresh Off the Boat, Supergirl, Mistresses, Hustlers, RuPaul's Drag Race and many more.

February 25 • 8PM ET

The Use of Children as Weapons Has Long Been Documented by Domestic Violence (DV) Researchers as a Strategy of Abuse by Coercively Controlling Individuals. The Impact of This Weaponization on Children Has Been the Focus of Scientists Who Study Parental Alienation, Who Consequently Have Referred to Coercively Controlling Behaviors as “Parental Alienating Behaviors” Because of the Focus on the Child Rather Than the Perpetrator of Abuse. Despite These Two Different Labels for the Same Sets of Behaviors, There Has Been Considerable Resistance Among Detractors of Parental Alienation in Recognizing Parental Alienating Behaviors, Preferring Instead to Call Coercively Controlling Abuse in These Cases as “Protective Parenting,” Particularly When the “Protective Parent” Is a Mother. In This Presentation, Dr. Harman Will Review the Scientific Evidence Documenting the Weaponization of Children Across Both Fields of Study, Highlight How They Are One and the Same Phenomenon, and Explore How a Biased Gender Paradigm About Violence and the Denial and Misrepresentation of Science Has Created an Unnecessary and Harmful Divide in This Field of Work. Jennifer J. Harman, PhD Received Her Doctorate in Social Psychology From the University of Connecticut in 2005. She Is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University and Has Published Over a Dozen Peer-Reviewed Articles and Scientific Studies on the Topic of Parental Alienation and Domestic Violence. She Is a Renowned Expert on the Topic of Parental Alienation, Conducts Trainings on the Topic for Legal and Mental Health Professionals, and Has Provided Expert Witness Testimony in Many Family and Criminal Court Cases Across the U.S. She Currently Serves on the Board of Directors for the Parental Alienation Study Group, Is the President of the International Council on Shared Parenting, and Is on the Editorial Board of the Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal, Personal Relationships.