HANDLING ALIENATION USING BETTER COMMUNICATION AND SELF CARE

HANDLING ALIENATION USING BETTER COMMUNICATION AND SELF CARE FALL VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2022

ELAINE COBB, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, FAMILY ACCESS-FIGHTING FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, EVENT DIRECTOR

COLLEEN MURRAY, PH. D, LPC, NCC, MODERATOR

PRESENTERS

WILLIAM BERNET, M. D.

"New Research Helps Us Understand How Alienated Children Think and Behave"
Dr. Bernet will describe several recent research projects involving alienated children. These studies help us understand why alienated children behave the way they do. There are implications for communicating with alienated children as well as for treatment programs.

William Bernet, M.D., a graduate of Holy Cross College, summa cum laude, and Harvard Medical School, is a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is board certified in general psychiatry, child psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. As an expert in forensic psychiatry, Dr. Bernet has testified about 300 times in 24 states. Dr. Bernet has written professional articles and book chapters on a variety of subjects, including: group and individual therapy with children and adolescents; humor in psychotherapy; forensic child psychiatry; child maltreatment; true and false allegations of abuse; satanic ritual abuse; reincarnation; child custody and visitation; parental alienation; testimony regarding behavioral genomics; and risk management. In 2007, Dr. Bernet and Judge Don R. Ash published Children of Divorce: A Practical Guide for Parents, Therapists, Attorneys, and Judges. Dr. Bernet edited Parental Alienation, DSM-5, and ICD-11, which was published in 2010. Dr. Bernet and his colleagues edited Parental Alienation: The Handbook for Mental Health and Legal Professionals, which was published in 2013. He was the founder and first president of the Parental Alienation Study Group.

SUE CORNBLUTH, PSY.

"Your Compassion Journey to Healing: Mastering the Skills to Reduce your Stress in Alienation Situations"

Did you know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to repair a relationship without increasing your self-awareness? Self-awareness is critical to recognizing and dismantling defensiveness so that you can show up in the relationship differently. If you have been alienated from your child, your inner self is the first relationship in need of your attention and repair. Healing the wounds of your trauma FIRST enables you to reconnect with yourself, and create the necessary space for a new relationship to evolve with your alienated child.

In this presentation, you will learn (1) hands-on techniques to reduce your stress level (3) self-soothing techniques to reduce panic and fear, (3) how self-compassion leads to increased resilience to cope with stressful situations , and (4) Kristen Neff's concept of R.A.I.N. which guides us to find our inner compassionate voice.

As you learn how to use these simple techniques to dismantle emotional charges, you will begin to experience the healing and freedom that becomes possible when we contact the vulnerability within ourselves and others, to show up with a loving heart.

Dr. Sue Cornbluth is a certified parenting expert, coach and thought leader with international recognition, specializing in high conflict divorce and parental/grandparent alienation situations.
In 2013 Dr. Sue established Dr. Sue & You LLC, a consulting & coaching firm working with parents to help them successfully move through their high conflict divorce situations and reunite with their children. She has reunited hundreds of families with her tools and techniques. Her passion and goal is to heal family conflict with compassion. She accomplishes this through her work educating and guiding parents and professionals.

Dr. Sue currently hosts a weekly radio broadcast in Philadelphia called “The Dr. Sue Show: Beyond Divorce: We Cure Conflict” on 860AM-Talk Radio. She also is the host of the television show “Dr. Sue and You” on Roku. Both shows educate the public about how you can become the solution to any conflict in your life.

Dr. Sue has served as a child abuse and victims’ rights expert. The exposure she gained as a lead expert during the Jerry Sandusky trial directly contributed to the growing demand for her expert opinion. She has gained global recognition and is contracted for speaking engagements around the world. The Women’s Distinctive Business Magazine recognized Dr. Sue as One of the Country’s Most Distinctive Women. She is a regular contributor as a mental health expert for network television stations including NBC, Fox and CBS. She has contributed to several national publications.

Dr. Sue resides in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. She holds a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology and has worked as a Psychology Professor at Temple University.

MARY ALVAREZ, PH. D

"The Importance of Self-Care for
Alienated Parents and
Grandparents"

When a parent's relationship with a child is interrupted, damaged, and/or lost, it is psychologically devastating to that parent. As the focus for alienated parents becomes making sense of how this happened and what they can do to regain and repair the relationship with their child, their self-care often wanes or disappears altogether. This presentation will discuss not only the importance of self-care as part of the process to repair or regain a parent-child relationship, but some basic, but powerful, self-care strategies.

Mary Alvarez, PhD earned her doctorate in developmental psychology with an emphasis in cognitive development and neurodevelopment from the University of Houston. Dr. Alvarez, a licensed psychologist for twenty-five years in Texas, has both a forensic and a clinical practice and she specializes in evaluating and treating high conflict families. As a result of her forensic work in family law as a custody evaluator, Dr. Alvarez has evaluated and witnessed the devastating psychological effects on children whose parents are involved in chronic high conflict, including parental alienation. Dr. Alvarez recognized the need to focus on prevention and early intervention of parental alienation, so she codeveloped Resetting the Family to evaluate and intervene with high conflict parents and families that include mild and moderate parental alienation as part of the conflict.

MARK MOSK, PH. D

"Talking Heads: From Chatter to Connections"

Human beings are by definition social creatures and so it is remarkable that our ability to communicate effectively and connect with others of our own species can be so wanting. Since these aptitudes are not built in as a part of our biological makeup, they must be learned, practiced, and refined throughout our lifetimes. Successful interpersonal communication encompasses a complex set of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral elements. I will present a sociocultural-behavioral-psychological model that describes how and why we interact, and specific skills-building techniques used in coaching and psychotherapy to enhance one’s capacity to exchange information and bond with others. This need is especially acute for individuals who find themselves in high conflict situations, such as those experiencing parental alienation. I will share specific, real-life scenarios of such conflict from my own clinical cases, and a comprehensive overview of basic and advanced proficiencies needed to exchange ideas and messages effectively, to build relationships in a meaningful way, and to enhance one's emotional well-being and functioning.

Dr. Mosk completed his doctorate in clinical psychology at Western University in London, Canada in 1982. Dr. Mosk began his career as a clinical and research psychologist at the UCLA School of Medicine, after which he developed and directed The Life Skills Center, a model treatment program for patients with serious mental illness for the California Department of Mental Health’s psychiatric hospital system. Since that time, Dr. Mosk has been providing customized professional services to help and guide individuals undergoing transitional periods in their lives, organizations experiencing significant changes, and parties involved in lawsuits.
As a highly trained clinician, Dr. Mosk has treated thousands of patients with a broad range of behavioral health disorders over his career. He is the coauthor of the Functional Capacity Assessment Profile, a clinical decision-support tool used to explore an individual’s ability to function effectively, to set treatment goals and to measure therapeutic progress.
In his capacity as a forensic evaluator and expert witness for over three decades, Dr. Mosk has conducted more than 1,000 comprehensive forensic examinations for courts in California and Illinois. He has extensive experience performing court-ordered mental health evaluations in child custody, workers’ compensation and disability matters, and competency exams in immigration cases. He similarly had been providing litigation support for attorneys that includes reviewing and analyzing experts’ work products, consulting on cross-examination strategies, reviewing records, and preparing litigants to undergo forensic interviews.
Dr. Mosk’s focus over the past decade has been on defining and assessing normative parenting behavior. He continues to develop the Parenting Profile Assessment System, a technology designed to help professionals organize their line of questioning about parenting activities and abilities, to simplify and structure the investigation process, uncover potential allegations by parents, maximize efficiency and derive behavioral data to supplement clinical findings. This approach is intended to help provide a richer composite of information to educate and inform the court, using a common language understood by all parties involved in the litigation.
His key interests lie in the area of parental alienation in divorce matters, which includes defining and measuring the discrete behavioral components and mechanisms involved in alienation. He is a staunch advocate for alienated family members. As well, he actively educates the legal profession and the court on the impact of parental alienation on families.
Dr. Mosk has been advising private and public sector behavioral healthcare companies on organizational, clinical, and business-related issues for over 30 years. His expertise in organization transformation, clinical service delivery, strategic planning, performance management, leadership development, and human capital optimization assists clients in improving operational effectiveness and boosting revenue. He identifies root causes of
organizational difficulties and recommends effective and often innovative solutions to align and optimize operational and workforce systems to foster organizational excellence.
Dr. Mosk brings a broad range of proficiencies in clinical protocols, outcomes measurement, population health strategies, and integrative medicine, as well as deep experience on the payer side of healthcare services, to offer clients a unique set of perspectives and skills to help solve their complex challenges. He is a widely published author, thought leader, and has lectured extensively to professional and lay groups on a wide variety of healthcare topics. He also has served on the faculty of several academic institutions.