HELPING COURTS UNDERSTAND THE PHENOMENON OF ALIENATION
2021 VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
2021 VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Update Regarding the Upcoming May Conference
Family Access - Fighting for Children's Rights and Steel Partners Foundation will be hosting a 3 day virtual international conference Friday, May 14, 2021, Saturday, May 15, 2021, and Sunday, May 16, 2021 via Zoom. This conference will give a total focus on the courts.
There have been some exciting new developments regarding the line-up and the topics for our May conference. Although you can get a glimpse of that by looking at the new revised schedule, here are a few highlights.
First, the main purpose of the conference is to provide participants-including parents, grandparents, mental health professionals, attorneys, and others -with a conceptual framework and useful tools with which to make sense of, and deal with, alienation and other relevant topics such as estrangement and enmeshment.
Second, our main focus will be on evidence-based practices. Given the flood of misinformation about parental alienation from so many sources, this conference should provide some much needed relief. Among other things, we will discuss how to distinguish between science and ideology, science and pseudoscience, true controversies and pseudo-controversies, and so on.
Third, from a forensic and legal perspective, we will emphasize how to deal with clinical issues, clinical evidence, and clinical experts in court. As you can see from the flyer, we have an extremely knowledgeable and well-credentialed group of presenters.
Fourth, the conference has been designed to appeal to both lay people (most notably alienated parents and grandparents) and professionals (especially mental health and legal professionals).
And fifth, we believe you will not only find it practical, but enjoyable. We hope that you can make it!
Family Access - Fighting for Children's Rights and Steel Partners Foundation will be hosting a 3 day virtual international conference Friday, May 14, 2021, Saturday, May 15, 2021, and Sunday, May 16, 2021 via Zoom. This conference will give a total focus on the courts.
There have been some exciting new developments regarding the line-up and the topics for our May conference. Although you can get a glimpse of that by looking at the new revised schedule, here are a few highlights.
First, the main purpose of the conference is to provide participants-including parents, grandparents, mental health professionals, attorneys, and others -with a conceptual framework and useful tools with which to make sense of, and deal with, alienation and other relevant topics such as estrangement and enmeshment.
Second, our main focus will be on evidence-based practices. Given the flood of misinformation about parental alienation from so many sources, this conference should provide some much needed relief. Among other things, we will discuss how to distinguish between science and ideology, science and pseudoscience, true controversies and pseudo-controversies, and so on.
Third, from a forensic and legal perspective, we will emphasize how to deal with clinical issues, clinical evidence, and clinical experts in court. As you can see from the flyer, we have an extremely knowledgeable and well-credentialed group of presenters.
Fourth, the conference has been designed to appeal to both lay people (most notably alienated parents and grandparents) and professionals (especially mental health and legal professionals).
And fifth, we believe you will not only find it practical, but enjoyable. We hope that you can make it!
CO-DIRECTORS
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STEVEN MILLER, M. D.
Dr. Miller has degrees in both Psychology and Medicine from Brown University and did residency training at Brown University and Harvard Medical School. For more than 30 years he was on the teaching faculty at Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine; in addition, he has many years of experience practicing Behavioral Medicine -- a specialty that focuses on the interface between medicine and psychology. That background is particularly relevant to child maltreatment, child protection, child alignment, parental alienation, pathological enmeshment, and related issues since those clinical conditions are very much related to behavior, including dysfunctional, pathological, and abusive behavior. Likewise, he has several decades of experience practicing Forensic Medicine. A popular speaker, he has directed several hundred continuing education courses for physicians and other clinicians and presented over one thousand lectures on clinical reasoning, clinical problem-solving, and clinical decision-making. An internationally-known expert on alienation and estrangement – and how to distinguish one from the other – he is also an experienced expert witness, litigation consultant, and trial strategist. |
ASHISH JOSHI, LL.M.
Ashish Joshi, owner and managing partner of the firm, serves as the lead counsel in high-stakes, complex disputes and litigation matters. Mr. Joshi has counseled and/or represented clients in state and federal courts across the United States and internationally, including in India, United Kingdom, Canada, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, and China. Mr. Joshi has been admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, State Bars of New York, Michigan, District of Columbia, and Gujarat, India. Mr. Joshi’s focus lies at the intersection of forensic sciences, human rights, and complex disputes in situations involving severe parental alienation and psychological maltreatment of children, false allegations of child abuse, recovery of abducted children and/or hidden assets in foreign jurisdictions and multi-jurisdictional disputes. He has made several presentations for continuing legal education programs hosted by the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and various state and local bar associations. Mr. Joshi is privileged to serve as the Editor in Chief for Litigation, the journal of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation and on the Advisory Board for Champion, the journal published by the National Complex Divorce & Parental Alienation Business Disputes Family Law High Conflict Cases Educating The Court On Parental Alienation Criminal Investigations and Defense International. |
SESSIONS SPEAKERS
WILLIAM BERNET, M. D.
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. 
CAROL GOLLY, Ph. D, LCSW, RPT-SCarol Golly has a special interest in parent and grandparent alienation. She is a founding board member of Alienated Grandparents Anonymous, Inc. (AGA) and completed her doctoral work on grandparent alienation in 2019. She has 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist for children, adolescents, and families in Naples, Florida. Carol serves as a court-appointed therapist for children and families and as an expert witness in cases of child abuse, trauma, neglect, and parental alienation.
SANDRA AGUILAR,
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LINDA GOTTLIEB, LMFT, LCSW - R
Linda is a New York State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who is also a published author on family therapy and parental alienation. Linda has been frequently cited and referenced by other authors and experts in the field. Linda was trained by the world-renowned, highly respected child psychiatrist, Salvador Minuchin. After she completed her training at the Minuchin Center for the Family, Linda served on the Center’s faculty from 2003-2007 where she trained child psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who wished to learn the techniques of Dr. Minuchin’s structural family therapy. Linda’s professional services to 5000 children and their families in multiple settings and in multiple roles span 50 years. She began her work with 3000 adjudicated abused and/or neglected children in New York’s foster care system. Subsequent to this experience, Linda transitioned in 1994 into the mental health system at South Shore Child Guidance Center in Freeport, Long Island where she designed, implemented, and supervised a home-based crisis intervention program to prevent the psychiatric hospitalization of a child. Linda additionally accepted referrals and appointments from local family courts to provide family counseling and parent coordination services to parents who were engaged in adversarial custody conflicts. In 2003, Linda focused her practice almost exclusively on helping parents settle their custody conflicts in the best interests of their children. After writing her 2012 book on parental alienation, Linda further concentrated her clinical practice on the sub-specialty of parental alienation-a highly dysfunctional family dynamic that is a form of child psychological abuse. Based upon what Linda had learned from the clinical literature, from colleagues who are leading experts in the field of alienation, and from her extensive evidence-based practice with approximately 650 alienated children and with approximately 1000 children whose parents were undergoing separation/divorce but who did not experience alienation, Linda developed a specialized reunification intervention to treat unjustifiably severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships. The intervention had proven to be highly successful—even in cases in which the severed parent-child relationships exceeded 4 years. In 2015, Linda further refined her specialized reunification intervention, and it became the treatment protocol she now employs at Turning Points for Families, her 4-day intensive intervention to jump-start unjustified severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships. Linda further provides supervision in alienation and estrangement to custody evaluators, clinicians, forensic evaluators, and to other professionals who intervene in custody cases in which alienation is alleged. Linda also maintains a small practice testifying as an expert witness in family dynamics, alienation, estrangement, family therapy, and child abuse. 
JENNIFER HARMAN, Ph. DJennifer J. Harman, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University, and she is also the President of the International Council on Shared Parenting. Her scientific research focused on the topic of parental alienation, and she has published over a dozen peer-reviewed journals, books, and book chapters on this topic alone.
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Sandra Aguilar is a highly skilled Family Law Specialist with the law office of Bollier Ciccone in Austin, Texas. Ms. Aguilar provides unique, individual support to clients involved in high-conflict custody cases. Ms. Aguilar has practiced as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) since 2014. Ms. Aguilar obtained a B.A. from West Texas A&M University in 1993 and a M.A. in counseling at St. Edwards University in 2006, as well as a completed the Advanced Mediation and Family Mediation from St. Edwards University.
Most of Ms. Aguilar’s private practices included working with families with parenting issues, reunification, alienation, adjustment issues, stepparent issues, and litigation. Ms. Aguilar has also served as a Guardian ad Litem and Child Custody Evaluator in Texas for the last 12 years in Travis and contiguous counties. As a GAL, Ms. Aguilar responsibility as an extension of the court was to make recommendations to the court under “best interest”. Ms. Aguilar has specialized training in Parental Alienation, Alignment, Estrangement, Domestic Violence and trauma - the effects on children and their families. Ms. Aguilar has years of interviewing children, parents, and collaterals. Ms. Aguilar has testified in court as a therapist, GAL, CCE, parent facilitator and supervised visitation supervisor.
Currently, Ms. Aguilar assist the Bollier Ciccone Law Firm by taking a forensic approach to family law cases.
Most of Ms. Aguilar’s private practices included working with families with parenting issues, reunification, alienation, adjustment issues, stepparent issues, and litigation. Ms. Aguilar has also served as a Guardian ad Litem and Child Custody Evaluator in Texas for the last 12 years in Travis and contiguous counties. As a GAL, Ms. Aguilar responsibility as an extension of the court was to make recommendations to the court under “best interest”. Ms. Aguilar has specialized training in Parental Alienation, Alignment, Estrangement, Domestic Violence and trauma - the effects on children and their families. Ms. Aguilar has years of interviewing children, parents, and collaterals. Ms. Aguilar has testified in court as a therapist, GAL, CCE, parent facilitator and supervised visitation supervisor.
Currently, Ms. Aguilar assist the Bollier Ciccone Law Firm by taking a forensic approach to family law cases.
MODERATOR
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COLLEEN MURRAY, Ph. D, LPC
Colleen M. Murray, Ph.D., is a Licensed Practicing Counselor in Saint Robert, MO. Dr. Murray has an interest in better defining intimate partner violence to include parental alienation. She has spent many years working in the area of intimate partner violence and studying the effects and interventions for children subjected to intimate partner violence. Dr. Murray is in private practice with a focus on high conflict divorce and parental alienation. Dr. Murray assists families with co-parenting, reunification of alienated parent, and parent management techniques. Dr. Murray regularly testifies as an expert witness in high conflict divorce case. Dr. Murray speaks at continuing education conferences for family law attorneys and judges concerning how parental alienation effects children. Dr. Murray is also an adjunct professor at Drury University. Colleen M. Murray is the owner of Victor’s Crown Christian Counseling Center, where she specializes in working with families struggling with high conflict divorce and parental alienation. Colleen is also an adjunct faculty member of Drury University. Colleen attended Campbell University and received her bachelor’s in Psychology. After graduation Colleen went on to serve in the United States Army where she received the Medal of Merit for her work in Homeland Security. After leaving the Army, Colleen went on to received her Master’s and Ph.D. in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University graduating summa cum laude and cum laude. Colleen conducted research in childhood trauma due to domestic violence. Colleen has three children; Ashley, Stuart and Joseph and lives in Saint Robert Missouri with her husband Daniel. |
PANELISTS
Our panelists for our conference will be as follows:
MENTAL HEALTH PANEL
Steven Miller, M. D.
Caitlin R. Burgess, JD, MA, LMFT
LEGAL PANEL
Ashish Joshi, LL.M
Robert Hoffman, P. L. L. C.
MENTAL HEALTH PANEL
Steven Miller, M. D.
Caitlin R. Burgess, JD, MA, LMFT
LEGAL PANEL
Ashish Joshi, LL.M
Robert Hoffman, P. L. L. C.
CAITLIN R. BURGESS, JD, MA, LMFT
Caitlin Burgess, JD, MA, LMFT is both a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an attorney in California. She maintains a private practice in counseling psychology, law, and forensics with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her special interests include domestic violence, child alignment, parental alienation, realistic estrangement, reconnection/reunification therapy, court-involved therapy, child custody evaluations, mediation, and expert witness services. As one might expect from a therapist who is also an attorney, her practice is evidence-based and interdisciplinary. Caitlin Burgess, J.D., MA, LMFT is both a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an attorney in California. She maintains a private practice in counseling psychology, law, and forensics with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her special interests include domestic violence, child alignment, parental alienation, realistic estrangement, reconnection/reunification therapy, court-involved therapy, child custody evaluations, mediation, and expert witness services. As one might expect from a therapist who is also an attorney, her practice is evidence-based and interdisciplinary.
FRIDAY NIGHT SPEAKER
On Friday night, May 14, 2021 from 7:00-8:00 PM EST, Robert Hoffman will be presenting to us on the subject "Anticipating and Defending Against the Inevitable Courtroom Attacks on Parental Alienation on your Case"
From 8:00-9:00 PM EDT, we will have breakout rooms for alienated family member, mental health professionals and legal professionals who work in the field of alienation. I am now registering those who wish to participate.
From 8:00-9:00 PM EDT, we will have breakout rooms for alienated family member, mental health professionals and legal professionals who work in the field of alienation. I am now registering those who wish to participate.
ROBERT HOFFMAN, P.L.L.C.
Robert Hoffman is Board certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Robert has been practicing family law for 35 years. He has been successful in handling as lead counsel numerous bench and jury trials and negotiating highly contested child custody battles, high net worth divorces, complex financial disputes and cases involving parental alienation. He successfully represented Kelly Jones against Alex Jones (Infowars fame) in a jury trial in Austin, Texas in 2016. He is well-known and specializes in trying complex cases. Robert enjoys working closely with and advocating for people at a critical time in their lives. Robert has been consistently included in Texas Super Lawyers 2003-2019 and Best Lawyers US 2008-2020.
Robert Hoffman is Board certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Robert has been practicing family law for 35 years. He has been successful in handling as lead counsel numerous bench and jury trials and negotiating highly contested child custody battles, high net worth divorces, complex financial disputes and cases involving parental alienation. He successfully represented Kelly Jones against Alex Jones (Infowars fame) in a jury trial in Austin, Texas in 2016. He is well-known and specializes in trying complex cases. Robert enjoys working closely with and advocating for people at a critical time in their lives. Robert has been consistently included in Texas Super Lawyers 2003-2019 and Best Lawyers US 2008-2020.
SATURDAY NIGHT SPEAKER
LINDA GOTTLIEB, LMFT, LCSW - R
Linda is a New York State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who is also a published author on family therapy and parental alienation. Linda has been frequently cited and referenced by other authors and experts in the field.
Linda was trained by the world-renowned, highly respected child psychiatrist, Salvador Minuchin. After she completed her training at the Minuchin Center for the Family, Linda served on the Center’s faculty from 2003-2007 where she trained child psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who wished to learn the techniques of Dr. Minuchin’s structural family therapy.
Linda’s professional services to 5000 children and their families in multiple settings and in multiple roles span 50 years. She began her work with 3000 adjudicated abused and/or neglected children in New York’s foster care system. Subsequent to this experience, Linda transitioned in 1994 into the mental health system at South Shore Child Guidance Center in Freeport, Long Island where she designed, implemented, and supervised a home-based crisis intervention program to prevent the psychiatric hospitalization of a child. Linda additionally accepted referrals and appointments from local family courts to provide family counseling and parent coordination services to parents who were engaged in adversarial custody conflicts.
In 2003, Linda focused her practice almost exclusively on helping parents settle their custody conflicts in the best interests of their children. After writing her 2012 book on parental alienation, Linda further concentrated her clinical practice on the sub- specialty of parental alienation—a highly dysfunctional family dynamic that is accepted by overwhelming consensus within the scientific community to be a profound form of psychological child abuse.
Based upon what Linda had learned from the clinical literature, from colleagues who are leading experts in the field of alienation, and from her extensive evidence-based practice with approximately 650 alienated children and with approximately 1000 children whose parents were undergoing separation/divorce but who did not experience alienation, Linda developed a specialized reunification intervention to
treat unjustifiably severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships. The intervention had proven to be highly successful—even in cases in which the severed parent-child relationships exceeded 4 years.
In 2015, Linda further refined her specialized reunification intervention, and it became the treatment protocol she now employs at Turning Points for Families, her 4-day intensive intervention to jump-start unjustified severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships.
Linda further provides supervision in alienation and estrangement to custody evaluators, clinicians, forensic evaluators, and to other professionals who intervene in custody cases in which alienation is alleged. Linda also maintains a small practice testifying as an expert witness in family dynamics, alienation, estrangement, family therapy, and child abuse.
Linda is a New York State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who is also a published author on family therapy and parental alienation. Linda has been frequently cited and referenced by other authors and experts in the field.
Linda was trained by the world-renowned, highly respected child psychiatrist, Salvador Minuchin. After she completed her training at the Minuchin Center for the Family, Linda served on the Center’s faculty from 2003-2007 where she trained child psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who wished to learn the techniques of Dr. Minuchin’s structural family therapy.
Linda’s professional services to 5000 children and their families in multiple settings and in multiple roles span 50 years. She began her work with 3000 adjudicated abused and/or neglected children in New York’s foster care system. Subsequent to this experience, Linda transitioned in 1994 into the mental health system at South Shore Child Guidance Center in Freeport, Long Island where she designed, implemented, and supervised a home-based crisis intervention program to prevent the psychiatric hospitalization of a child. Linda additionally accepted referrals and appointments from local family courts to provide family counseling and parent coordination services to parents who were engaged in adversarial custody conflicts.
In 2003, Linda focused her practice almost exclusively on helping parents settle their custody conflicts in the best interests of their children. After writing her 2012 book on parental alienation, Linda further concentrated her clinical practice on the sub- specialty of parental alienation—a highly dysfunctional family dynamic that is accepted by overwhelming consensus within the scientific community to be a profound form of psychological child abuse.
Based upon what Linda had learned from the clinical literature, from colleagues who are leading experts in the field of alienation, and from her extensive evidence-based practice with approximately 650 alienated children and with approximately 1000 children whose parents were undergoing separation/divorce but who did not experience alienation, Linda developed a specialized reunification intervention to
treat unjustifiably severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships. The intervention had proven to be highly successful—even in cases in which the severed parent-child relationships exceeded 4 years.
In 2015, Linda further refined her specialized reunification intervention, and it became the treatment protocol she now employs at Turning Points for Families, her 4-day intensive intervention to jump-start unjustified severed/severely damaged parent-child relationships.
Linda further provides supervision in alienation and estrangement to custody evaluators, clinicians, forensic evaluators, and to other professionals who intervene in custody cases in which alienation is alleged. Linda also maintains a small practice testifying as an expert witness in family dynamics, alienation, estrangement, family therapy, and child abuse.
On Saturday, May 15, 2021 from 7:00-8:00 PM EST, Linda Gottlieb will be presenting on "Memories: An Indispensable Co-Therapist in Reunification Therapy". This will take the place of her previously scheduled Monday presentation.
From 8:00-9:00 PM EDT, we will have breakout rooms for alienated family member, mental health professionals and legal professionals who work in the field of alienation. I am now registering those who wish to participate.
From 8:00-9:00 PM EDT, we will have breakout rooms for alienated family member, mental health professionals and legal professionals who work in the field of alienation. I am now registering those who wish to participate.
PRESS RELEASES REGARDING OUR MAY CONFERENCE
| family_access_–_fighting_for_children’s_rights_announces_2021_virtual_international_conference.pdf |
| einpresswire-report2-535048412-parental-alienation-conference-announces-dr-steven-g-miller-as-co-director.pdf |
| einpresswire-535334895-parental-alienation-conference-announces-dr-bone-as-a-keynote-speaker.pdf |
| einpresswire-535469015-attorney-robert-hoffman-presents-methods-to-predict-opposition-to-parental-alienation-in-the-courtroom.pdf |
| einpresswire-535653000-parental-alienation-and-family-courts-how-to-help-the-judge-give-you-the-relief-that-you-desperately-need.pdf |
| einpresswire-536386442-parental-alienation-and-daubert-gatekeeping.pdf |
| einpresswire-536901480-parental-alienation-magnified-by-covid-19-pandemic.pdf |
| einpresswire-537724143-the-international-conference-on-helping-courts-understand-the-phenomenon-of-alienation-is-now-less-than-two-months-away.pdf |
| hoffman_pr.pdf |
SPONSORS
We wish to thank our sponsors for supporting this incredibly important event for our alienated families, especially our alienated children and grandchildren.
Family Access-Fighting for Children's Rights
Steel Partners Foundation
Turning Points For Families
Law Office of Robert S. Hoffman, P. L. L. C.
Victor's Crown Christian Counseling Center
Christy Leaver, LCSW
VENDORS
We wish to thank our vendors for supporting this incredibly important event for our alienated families, especially our alienated children and grandchildren.
Sparkman Law Firm
The XO Foundation
Family Access-Fighting for Children's Rights
Steel Partners Foundation
Parental Alienation Healing
Turning Points for Families
Christy Leaver, LCSW
The XO Foundation
Family Access-Fighting for Children's Rights
Steel Partners Foundation
Parental Alienation Healing
Turning Points for Families
Christy Leaver, LCSW