Family Access Fighting For Children's Rights
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These calls are calls we have chosen as a few of the top calls we have had over the past 8 years. Some of these calls you have asked to be replayed. Others many never had the opportunity to hear. Please note that we will not be adding all calls now to this web page. This is just a select group.

We are certain these calls will help both the professionals involved in the world of alienation as well as the alienated family members themselves.These calls give much education regarding alienation in many different facets. They also will give much support as well.

Please also note the cost of the playback is for 1 time and must be listened to the day you register to hear the specific call that you register for.



Ashish Joshi, LL.M

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"Enough Already! Suing for Damage$ to Make Alienators and their Enablers Pay"

 In a case involving parental alienation, the number one goal is to protect the child from the ongoing psychological abuse. But what do you do once the child’s wellbeing is safeguarded and the child is away from the toxic influence of the alienating parent? Or, as in some unfortunate but sadly not uncommon scenarios, the child is beyond the reach of the courts due to emancipation or other reason—what do you do then? It is very difficult if not impossible for courts to change the pathological mindset of an alienator, especially if the alienator has undiagnosed personality disorders. But what courts can do is to ensure that actions have consequences. 

Parental alienating behaviors devastate a parent (or grandparent’s) relationship with the child. This loss of relationship often results in severe emotional distress, if not outright trauma for the rejected parent (or grandparents). In many cases the aggrieved & targeted parent (or grandparents) can bring a legal action seeking money damages for attorney fees, therapy costs, and ancillary litigation costs that he / they were compelled to spend to defend themselves against false allegations and to protect their relationship with the child. In addition, the targeted parent / grandparent can also sue for money damages to compensate them for the mental or emotional distress that they suffered due to parental alienation. 

And it’s not just about making alienators pay for their behaviors. The professionals who enable alienation—intentionally or through gross negligence or reckless conduct—should face consequences for for their actions (or omissions). Guardians ad litem, minor’s counsel, child’s therapist, social workers...all are accountable to their respective rules of professional conduct and codes of ethics. Unless checked, these professionals will continue to do untold damage to countless families through their incompetence, negligence, or simply callous indifference. 

Parental alienation is child abuse. And abusive behavior should neither be condoned nor excused. It’s time to make the alienators and their enablers PAY for their abusive actions. This presentation will discuss legal remedies that are available to targeted parents and grandparents when seeking redress and monetary damages for the severe financial and emotional distress that they have suffered due to parental alienation.


Ashish Joshi is the owner and managing partner of Joshi: Attorneys + Counselors. He serves as the lead counsel in high-stakes, complex family law and divorce cases. He has counseled and/or represented clients in state and federal courts across the United States and internationally, including in India, United Kingdom, Canada, Luxembourg, Japan, 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, the District of Columbia, and Gujarat, India. Mr. Joshi serves as a senior editor of Litigation, the flagship journal of the ABA’s Section of Litigation, and on the advisory board of The Champion, the journal published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). He is the author of the forthcoming book, Litigating Parental Alienation. 

Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!

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Lynn Steinberg, Ph.D, LMFT

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"HOW TO DOCUMENT AND PROVE A CASE OF PARENTAL ALIENATION"

When targeted parents discover that they have been alienated from their child or children, they are likely to experience a tsunami of powerful emotions—shock, pain, disbelief, confusion, paralysis, and many others. In this very practical presentation, Dr. Lynn Steinberg will review how alienated parents and grandparents can recognize what is happening—not only to recognize the alienation itself, but related behaviors such as manipulative behavior by the alienating parent and dysfunctional behavior by the alienated child or children. Although she will review some of the well-known features of parental alienation her main focus will be on how to document the most relevant and important behaviors for the benefit of mental health and legal professionals, that is, for therapists, evaluators, attorneys, and courts. Having such skills can make the difference between a good outcome and a poor one. More specifically, Dr. Steinberg will present techniques that targeted parents and grandparents can use to expose and (hopefully) neutralize various alienating strategies. 
 
There’s an old saying: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s important for targeted parents to keep this in mind. Although it’s understandable that targeted parents can present with the Four A’s—that is, to come across as Anxious, Agitated, Angry, and Afraid—that can be a recipe for disaster when dealing with anyone, even your friends and family, let alone court-appointed professionals.
 
How can targeted parents make a good impression—or, for that matter, the best impression? Why might an abusive alienating parent present better than a non-abusive alienated parent? What can alienated parents do to get their messages across? Dr. Steinberg will address these and related points. Meanwhile, a short answer would be to remember the Four C’s—to be Cool, Calm, Charming, and Convincing. Unfortunately, for reasons to be discussed, alienating parents tend to be better at this than targeted parents. Likewise, it’s important to keep in mind another old saying: You need to sell yourself before you can sell your positions or opinions.
 
Indeed, that might be the single most important thing for alienated parents to keep in mind, especially when dealing with professionals, many of whom are likely to be skeptical, if not dismissive, of any parent who presents with the Four A’s. That is likely to be all the more important if the child or children have expressed a strong preference for one parent—the favored parent—over the other.
 
If you are one of those “other” parents—or if you are a mental health or legal professional who works with such parents—this presentation should be very helpful.




Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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"HOW TO COPE WITH THE HOLIDAYS"
 As those of us who are alienated from our precious family members, we know all too well how difficult the holidays are. This call has 8 of the experts who shared with us their thoughts on how to cope with the holidays. This was the absolute best "How to Cope" calls we have ever had.
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Our guest speakers for this call were Dr. John Killinger, Dr. J Michael Bone, Linda Gottlieb, Dr. Amy Baker, Dr. Colleen Murray, Dr. Steven Miller, Robert Hoffman, and Dr. Mark Mosk. 
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Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Linda Gottlieb, LMFT, LCSW - R

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"ESCAPING THE THERAPY TRAP: MAKING CONTRAINDICATED TRADITIONAL REUNIFICATION WORK FOR YOU"

This presentation by Linda Gottlieb deals with how to select a therapist who is a specialist in alienation; identifying the flaws in traditional reunification therapy; how to get the non-specialist fired; and how to turn the traditional  reunification therapy you typically get stuck with it to work for you.

Traditional  reunification therapy is generally ordered by the court to treat seriously disrupted and/or damaged parent-child relationships, even though traditional reunification therapy is contraindicated to treat severe and many moderate cases of alienation. Contraindicated means forbidden. Although the courts typically order one successive round of traditional therapy after another, it rarely dawns on the court and and on other professionals that is not the therapist who was the reason for the therapies' failure- it is the intervention itself that is the problem. This presentation is designed to help alienated parents and grandparents and their lawyers being proactive in the process of selecting the appropriate treatment intervention initially, and if unsuccessful, how to make a case for a motion to be filed for an appropriate treatment intervention.  


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. 

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Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Robert Hoffman,
​ P.L.L.C

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"UNCOVERING THE ALIENATED CHILD'S FEELINGS AND NEEDS"


This presentation will educate the alienated parent about techniques for uncovering your child’s genuine, positive feelings for you with the goal of expanding your ability to inform the numerous professionals who have become coopted by the alienating your—just as your child did. Exactly as a cult member mimics the words of the cult leader, brainwashed children mimic the words of their alienating parent. Alienated children have become disconnected from their own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Their message to their therapist and attorney is therefore disassociated from what they really feel—but nonetheless accepted as belonging to the child—with tragic results.
Words are commonly not the most reliable medium for conveying accurate messages and genuine feelings. And yet the child’s words are accepted by their therapist and attorney to have prima facie value. It is irrational to place so much weight on verbal expressions: we have so many truisms about the unreliability of words: “Actions speak louder than words; people will doubt what you say but believe what you do; put your money where your mouth is, speak softly but carry a big stick, (well, OK!) And especially when it comes to alienated children, their words describe a fictional world; their expressions are frequently delusional, and their silly and ridiculous comments would be laughable were it not for the gravity of the situation.
Based on the above, traditional talk therapy—play therapy for younger children—fail to uncover the alienated child’s true feelings and beliefs. Traditional, non-alienation aware therapists, in fact, reinforce the alienated child’s distorted beliefs and imagined feelings. This is not helpful!
Invariably, alienated parents become extremely frustrated by and infuriated with the very professional who is supposed to improve their relationships with their alienated child but, instead, makes matters intensely worse.
In this presentation, I will discuss the many ways that traditional therapies and traditional reunification therapy fail to improve the parent-child relationship and actually makes things catastrophically worse. I will suggest alternative techniques to uncover the alienated child’s genuine feelings and beliefs. And I will discuss effective ways to reestablish the severed parent-child relationship.
Armed with this knowledge, alienated parents will be hopefully able to educate their child’s therapist about the many anti-therapeutic interventions that occur in traditional therapy—even in traditional reunification therapy.
In many states, the child is assigned her/his own attorney—just what an alienated child needs to further facilitate her/his inappropriate empowerment! As opposed to law guardians and guardian ad litmus—who are obliged to represent the best interests of the child—the child’s attorney is obligated to represent her/his wishes. Well, it is no mystery what a brainwashed child is going to wish for! In this segment, I will share with you the circumstances under which there is an exception to the mandate of the child’s attorney to represent his client’s wishes. This exception allows the attorney to substitute judgment: that is, represent the child best interests instead of the child’s wishes.


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. 

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Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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"HOW TO LITIGATE AND OTHERWISE MANAGE A CASE OF PARENTAL ALIENATION"

Among other things, Mr. Hoffman will address how targeted parents can avoid certain predictable pitfalls. Specific topics will include direct examination of experts for the targeted parents, cross-examination of experts for the alienating parents, and both direct and cross examinations of court-appointed experts including custody evaluators, psychological or psychiatric evaluators, guardians ad litem, visitation supervisors, parenting coordinators, and others. Another key theme will be how to distinguish between science and pseudoscience in the courtroom. Because Mr. Hoffman will focus on basic principles – including practical considerations for dealing with alienating parents and also court-appointed professionals – this is likely to be extraordinarily helpful not only to litigating parents and their attorneys, but to alienated parents and grandparents in general.

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 33 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 

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Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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William Bernet, M. D.

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"THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF PARENTAL ALIENATION"

Since parental alienation (PA) was identified in the 1980’s, the topic has been criticized and even scorned for several reasons. Part of the problem has been the inconsistent terminology used by researchers, practitioners, and other writers—including “parental alienation syndrome,” “parental alienation,” “parental alienation disorder,” and various other terms. This concept has also been criticized because there has not been a consensus among professionals as to how to identify or diagnose this serious mental condition. However, research has been conducted in recent years, which has made it possible to create a systematic way to diagnose PA, which we call the Five-Factor Model.
In this Family Access presentation, Dr. Bernet will explain the Five-Factor Model for the diagnosis of PA, which consists of the following:
Factor One: the child manifests contact resistance or refusal, i.e., avoids a relationship with one of the parents.
Factor Two: the presence of a prior positive relationship between the child and the now rejected parent.
Factor Three: the absence of abuse, neglect, or seriously deficient parenting on the part of the now rejected parent.
Factor Four: the use of multiple alienating behaviors on the part of the favored parent.
Factor Five: the child exhibits many of the eight behavioral manifestations of alienation.

This topic will be of interest to parents and grandparents, since it is reassuring for them to know that there is an evidence-based way to identify and diagnose this mental condition. This topic will be of particular interest to clinicians, so that they can identify PA in a consistent, systematic manner. And this topic is important for legal professionals, since the Five-Factor Model is a good way to explain PA in legal briefs and in court.

Bottom line: In order to advance research, public education, and legislation regarding PA, we all need to be on the same page. We need to use the same terminology and the have the same criteria for the identification of PA. Clinicians, forensic practitioners, legal professionals, child advocates, and parents should try to use consistent terminology and criteria when they discuss and write about this topic.


Dr. William Bernet, a graduate of Holy Cross College 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 22 states. He 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. Most recently, Dr. Bernet and Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos have edited a new book, Parental Alienation—Science and Law, to be published in 2020.

Dr. Bernet was the founder and first president of the Parental Alienation Study Group (PASG), which now has about 700 members from 55 countries. Family Access participants may want to join PASG. If you want to do that, go to the website (www.pasg.info) and send a message through the Contact Us link. 

Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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"MISINFORMATION AND FAKE NEWS REGARDING PARENTAL ALIENATION"

Since parental alienation syndrome (PAS) was identified in the 1980’s, there has been a remarkable amount of misinformation about this topic. This misinformation has been published in professional journals, presented at conferences, and distributed through internet websites and blogs. This false information continues to be propagated by individuals who hope to discredit the concepts of PAS and parental alienation (PA). It is not known whether those individuals act out of ignorance or knowingly spread misinformation regarding PA/PAS, a serious mental condition. This proliferation of misinformation regarding PA may be unique in the history of psychiatry and psychology. 
In this presentation, Dr. Bernet will relate a number of examples of published misinformation regarding PA/PAS. Each case study will include: the false statements that were published in the medical or legal professional literature; the names of the individuals who made the false statements; and the steps that were taken to refute the falsehoods and correct the record. Dr. Bernet will explain what participants can do to counteract the false information that they see or hear. Here are several examples of false information regarding PA/PAS, which will be addressed:
In his regular column in Clinical Psychiatry News (2003), Paul Fink, M.D., referred to PAS as a “bit of junk science invented by … Dr. Richard A. Gardner.” He went on to say that father’s rights groups, “who don’t like to be interfered with when they are sexually abusing their children,” petitioned the DSM-5 Task Force to include PAS in DSM-5. Protests were written to the editor of Clinical Psychiatry News, and Fink subsequently admitted the reality of PA and apologized for his insulting statements.

A book, Abuse against Women and Children (2013), was published in Sweden by Christian Diesen and Eva Diesen. The authors stated that PAS was “a quasi-scientific theory” and that Richard Gardner was “an adherent of pedophilia.” Formal complaints were submitted to Norstedts Juridik (the publisher) and Stockholm University (the employer of Professor Christian Diesen).

Vincenzo Puppo, M.D., a physician in Tunisia, wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of Forensic Sciences (2018), in which he made false statements about an article recently published in that journal. Puppo claimed that PAS “is unknown in medical settings, unquoted in medical books.” His false statements were refuted by a response published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, back-to-back with the letter from Puppo.

Robert Geffner, Ph.D., was one of the authors of Family Evaluation in Custody Litigation (2018), a book published by the American Psychological Association. The book made several problematic statements, including: “No evaluator should base conclusions or recommendations on [PAS].” Formal complaints were submitted to the leadership of the American Psychological Association.

The U.S. House of Representatives considered H. Con. Res. 72 (2017), a resolution that referred to “scientifically unsound theories such as parental alienation syndrome.” Many child advocates contacted their representatives and successfully campaigned to have that untrue statement removed from the resolution.
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Bottom line: We live in an age of widespread misinformation. Clinicians, forensic practitioners, legal professionals, child advocates, and parents should stay vigilant when they read articles or listen to presentations about PA, PAS, and other topics that might be considered controversial.


Dr. William Bernet, a graduate of Holy Cross College 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 22 states. He 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. Most recently, Dr. Bernet and Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos have edited a new book, Parental Alienation—Science and Law, to be published in 2020.

Dr. Bernet was the founder and first president of the Parental Alienation Study Group (PASG), which now has about 700 members from 55 countries. Family Access participants may want to join PASG. If you want to do that, go to the website (www.pasg.info) and send a message through the Contact Us link. 
​

Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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J Michael Bone, 
Ph.D, Parental Alienation Consultant

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"THE BRAINWASHING THAT IS PARENTAL ALIENATION: HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?"

This Seminar focuses on the mechanisms of brainwashing and the power of suggestion.  Individuals under some circumstances, can be profoundly  influenced by external forces to create dramatic changes in their thinking, usually without them even being aware of this.  The phenomenon of brainwashing goes by a number of different labels, depending on the context and circumstances. Regardless of its label however the dynamics of influence and suggestion are the same.   For example, the “Stockholm Syndrome” refers to several hostages to a bank robbery in Stockholm Sweden in the early 1970, becoming loyal to the bank robbers, to the degree that they refused to participate in their prosecution.  A year or so later we watched Patty Hearst be kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, only then to becomes one of its “soldiers.”   Prior to these events movies like the Manchurian Candidate explored thought reform in Korea.  Prior to all of these examples, we find the same phenomenon in operation in prisoner of war camps in World War II whereby trustee prisoners take on the abusive behaviors of their Nazi guards, referred to as “identification with  the aggressor.”   The list goes on but the phenomenon is the same.


Looking more deeply into objective thought becoming profoundly altered and distorted by outside influence, we find that intuition wants us to believe that we humans are good and reliable fact witnesses, and not easily influenced.  “We saw what we saw,” one might say.  As it turns out the opposite appears to be more accurate.  We are actually much more influenced by subtle and not so subtle forces than we would like to admit or even be aware of.  This has profound implications in understanding how it is that children and grandchildren can be influenced to reject a once loved parent or grandparent within the grips of parental alienation.  This seminar addresses this centerpiece reality in the parental alienation world.  We explore the research that shows that even adults are vulnerable to these subtle mind altering forces and are easily influenced beyond their own awareness.  However, when we consider the power of a parent’s influence onto a child’s thinking, such influence is even more profound   For example, a parent’s negative opinions about the other parent and/or grandparent “contaminates” the child’s thinking, and the research explored herein explains how and why this works so well and so easily.  With this understanding onboard,  it is clear that these children are held hostage  and are eventually expected to echo those negative views of the once loved parent or grandparent.  At that point parental alienation is a fait accompli.  This seminar explains an important portion of just how this operates.


J Michael Bone received his Master’s and Doctoral Degrees at the New School for Social Research, in New York City.  He did his clinical training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, and eventually had consulting and training responsibilities in their Department of Psychiatry.   Upon return to his home in Orlando, Florida, he began a general clinical psychotherapy practice.  By the mid 1990’s he began to work in the area of high conflict divorce, which eventually and inevitably led him to the problem of Parental Alienation.  In the late 1990’s he published several articles on the problem and was invited to become a member of the Scientific and Professional Advisory Board of the Parental Alienation Research Foundation in Washington DC.  It was there that he met Richard Gardner, MD, as well as many of the first pioneers in this field.  From that period onward, his focus has been increasingly on the problem of grappling with Parental Alienation.  In 2006 he closed his clinical practice, stopped seeing patients, and began to work exclusively on the problem of Parental Alienation in a purely consultative capacity.  In that role he has  become involved in cases all over the United States and Canada.  He has spoken at multiple professional conferences devoted to Parental Alienation in the United States, Canada and western Europe, and has been interviewed on many radio and talk programs, including Anderson Cooper.  The most recent focus on his work has been on the challenge of how to best present Parental Alienation to the Family Court system. 

Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Amy Baker,
​ P. h.D

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"IDENTIFICATION OF PARENTAL ALIENATION"

Dr. Baker will be speaking to us on the identification of alienation. There is both parental alienation and grandparent alienation. Not all children or grandchildren who reject a parent or grandparent are alienated. it is not possible to tell based on the child's rejection whether the child is alienated, estranged, or a combination of both. This talk will represent the four-factor model for identification of parental alienation. The purpose of the talk is to provide the listener with the information necessary for determining whether a child is alienated or not. the information can also be used for figuring out how to prepare evidence for one's attorney and the courts, including types and level of evidence. 
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Dr.Amy J.L. Baker has a PhD in Development Psychology from Teachers College of Columbia University. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in parental alienation and psychological maltreatment of children. She is the author or co-author of 8 books and over 115 articles. Some of her books are Adult children of parental alienation, surviving parental alienation, co-parenting with a toxic ex, and the high conflict custody battle. She has conducted trainings for legal and mental health professionals around the country. 
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Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Colleen Murray,
​Ph. D, LPC

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"PARENTING AND CO-PARENTING AFTER ALIENATION"

What happens after parental alienation? How do you redefine the relationship with your child? How do you not react to the continued attacks? And what about co parenting?

In the midst of enduring the pain of parental alienation, these are questions not normally discussed because we are often consumed by the current conflict. However, the continuing research by experts in the legal and mental health professions is yielding new information that is enabling an ever increasing number of targeted parents to get their children back. And as they get their children back, some are finding that they don’t know what to do next.

Re-initiating and then maintaining a connection with the offending “Ex” (whether that be a former spouse or estranged in-law) for the sake of your children and then redefining your parenting style with your children post-alienation is complicated at best. This is mostly because the person from whom you are trying to distance yourself remains an important presence in the life of your child. So how do you go about reestablishing your parental authority and engage in a healthy co-parenting relationship?
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In this Family Access presentation, Dr. Murray will discuss techniques of how to assume parental influence in your child’s life while simultaneously managing a co-parenting relationship with an emotionally impaired Ex who lacks boundaries.


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.


Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Steven Miller,
​M. D.

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"TEN THINGS ABOUT PARENTAL ALIENATION
THAT EVERY PARENT AND PROFESSIONAL SHOULD KNOW"

Dealing with parental alienation can be overwhelming—not only for parents and grandparents, but for mental health and legal professionals. It is a complex clinical field. Indeed, some of the most important issues are not just clinical, they are medical—in other words, they are not just psychological, they are psychiatric. Similarly, many of the concepts are not just difficult, they are profoundly counterintuitive to the point that, in general, such cases far exceed the expertise of even the best psychologists unless they are bona fide specialists in parental alienation, realistic estrangement, and – most of all – how to tell them apart. Worse, the challenges are at least as great for attorneys and judges as they are for treating clinicians and forensic evaluators. 

Other than the fact that the subject is counterintuitive, the worst problem is the sheer volume of information that a professional (or anyone else) would need to master to accurately distinguish between alienation on the one hand and estrangement on the one hand – or, for that matter, to distinguish between a true hybrid and a pseudo-hybrid. Likewise, it can be challenging to properly handle or manage such cases, either personally or professionally. 

Therefore, the main purpose of this presentation is to identify the ten most important things that anyone needs to know in order to accurately identify and properly manage a case of parental alienation. In addition to identifying ten key points, Dr. Miller will provide a conceptual framework and conceptual tools to assist with problem-solving and decision-making. To provide but one example, in addition to knowing that such cases are counterintuitive, the single most important teaching point is probably NON-USE OF THE HIGH CONFLICT MODEL (HCM) for problem-solving and decision-making. Not only does failure to understand this all-important point run rampant in the field, but it leads to a great deal of misdiagnosis and mismanagement. (For those unfamiliar with the term, people who use the HCM as their conceptual framework tend to assume that the parents are simply high conflict people (HCPs) who cannot get along with each other; that they simply cannot or will not put their children’s needs ahead of their own. If, in fact, the underlying problem is parental alienation, then use of the HCM is not only inappropriate and inaccurate, but dangerous and unconscionable. Nevertheless—and deplorably—use of the HCM is almost ubiquitous in family courts.) 

The content of this presentation should be equally relevant to both parents and professionals, including both mental health and legal professionals. 


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.
Please note by checking the "I agree button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!

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"LOGICAL FALLACIES AND FLAWED ANALYSES:
A REVIEW OF THE MOST COMMON SPECIOUS ARGUMENTS
USED TO CRITICIZE ALIENATION SCIENCE IN  COURT AND ELSEWHERE"


Lawyers have a saying: You can’t prove a lie. Although technically true, lies can be strikingly effective in court. Indeed, especially in alienation cases, the truth is often irrelevant because attorneys are permitted—if not expected—to distort or obscure the truth. That goes hand in hand with their obligation to provide “zealous representation.” And, only partly in jest, attorneys have a saying about that, too: If the facts are on your side, argue the facts; if the law if on your side, argue the law; if neither is on your side, confuse the court.
In the past decade, the science of parental alienation has matured to the point that bona fide specialists now understand the family dynamics quite well. The basic principles and key details are understood. That is true for diagnosis, prognosis, causation, and treatment. What’s more, the science has been codified in numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and reference books. And yet—unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with the adversarial U.S. court system—attorneys who represent alienating parents continue to argue—without basis in fact—that the science of parental alienation is neither valid nor reliable. Some have argued that even the concept of parental alienation is not admissible in court. Not only are such arguments egregiously incorrect—and demonstrably incorrect—but they fly in the face of a recently published, seminal study by Lorandos that found—using strict inclusion and exclusion criteria—that between 1985 and 2018, 1181 Appeals Courts in the U.S. found the concept of parental alienation to be material, relevant, probative, and admissible (see chapter 9 in Parental Alienation: Science and Law, edited by Lorandos & Bernet, 2020).
Thus, there is often a huge gap between what the science actually says and what alienating parents and their attorneys claim it says—in court and elsewhere.
The “good” news is that alienators and their attorneys tend to use a predictable set of specious arguments, along with certain well-known logical fallacies, that are relatively easy to expose and discredit—if one knows how. (For lay readers, a specious argument is one that sounds true but is actually false.) Common logical fallacies in such cases include straw man arguments, red herrings, circular arguments, false assumptions, faulty generalizations, non-sequiturs, and others. The bad news is that both the clinical and legal literature have been thoroughly polluted by poor quality papers that, at best, misrepresent the science and, at times, appear to have been carefully-calculated to mislead their readers—including the courts.
This presentation will focus on some of the most common false and misleading arguments offered by attorneys and others who represent or support abusive alienating parents. It will also address how to expose, discredit, and refute those arguments, in court and elsewhere.


Dr. Miller has degrees in both Psychology and Medicine from Brown University. He did residency training at Brown and Harvard. For more than 30 years, he held a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School. With four decades of practice experience in Forensic Medicine and Behavioral Medicine, he is also board certified in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. A cognitive scientist and medical educator, he has directed several hundred continuing education courses for physicians and other clinicians and has presented more than one thousand lectures on clinical reasoning, clinical problem-solving, and clinical decision-making. He is also an experienced expert witness, litigation consultant, and trial strategist.

Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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"TWELVE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE FOR ALIENATED PARENTS AND THEIR ATTORNEYS"

In this presentation, Dr. Steven Miller, who is both a mental health clinician and a litigation consultant, will discuss a dozen basic principles of cognitive science that, in his experience, can be critical when litigating—or otherwise dealing with—a case of parental alienation. Some of these principles are well-known, though not always well-understood. Examples in this group include anchoring and confirmation bias. These are examples of cognitive biases, which is simply a fancy term for thinking errors. (In science, the term bias does not mean prejudice; it means error—so again, a cognitive bias is a thinking error.) Unfortunately, such errors are very common in cases of parental alienation. Other principles, though at least as critical, are relatively unknown, even to mental health professionals. Those, too, have fancy names (think: psychobabble) which we will not get into here. Suffice it to say that the concepts are easy to understand and easy to use in a wide variety of settings including interpersonal relationships, social interactions, therapy sessions, crisis intervention, parenting, interviews, depositions, and court.
This will be a bread-and-butter/nuts-and-bolts presentation with an emphasis on practical applications. The twelve topics have been carefully chosen to be particularly relevant to alienated parents, alienated grandparents, mental health professionals, and family law attorneys. Among other things, the goal is to help participants make elegant use of simple concepts.

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.

Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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Robert Evans, Ph.D
J Michael Bone, Ph.D
Parental Alienation Consultant

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"WHEN THEY SAY YOU CAN'T PROVE IT: THE ROBUST RESEARCH ABOUT PARENTAL ALIENATION"

 This call is devoted to the problem of the education - or the lack of education - of professionals regarding parental alienation. Many of you are going through litigation. Some unfortunately have attorneys and other professionals who know little to nothing on the subject of alienation. Many of you are going pro se on your cases. This is absolutely a call you will want to be on. 
 
 Dr Bone works primarily in a consultative capacity all across the United States and Canada, advising attorneys and parents and grandparents in the furtherance of their cases in court.  Dr Evans performs expert testimony and does comprehensive evaluations focused on parental alienation all over the United States.   In addition to their normal endeavors, Drs Evans and Bone co-founded the National Association of Parental Alienation Specialists (NAOPAS.com).  The purpose of this organization is to educate attorneys and mental health professionals in all areas of parental alienation.  We have often found that those who should understand parental alienation - forensic psychologists appointed by courts, and Family Law attorneys - do not.  Due to this, great miscarriages of justice within the Family Law area are not only common, but largely predictable.   This call draws from this course.

Additionally, Drs Bone and Evans will be addressing the role of self representation or pro se representation during this call.  As more and more parents end up, at some point, representing themselves due to the backbreaking financial demands of attorney representation, this topic will be addressed and interwoven throughout the entire call.  If one is representing oneself, it is all the more important to be  the most informed person in the courtroom about parental alienation. 

Below is an outline of just some of the topics touched upon:
  • How Can This Happen:  the counterintuitive nature of parental alienation
  • The Science of Misperception:  Part I
  • Attachment Theory and PA
  • Defining Parental Alienation
  • Parenting:  healthy and parentally alienated
  • How is it that Children can describe things that never occurred:  what the research shows
  • How Memory works:  Steven Ceci’s work and does not work
  • The power of parental attachment and the irrationality of alienation
  • A Brief History of how parental alienation has evolved
  • The Science of Misperception Part 2:  the work of Elizabeth Loftus and false memories
  • Prevalence of PA ranging from 20% to 60%
  • Gender prevalence for alienating parents
  • Pathological Parenting and PA
  • History of PA from the 19th century to the present
  • The Lucifer Effect:  how good people can do bad things and the research of Phillip Zimbardo
  • The empirically validated 17 alienating behaviors of alienating parents
  • Brainwashing techniques used by alienating parents
  • When children lie under pressure
  • National Abuse statistics and what they mean
  • Detection of PA
  • The progressive course of PA
  • Assessing Abuse allegations: false and actual
  • Relationship deterioration in the progression of PA
  • The alienated child’s fear of the alienating parent
  • Levels of Severity of PA
  • The 8 symptoms of PA
  • Estrangement vs Alienation
  • Bias and identifying it
  • Consequences of PA
  • Treatment Programs
  • Why conventional therapy does not work
  • Current Programs for PA
  • Strategic considerations for lawyers
  • Representing the Alienating Parent:  Ethical considerations
  • Representing the Targeted Parent:  Exposing the alienation
  • The various roles of various experts in PA cases
  • Critiquing misguided evaluations and evaluators
  • Critiquing misguided guardians

It is our hope that this call will provide assistance to you in dealing with parental alienation and grand parental alienation.

J Michael Bone received his Master’s and Doctoral Degrees at the New School for Social Research, in New York City.  He did his clinical training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, and eventually had consulting and training responsibilities in their Department of Psychiatry.   Upon return to his home in Orlando, Florida, he began a general clinical psychotherapy practice.  By the mid 1990’s he began to work in the area of high conflict divorce, which eventually and inevitably led him to the problem of Parental Alienation.  In the late 1990’s he published several articles on the problem and was invited to become a member of the Scientific and Professional Advisory Board of the Parental Alienation Research Foundation in Washington DC.  It was there that he met Richard Gardner, MD, as well as many of the first pioneers in this field.  From that period onward, his focus has been increasingly on the problem of grappling with Parental Alienation.  In 2006 he closed his clinical practice, stopped seeing patients, and began to work exclusively on the problem of Parental Alienation in a purely consultative capacity.  In that role he has  become involved in cases all over the United States and Canada.  He has spoken at multiple professional conferences devoted to Parental Alienation in the United States, Canada and western Europe, and has been interviewed on many radio and talk programs, including Anderson Cooper.  The most recent focus on his work has been on the challenge of how to best present Parental Alienation to the Family Court system. ​

Dr. Evans is a licensed school psychologist and has been practicing Forensic Psychology for over 25 years throughout the U.S.  His forensic services include expert testimony in family law cases with a focus on Parental Alienation (PA), including allegations of parental rejection, child abuse, sex abuse, and estrangement.  He is trained as a Family Divorce Mediator, Parenting Coordinator, Guardian ad Litem, Collaborative Law Practice, and Child Custody Evaluator.  In 2011, he authored the book, The Essentials of Parent Alienation Syndrome, and a number of articles for bar association journals and publications.  He has testified as an expert on PA in numerous courts across the U.S. as to what PA is, how to identify it, and how to rehabilitate it.  He has conducted in excess of a hundred child custody evaluations in his career thus far.  Dr. Evans is an approved sponsor of continuing education for psychologists by the American Psychological Association.  He is the co-founder of the National Association of Parental Alienation Specialists (NAOPAS.com).  In addition he has been approved by many legal bar associations to conduct continuing legal education on a variety of topics, including Litigating Family Law Cases with Parent Alienation, Critiquing and Reviewing Child Custody Evaluations and An Overview of Established Rehabilitation Programs. 




Please note by checking the "I agree" button here, you understand you do not have permission to record these calls or share with others. You also have purchased a 1 time playback. These are property of Family Access- Fighting for Children's Rights. We also have submitted copyrights for each of these calls. Once registered, please email me at familyaccessinnc@aol.com with the number you are calling in on and I will give you your call in instructions. Thanks!
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