Speakers

WILLIAM BERNET, M. D.

PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, EMERITUS
PRESIDENT OF THE PARENTAL ALIENATION STUDY GROUP

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.

“Word of welcome and introduction ”: Friday September 10th @ 8h40

AMY J. L. BAKER, PH.D

RESEARCHER, EXPERT, AUTHOR, & COACH IN PARENTAL ALIENATION

Dr. Amy Baker has a Ph.D in developmental psychology from Teachers College of Columbia University. She is currently the director of research at the Vincent J Fontana Center for Child Protection of the New York Foundling where she conducts research on psychological maltreatment, mental health needs of children in foster care, foster parent training, and related issues. She also has a private practice in which she coaches parents and serves as an expert witness in cases involving parental alienation. Dr. Baker is the author or co-author of 8 books and over 100 articles. She conducts trainings and workshops around the country on psychological maltreatment and parental alienation.

“Preventing Mild and Moderate Parental Alienation from Progressing to Severe Alienation”: Friday September 10th @ 13h30

NICK CHILD

RETIRED CHILD PSYCHIATRIST & FAMILY THERAPIST

During my career in child and family mental health services in Scotland, of course we worked with separated families. But our focus was with other agencies than family law. We hoped family law knew what they were doing while we drifted away from the more troubled separated families and their disturbed children. Then, in a voluntary sector family therapy team, a client helped me correct my ignorance. He sent me a textbook before the first appointment! For ten years since, I have dedicated myself to puzzling about this nightmare field. I am now very clear that prevention is the way we get out of the nightmare..

“Making history now”: Thursday September 9th @ 10h05

URSULA KODJOE

COURT EXPERT

Actually living in the South of Germany. Studies in Vienna, Munich and Freiburg. Advanced trainings in USA
Working fields:
· Systemic therapy: single and group therapy
· Family counselling
· Court appointed evaluation of high conflict cases
· Counselling and therapy with individuals, couples and families
· Cross-cultural mediation and counselling
· trainings for teachers and educators in School and Kindergarden

1994 first empirical study on “Psychosocial Situation of Fathers without Custody”
20 years of advanced training of professionals in interdisciplinary cooperation: lawyers, judges, psychologists, teachers, police forces and social workers
on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Family and Education
training in descalating and consensus oriented practice
Seminars, expert training and public awareness work on parental alienation in Germany,Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, USA.

“Parenting Commitment”: Thursday September 9th @ 9h25

JEAN VAN HEMELRIJCK

PSYCHOLOGUE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTE FAMILIAL

J’ai travaillé de très longues années en psychiatrie adulte et adolescentaire Hôpital Psychiatrique de Mons “le Chêne aux haies”. J’ai poursuivi ma carrière hospitalière en médecine interne oncologique et infectieuse. Hôpital Saint Pierre Bruxelles. J’ai terminé mon parcours institutionnel en centre de santé mentale à Louvain la Neuve UCLouvain
Enseignant en faculté ( master et 3ème cycle) de psychologie de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
Auteur de la Malséparation chez Payot 2016, Co auteur Les séparations parentales conflictuelles deBoeck 2021

“The malseparation”: Thusday September 10th @ 14h00

MARC JUSTON

Président de tribunal honoraire, magistrat à titre temporaire

Marc Juston est Président de tribunal honoraire, magistrat à titre temporaire (TGI Aix en Provence), formateur, médiateur (inscrit sur la liste de la Cour d’Appel de Nîmes).
Le Tribunal Judiciaire, qu’il a présidée, a été primé, en 2009 : « l’application de la médiation familiale dans une juridiction », et 2012 : « la co audition de l’enfant dans le contentieux familial », par le Conseil de l’Europe et la Commission Européenne, dans le cadre du Prix Balance de Crystal, récompensant les pratiques innovantes dans les juridictions.

“The child’s right to speak in situations of parental alienation”: Friday September 10th @ 9h20 

DR. JORGE GUERRA GONZALEZ

COURT EXPERT

His vita expresses the search for justice, mainly for vulnerable people. Jorge Guerra, PhD, studied Law, Social-Economy, Sustainable Development Cooperation… at present Psychology. He teaches and conducts research at the German Leuphana University. Concerning Family Law he understood that a multidisciplinary approach was needed, and that it is paramount to meet the reality of (conflicting) families in order to publish or teach how to best safeguard the children involved. Hence he became mediator, advocate of the child, right-of-visit caregiver and family coach. From this broad background including theory and practice he is actively involved in changing the ways and paradigms to PA at an international level.

“Shared parenting: a golden way to prevent parental alienation?”: Thursday September 9th @ 11h05

DAVID CURL

EXPERT

Father, film-maker, scientist and writer, David’s career bridges art and science. An award-winning cinematographer, director and producer, he has created and worked on numerous international films, produced media for TV, radio, print and online, and worked in science and wildlife conservation. He has been a long-time contributor to national policy development in a number of fields, and has been an active Board Member of the prestigious Australian Directors Guild, Australian Cinematographers Society and Alice Desert Festival. Currently CEO of Australian non-profit For Kids Sake, and member of a Cafcass (UK) Advisory Board, he has met with many politicians and industry leaders as part of a social impact campaign for children’s rights and better, health-focused approaches to help families in crisis.

“Better than a Cure”: Thursday September 9th @ 10h25

BRUNO HUMBEEK

PSYCHOPEDAGOGUE / DIRECTEUR DE RECHERCHE

Titulaire d’un Master Européen de Recherche en Sciences de l’Education et d’un doctorat en Sciences de l’Education de l’Université de Rouen, Bruno Humbeeck est actif à la fois sur le terrain en tant que psychopédagogue et en tant que directeur de recherche au sein du service des Sciences de la famille de l’Université de Mons.

Son immersion continue dans les pratiques de soutien à la parentalité des familles défaillantes l’amène à interroger en permanence la validité opérationnelle des perspectives théoriques à travers lesquelles la réalité psychosociale des personnes et des familles en difficulté peut être envisagée.
Spécialiste de la résilience, il est aussi formateur et auteur de plusieurs publications dans le domaine de l’éducation familiale, des relations école-famille, de la maltraitance, de la toxicomanie et de la prise en charge des personnes en rupture psychosociale.

“Children’s suffering during separation”: Thusday September 10th @ 14h20

PHILIP MARCUS

RETIRED JUDGE

Philip Marcus served as a Judge of the Jerusalem Family Court from its opening in 1997 until his retirement in 2012.
He is a consultant to governments and other organizations on programmes to prevent Parental Alienation and on Family Court reform. His article Innovative Programs in Israel for Prevention and Responding to Parental Alienation: Education, Early Identification and Timely and Effective Intervention, was published in Family Court Review, and ​The Israel Family Court – Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Jurisprudential Therapy from the Start was published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry.

“ How early intervention and swift court action contribute to prevention: Israel’s achievement and challenges ”: Friday September 10th @ 11h30

VITTORIO VEZZETTI

RETIRED JUDGE

Vittorio Vezzetti is born in Milan; pediatrician, he works in Insubria Health Agency. He has been relator or teacher in more than 100 conferences in Italy and abroad regarding the crisis of the family and the custody of the children. Several times Professor on contract by Rome University, he has been several times in audition by the Italian Parliament during the proceeding to change the national law on the joint custody. He’s author of several official questions to the Italian and European parliament. He has collaborated or written several proposals of law on the custody of the children in Italy and also abroad. He has conceived the first Italian civil actions of minors and associations of mothers and fathers against the parent not allowing the children relations with the other parent. He’s author of different articles on the custody of the children and has written an Italian best seller on this topic “Nel nome dei Figli”. His article “The interest of the children in different family structures” has been translated in 9 languages, while the comparative research “The European children and the divorce of their parents” has been presented by the author by the European Parliament in Strasbourg and to the High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU) He’s co-founder of Colibri-Europe and former member of scientific committee of the International Council on Shared Parenting. Actually his interest is focused on biological health consequences of childhood adversity..

“Family ties and children-adults health”: Thursday September 9th @ 11h25

MARIE-FRANCE CARLIER

FAMILY JUDGE / CO-PRESIDENT of the CONFERENCE

Juge de la famille et de la jeunesse à Namur ( division Dinant ) depuis 2007.
Passionnée par sa fonction, elle se rend très rapidement compte de l’absence de réponses rapides et efficaces du système judiciaire dans le cadre des séparations parentales. Suite à une conférence sur le modèle de Cochem, elle prend l’initiative de proposer à son collègue et au barreau de Dinant de se lancer dans un beau défi : adapter le modèle de Cochem à Dinant, ce qui sera officialisé le 1er avril 2012. Le modèle dinantais, appelé modèle de consensus parental, ne cesse de s’améliorer grâce la Commission Interdisciplinaire Famille-Jeunesse fondée en janvier 2013 qui réunit trimestriellement tous les professionnels de la famille de l’arrondissement pour se connaître, échanger sur des thèmes actuels , donner des conférences et des formations.
Le modèle de consensus est préventif des ruptures de liens. Marie-France Carlier a été invitée à partager son expérience lors de plusieurs conférences et formations notamment en Suisse où le district de Monthey ( Valais) a mis en place le modèle de consensus en janvier 2020

“The decisive role of the judge in maintaining the parent-child bond after separation”: Friday September 10th @ 10h50

OLIVIER VANHAELEN

COURT EXPERT / CO-PRESIDENT of the CONFERENCE

Olivier Vanhaelen is an experienced and certified family court expert, lecturer and coach in Belgium. He works for family courts and supports families, practitioners, and organizations dealing with broken families after separation. He is a founding member of STER-KER, an organization that sets up interventions and support for parents and children. As founding member of IAMBIC asbl (International Academy Maintaining the Best Interest of the Child) he’s coordinating the courses, trainings, events, and projects for professionals. 

“Introduction”: Thursday September 9th @ 8h45
“Conclusions of the conference”: Friday September 10th @ 17h

OLGA ODINETZ

EXPERT JUDICIAIRE

Née en France en 1957, Olga Odinetz a terminé ses études universitaires d’écologie marine par une thèse de doctorat à Guam et en Polynésie Française, puis a travaillé 20 ans en Afrique et au Brésil en qualité d’enseignant-chercheur dans le domaine de l’environnement. Ses trois enfants ont été aliénés par leur père quand elle a divorcé en 2000. Elle a fondé alors l’Association contre l’Aliénation Parentale pour le maintien du lien familial. Avec le psychiatre Roland Broca, elle a dirigé la rédaction du livre « Séparations Conflictuelles et Aliénation Parentale », régulièrement utilisé pour la formation des avocats. Entièrement impliquée dans ACALPA, Olga Odinetz travaille depuis 10 ans comme expert interprète judiciaire. Elle est sans nouvelles de ses enfants depuis son divorce.
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“The word of families”: Thursday September 9th @ 9h00

BRIAN O’SULLIVAN

FAMILY PSYCHOTHERAPIST

Brian is an accredited Systemic Family Psychotherapist in Ireland. He has conducted the only published research regarding Parental Alienation in Ireland. Furthermore, he is the only Irish author to have been published peer reviewed papers regarding parental alienation.
Brian is often asked to act as an expert witness in complex private family law proceedings where parental alienation is considered to be a factor in Irish and UK Courts.
Brian has been successfully reconnecting alienated children and parents in Ireland in collaboration with the Family Law Courts.
Brian has developed the first accredited post graduate award in parental alienation scheduled to commence in October 2021.
Brian is a co-founder of www.parentalalienation.ie He can be contacted at brian@changes.ie.

“Parental Alienation in Ireland – Challenges and Solutions”: Friday September 10th @ 15h10 

SILVIA DANOWSKI-REETZ

COURT EXPERT

Living in Germany and part time in the Maldives Silvia is a multilingual world inhabitant. She obtained her Diplom in Psychology at the Dresden University. After having three kids she started her career as a Guardian at Litem. Soon she was also assigned cases as a solution oriented expert. She was officially certified in 2016. Her passion is the preservation of family relationships. Together with Judge Alexander Erbarth she founded the Greiz Model, a very effective and short term teamed up court intervention.

“Effective Teamed up Court Intervention”: Thursday September 9th @ 10h00

HANS CHRISTIAENS PRESTIEN

RETIRED FAMILY JUDGE

Father of 4 daughters and grandfather of 7 grandchildren, was a family judge from 1977 to 1981 in Bielefeld. The accompaniment by two psychological university professors led to an unusual procedure.
Personal encounters with children and family and cooperation with psychological competence changed his judicial function to become a justice of the peace.
In the function of youth judge and chairman of a youth lay judge’s court 1981-1983, the lasting consequences of unsuccessful pacification of parents became visible for him.
A first concept for a child advocacy was developed.
From 1983 to 1993 he worked as a lawyer specializing in child law. His initiatives during this time contributed significantly to the fact that in 1998 the first child representation – albeit still insufficient in relation to its conception – was anchored in family law.
After reunification in Germany, he was again a family judge in the former GDR in the state of Brandenburg from 1993 to 2009 and was able to carry out a mostly successful pacification work for conflicted family systems in this function.
About the situation of child rights and the necessities of a changed
Since his retirement, he and his wife have been holding seminars on the qualification of procedural advisers and other professions involved in the field of child law. For more information, go to www: abc-kindesvertretung.de
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“Necessary changes to the existing legal framework of rights – prevention of AP in the event of parental separation”: Friday September 10th @ 9h00

PETER BEYERLEIN

PROFESSOR MACHINE INTELLIGENCE & COMPUTIONAL BIOLOGY

Peter Beyerlein is a professor at University of Applied Sciences Wildau, Germany. His is a known expert in machine intelligence and computational biology, published as one of the first authors together with Mayo Clinics (U.S.) a manuscript about the development of chronic pain as result of cell reprogramming, and is teaching mathematics, signal processing, systems theory and computational biology. He is the head of the institute for biomedical informatics at TH Wildau and of the institute for family law and social pediatrics (Institut für familienrechtliche Sozialpädiatrie, IFS). Peter Beyerlein devoted the past 30 years of his research to the deeper understanding of natural intelligence and life itself

“On the informational physiology of the developing child”: Thursday September 9th @ 15h00

VANJA SLIJEPCEVIC SAFTIC

CHILD NEUROLOGIST

I am working in Child and Youth Protection Centre Zagreb, as a child neurologist, with position of Chief Physician and Deputy Director. My life and career is dedicated to deal with medical, social, legal and educational problems of adversity during childhood. I’m particularly occupied with consequences of adversity (abuse, neglect, poverty, high conflict divorce) on developing brain. I am trying to transform the practice of pediatric medicine, with protocols that can help to prevent chronic diseases by building a comprehensive system of protection and promotion of child rights based on international laws, regulations and conventions.

“How to protect children from parental alienation and toxic stress for their mental and physical development.”: Thursday September 9th @ 14h40 

JAN JAMES

CEO Non-Profit

Jan James is CEO and founder of UK based Good Egg Safety; a globally awarded, non-profit, Community Interest Company that focuses on keeping children and families safe.
Jan and her dedicated team specialize in award-winning, evidence-based behavioral change campaigns and have worked closely with central and local governments since 2001.
She started her career in the media working for major radio broadcasters including EMAP and Wireless Group with a remit to develop and launch high-profile station-driven social marketing initiatives, prior to setting up her own company.
In 2019, in partnership with experts in mental health, family law and research, Good Egg Safety instigated the largest survey ever undertaken in the UK into the experiences of alienated mothers, fathers and the wider family.
The presentation will include the findings of this report and evidence the long-term trauma and devastation caused by parental alienation.
Jan passionately believes the time has come where parental alienation can no longer be denied and those in public positions who do so, should be held accountable for aiding and abetting the psychological abuse of children and victim parents. Without recognition, there can be no prevention. www.parentalalienationuk.info

“ Battle for truth ”: Friday September 9th @ 9h40