Introducing innovative specialized training for Legal Professionals (family court lawyers, attorneys, GALs) and Mental Health Professionals (child custody evaluators) on increasing expertise and skills in the intersection of child abuse and domestic violence in child custody cases. This grant subsidized training will provide professionals with the necessary tools to ensure family safety, prevent further traumatization, and maximize children’s well-being and best interests. Learn how to analyze, evaluate, litigate, and respond to cases involving allegations of child abuse and domestic violence. Improve your understanding of challenges that arise in these cases and build your capacity to utilize effective legal strategies, expert testimony, and custody evaluations.
This is an advanced training that requires some previous training and experience in the areas of domestic violence, child maltreatment and family law. Registrants must attest to 6 hours of education and training on domestic violence and/or child maltreatment in the last five years.
The certification program includes 20 hours of in-person training from Friday to Sunday morning, 10 hours of online training chosen among several webinars, and acceptance of one pro bono case per year for child custody evaluators/experts, and one pro bono or low/reduced fee case for attorneys per year unless the case is longer than 1 year. Faculty will provide consultation and technical assistance for these cases. Faculty include an interdisciplinary team of mental health professionals, child custody evaluators, attorneys, and advocates with hundreds of combined years of experience and expertise among them in these areas.
The in-person training includes 2 ½ days of instruction. Day 1 is foundational and offers 8 hours of continuing education; it is also available to attendees who are not seeking certification. Days 2 and 3 offer an additional 12 hours of continuing education focusing on skill-building and techniques. Limited enrollment. Certification requires all 20 hours.
Dr. Bob Geffner is the Founding President of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute (FVSAI) dba the Institute on Violence, Abuse & Trauma (IVAT). He has a Diplomate in Clinical Neuropsychology from the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and is Board Certified in Couple & Family Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Geffner is a licensed clinician (Psychologist in CA and TX, and MFT in CA) and has been a researcher, trainer, practitioner, and consultant for over 40 years.
Joan Meier, Esq. is the founding director of the National Family Violence Law Center and the NFVLC Professor of Clinical Law at George Washington University Law School. She has been teaching, litigating, researching and educating professionals nationally and internationally for over 30 years. While directing the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP) from 2003-2019, she litigated numerous appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and state appeals courts. Her team’s 2019 federally-funded empirical study is the first-ever national study quantifying family court responses to abuse and alienation claims.
Ms. Martinez-Mullen has been working in the field of violence against women for more than 20 years. She began her work in this field as an advocate assisting victims of intimate partner violence. Upon graduating law school, she practiced family law. Before coming to BWJP, she represented victims of violence in civil protection order actions. Ms. Martinez-Mullen has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Coastal School of Law.
Dr. Viola Vaughan-Eden is a Professor and the PhD Program Director at the Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University. She is also the President and CEO of UP For Champions, a non-profit in partnership with The UP Institute, a think tank for upstream child abuse solutions. As a clinical and forensic social worker, she serves as a consultant and expert witness in child maltreatment cases – principally sexual abuse. Dr. Vaughan-Eden lectures nationally and internationally on child and family welfare to multidisciplinary groups of professionals.
Tracy Shoberg, Esq. serves as the Deputy Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence with the Battered Women’s Justice Project, where she has provided training to numerous legal practitioners on improving their domestic violence practice. Before joining BWJP, Tracy previously represented victim-survivors of domestic violence in family law matters. When Tracy is not busy training legal professionals, she can be found at the dog park with her spouse and two Doodles.
Dr. Sujata Warrier is the Director of Training and TA for the Battered Women’s Justice Project, where she trains and provides technical assistance to professionals in various criminal justice systems. She has also trained extensively at the local, state, national and international levels on the issue of cultural competency for various professionals and has delivered numerous keynotes on the issue of culture, competency, relativism, and violence against women.
Dr. Silsby is the Director of Clinical Training at IVAT for Professional Clinical and Forensic Services. She graduated with a Doctorate in Clinical Forensic Psychology and has gained expertise working with individuals who have extensive trauma. Dr. Silsby maintains a private practice focusing on Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Prolonged Exposure for trauma, and working with gender-expansive youth and adults. Passion for addressing and reducing trauma exposure in clients, community, and future psychologists guides her focus.
Dr. Joyanna Silberg is a clinical child psychologist with a specialty in sexual abuse and dissociative disorders. Her psychotherapy practice specializes in consultation for children and adolescents suffering from dissociative symptoms and disorders, supervision of clinicians, and her forensic practice specializes in child sexual abuse. Dr. Silberg has served as an expert witness in 27 states. She has presented nationally and internationally on child abuse, psychotherapy, and protecting abused children in family court and has received numerous awards for her research and clinical excellence.
Dr. Stephanie Dallam is a co-founder of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence a nonprofit organization that seeks to ensure that legislative, public policy and legal decision-makers have access to the best psychological science available on issues surrounding child abuse and interpersonal violence. She has written numerous articles and book chapters on issues related to child abuse, and lectured on and conducted trainings on child custody situations involving allegations of abuse throughout the country.
Sandi Capuano Morrison has worked with victims and offenders of interpersonal violence for 24 years in Colorado, Massachusetts and California. She has been with IVAT since 2008. Sandi received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder in Psychology with a focus in Women’s Studies in 1996. Her commitment to domestic violence survivors began after volunteering at a battered women’s shelter as part of a course on Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa, nonviolent resistance, and satyagrapha.
Sandi was a victim advocate at Boulder County Safehouse and then Children’s Counselor at Alternatives to Violence domestic violence shelter before moving to Boston in 1998 and graduating from Boston College with her Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology in 2000. It was at BC that Sandi became certified as a Batterer Intervention Program Facilitator and assisted with research on the process and efficacy of offender programs. She became the Program Director of the IMPACT Batterer Intervention Program and ran offender groups for 5 years in Boston suburbs.
After moving to San Diego in 2005, Sandi managed the county-wide domestic violence and sexual assault 24-hour hotline and volunteer program and then the city of San Diego’s Rape Crisis Center at the Center for Community Solutions. In that position she was a member of both the San Diego Sexual Assault Response Team and the Sex Offender Management Council and became certified by California’s Office of Emergency Services as a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault counselor. She was also a Trauma Intervention Program (TIP) volunteer.
Sandi serves on the Executive Committee of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV) and is also a board member of Stop the Silence, Stop Child Sexual Abuse Inc.
Sandi is committed to empowerment-based, survivor-informed programs & processes as well as offender accountability. She has interests in Restorative Justice, Holistic Healing, Cultural Competency, Human Rights and Social Justice.