Total Credits: 8 American Psychological Association, 8 State Bar of California
Introducing an innovative specialized training for family court lawyers, mental health professionals, and 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 wellbeing 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 capacity to utilize effective legal strategies, expert testimony, and custody evaluations.
Day 1 is foundational and offers 8 hours of continuing education; it is also available to attendees who are not seeking certification.
Dr. Geffner is Founding President of a nonprofit international resource, training and direct services center, celebrating its 35th anniversary, the Family Violence & Sexual Assault Institute (FVSAI) dba the Institute on Violence, Abuse & Trauma (IVAT), that began in Texas and now in California for over 20 years. IVAT has 7 departments, including direct professional services, training, international summits, research, publications and dissemination, and providing CEs. He was a Professor of Psychology at University of Texas-Tyler for 16 years, and now a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology, at Alliant International University, San Diego for over 20 years. He is Editor-in-Chief of four professional peer reviewed, international disseminated journals. 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 Fellow in several American Psychological Association Divisions and other professional organizations. He has been a licensed clinician for over 40 years (Psychologist in CA and TX, and MFT in CA). He has built several private practice mental health clinics in his career, and directed a full-service one in East Texas for over 15 years prior to relocating to California over 20 years ago. He has lectured and trained nationally and internationally for over 35 years on the subjects of child abuse, domestic violence, trauma, forensic psychology, child custody, expert witness, human aggression, sexual assault and abuse, effects of adverse childhood experiences, neurobiology of trauma and aggression, interpersonal violence and abuse in criminal, civil, and family court cases, and diagnostic assessment. He has presented over 625 keynote addresses, plenaries, workshops, and seminars at international, national, regional, and state conferences. He has written, edited, co-authored, or co-edited over 100 published professional books, chapters, journal articles and technical reports on topics noted above.
Dr. Geffner is a founding member & Past President of the American Psychological Association Division of Trauma Psychology, Founding Co-Chair & Past President of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV), and Past President of the American Academy of Couple & Family Psychology. He has been a researcher, trainer, practitioner, and consultant for over 40 years.
Dr. Kaplan’s early career was shaped by working directly for the Family Court in New Jersey serving families in crisis. Since leaving the court, he has accrued more than 30 years of experience providing consultative services to families involved in the family court system. He has also presented on the issues related to this practice at various conferences and workshops as well as taught courses in personality theory, child maltreatment and psychological issues of family and dependency court. He is a member of the Leadership Council On Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, and currently resides in Chapel Hill, NC doing independent practice and consulting.
Joan Meier is a leading expert on domestic violence and the law. For nearly 20 years, she has spearheaded advocacy on behalf of adult and child victims of abuse in the U.S. Supreme Court and state appeals courts, trained legal and non-legal professionals on best practices in domestic violence cases, and published cutting-edge research on the subject. Most of Professor Meier’s litigation, policy, and research work has focused on the plight of children at risk from an abusive parent in family court litigation, where courts often refuse to acknowledge the danger and subject children to ongoing abuse—and, in some cases, death. In addition to her appointment as a Professor of Clinical Law at GW Law, Professor Meier launched and led the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP) from 2003-2019. DV LEAP provides appellate representation and amicus briefs on behalf of survivors of domestic violence. During Professor Meier’s tenure, DV LEAP contributed to 11 Supreme Court cases and close to 100 state appellate cases; conducted hundreds of trainings and presentations for judges, lawyers, and others; and provided extensive consulting and litigation support for thousands of litigants, attorneys, advocates, and other professionals. Professor Meier’s previous positions include clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and associate at Jenner & Block and at Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. She is a graduate of Harvard College magna cum laude and University of Chicago Law School cum laude.
Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen, JD, Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence. BWJP. Ms. Martinez-Mullen has held direct service and management roles in the GBV field for over 20 years. She began her work for justice as an advocate. Later, upon graduating law school and her admission to the Florida Bar she went into the private practice of family law representing clients in dissolution of marriage actions, custody, paternity cases, and Title IV-D Child Support actions. She also served as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. Prior to joining BWJP, she was Senior Attorney for the Injunction for Protection Project at Hubbard House, Inc., where she represented survivors in civil protection order actions.
Viola Vaughan-Eden, PhD, MJ, LCSW, is Associate Professor and PhD Program Director with The Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University. She is also the Chief Experience Officer (CEO) at The Up Institute, a think tank for upstream child abuse solutions. As a clinician and forensic social worker, Dr. Vaughan-Eden serves as a consultant and expert witness in child maltreatment cases - principally sexual abuse. She lectures nationally and internationally on child and family welfare to multidisciplinary groups of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV), President Emerita of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSCA), and Immediate Past-President of the National Organization of Forensic Social Work (NOFSW). She is the recipient of several honors including as a 2019 CSWE Leadership Scholar and the 2012 NASW Virginia Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award.
Tracy Shoberg is the Deputy Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence with the Battered Women’s Justice Project. She has trained thousands of legal practitioners on enhancing their domestic violence practice, including the SAFeR approach. Before joining BWJP, Tracy was a family law staff attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services serving low-income clients. She worked under the Office of Justice Programs grant representing victim-survivors in civil matters, including orders for protection, harassment restraining orders, custody, and divorce cases. While at SMRLS, Tracy also assisted Goodhue County in drafting their first Safe Harbor Protocol as part of the countywide effort to respond to the needs of human trafficking victim-survivors. Tracy attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving BAs in English and Gender Studies, and the University of Minnesota Law School. She has committed herself to this work since 2012 when she began working at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin.
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.
Jessica Silsby, PsyD, 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. Her roles as supervising psychologist extends into the community being active with the San Diego Psychological Association (currently Treasurer of the Board), and as a Board Member of the San Diego Psych-Law Society.
Toby Kleinman is a New Jersey attorney who has litigated domestic violence and child abuse cases and has been a consultant in cases dealing with domestic violence and child abuse in over 45 states. Ms. Kleinman developed a course and taught at the Harvard School of Public Health, developed and taught courses at Nova Southeastern University, has done both online and in person training of experts and evaluators, judges and has done webinars. Ms. Kleinman is co-author of the book entitled Domestic Abuse, Child Custody & Visitation: Winning in Family Court and writes regularly for the New York Law Journal, is the Associate editor of the Journal of Family Trauma, Child Custody & Child Development and is a Director of the Advisory Board of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence. Ms. Kleinman has done Grand Rounds training of pediatricians and pediatric personnel at New York and New Jersey medical schools, was an invited participant to the Faculty Development by the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence; Ms. Kleinman is co –author of the book Social Work and the Courts and has chapters in the book, The Broken Family Court. Ms. Kleinman and has written columns for The Trauma Psychology News and continues to consult in child custody and abuse cases.
Joyanna Silberg, Ph.D is the President of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence and past-president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD). She served as the Senior Consultant for Child and Adolescent Trauma at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore Maryland until 2020. 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. She has lectured widely, both nationally and internationally on child abuse, psychotherapy, and protecting abused children in family court. She has served as an expert witness on allegations of child abuse in 27 states. She has been the consultant for DVLEAP's Custody and Abuse Project in cooperation with the Office on Violence Against Women, and her project involved an analysis of cases in which judicial decisions that imperil children were reversed by later judicial decisions. The second edition of her award-winning book, The Child Survivor: Healing Developmental Trauma and Dissociation, was released in 2022.
Stephanie Dallam received her Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of Kansas. She is a co-founder of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence a nonprofit organization that seeks to insure 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 is currently a visiting scholar at CHILD USA, whose mission is to employ in-depth legal analysis and cutting-edge social science research to protect children from abuse and bring justice to survivors. Prior to her work as a researcher, she worked as a Nurse Practitioner specializing in pediatric trauma at the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics. She also worked at the University of Missouri teaching and supervising graduate nursing students.
Dr. Dallam has written numerous articles and book chapters on issues related to child abuse. She has lectured on and conducted trainings on child custody situations involving allegations of abuse throughout the US.
Danielle Pollack works in close collaboration with legal and social science experts, federal and state lawmakers, advocates, and survivor families to create comprehensive child-centric policy reforms and provide education on family courts. Pollack is a policy expert at the National Family Violence Law Center at GW Law in Washington, D.C., and manages the NFVLC Legislative Clearinghouse. She initiated and jointly developed the landmark child protective "Kayden's Law", Keeping Children Safe From Family Violence Act, which was recently signed into federal law by President Biden. Pollack is co-founder of the national umbrella organization for U.S. family court reform, National Safe Parents Organization (NSPO), and is co-director of The Court Said USA, the U.S. branch of The Court Said International. Her short documentary film, Voices for Reform, presents on family court system failures where children are at risk of violence and safe parents are denied the right to protect them. The film has been used to raise awareness at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in courts, and at universities and research centers internationally.
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.
Rebecca Henry is the Chief Programs Officer at BWJP, the Battered Women’s Justice Project, a collective of national policy and practice centers at the intersection of gender-based violence and legal systems. As CPO, Rebecca coordinates the work of seven national centers striving to transform legal systems responses to historically marginalized survivors of gender-based violence, in areas including families and children, protection orders, gun violence, criminalized survivors, coordinated community response, legal prevention, and systems change advocacy.
