PASG 2024 Conference Video recordings

PASG 2024 conference programme

Wednesday 4 September 2024

19-20 Welcome Reception in Oslo Rådhus

• Welcome from the organizers

• Short speech by a representative from Oslo City Council 

• Mingling and refreshments

• Guided tour in the Oslo City Hall

Thursday 5 September 2024, 8-12

The child´s legal and human rights

8.00 Registration starts. Coffee, tea, water, biscuits

8.30 Welcome greetings and some practical information

8.40 William Bernet, Professor emeritus psychiatry, US, and guest of honor :

So many perspectives: Can we have constructive dialogue with critics and deniers of parental alienation theory?

9.10 Five minutes break

9.15 Dialogue: Davíð Þór Björgvinsson, Iceland, former judge at the ECHR, and Geir Kjell Andersland, Norwegian politician and lawyer: 

How the ECHR has dealt with parental alienation cases and how their judgement should influence other courts in Europe.

10.25 Five minutes break

10.30 Dialogue Philip Marcus, retired family court judge from Israel, and Camilla Bernt, Norwegian law professor: Major challenges for the pursuit of the child´s best interests in the legal system.

11.20 Lecture: Ashish Joshi, lawyer Ann Arbor, US: In the best interests of children: How American family courts have assessed the role of parental alienation in child custody cases

12.00 Lecture: Robert A. Simon, forensic psychologist: What Can Alienation Advocates Do to be Accepted In The Broader Community of Professionals

12.30 Lunch

Thursday 5 September 2024, 14-18.00

The child´s fundamental needs and health

14.00 Lecture: Edward Kruk, professor emeritus psychology at the University of British Columbia, Canada:  The essential needs of children in situations of parental alienation: A responsibility based approach to policy and practice

14.40 Lecture: Ginger Gentile: How Alienated Children's Perspective Can Help Parents Reunite

15.15 Ten minutes break

15.25 Lecture: Marie-France Hirigoyen, psychoanalyst and writer from France: Differentiating between cognitive biases and denial

15.55 Videotaped lecture Pehr Granqvist, psychology professor, Stockholm University: 

Attachment goes to court. After the lecture, he will be answering questions and comments on Zoom link for 10 minutes.

16.30 Lecture: Ben Hine, Professor of Applied Psychology in London: Measuring the prevalence of parental alienation behaviors in a representative UK sample

17.00 Participants, in smaller gatherings, discuss: How does a loss of a formerly loved and loving parent who is good enough affect a child?

17.30 Panel of some of the day´s presenters and comments from the participants. 

Moderators: Jesper Lohse, Denmark, Sophie Roswall Sweden.

19.00 Supper arrangement for the conference members who have chosen to have a meal together with other participants at the conference, and have paid in advance.

Friday 6 September 2024, 8.30-12.00

Disturbed parent-child relations – damaging to the child

8.30 Film by Paulo Chavarria: “The bothersome father”

9.00 THREE PARALLELL SESSIONS IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS

Research

Break out room 1

Research, adequate help and adequate concepts for children at risk

Moderators: Lill Stella Høslom and Eivind Meland (who also lead a discussion at the end)

9.05 Preludium with Stan Korosi, PhD and administrator of Family Bridges, Robert A Simon, forensic psychologist, and a targeted mother. Common ground and conflicts – how can we move towards mutual understanding?

9.45 Hanna Ristimäki & Reetta Toivonen, the Finnish Association for Child and Family Guidance:The children´s divorce group model and how it supports children and their wellbeing.

10.05 Virginia Griffin, lawyer, US: Families in conflict: When parental alienation, resist refuse dynamics, parent-child contact problems and domestic violence make the family law matter more complex, Videotaped.

10.25 Jorge Guerra Gonzalez, Dr. Jur. B.SC. Psych. Dipl. Soz-Ök, Germany: Why can´t (and Shouldn´t) the existence of parental alienation be denied? .

10.45 10 minutes break.

10.55 Björn Cedervall & Sophie Roswall, Sweden: The concept of parental alienation as supported by professional journals from several disciplines

11.15 Sari Hanafi, professor in sociology, Libanon: The Demise of Family Authority in the Time of Symbolic Liberalism (with the Swedish Social Services as example). Videotaped.

11.35 Eivind Meland (presenter), David Jahanlu, Sophie Roswall, Lena Hellblom Sjögren and Björn Cedervall: A systematic review on the causation issue of parental alienation.

11.55 Ivan Sammut, law professor Malta with experiences as a consultant in EU law: Shared parenting, parental alienation. And the European convention of human rights (ECHR) – a case study of Malta with an EU perspective.

12.15 Discussion.

12.35 Lunch.

Research

Breakout room 2

Research and law (reform)

Moderators: Ashish Joshi and Robert Sandholm who also will lead the discussion.

9.05 Preludium by William Fabricius, who in a youtube interview made by Sigga Sólan and Brjann Jónsson, tells about Research that changed the law statutes in Arizona, USA

9.15 Mary Gauci, president Happy Parenting (For Happier Children), Malta: Creating awareness of parental alienation in Malta

9.35 Cristina Diaz, law professor and dean, Law School of University of Minho, Portugal, and Rossanna Cruz, PhD in Law, assistant professor: Law changes in Portugal regarding shared residence.

9.55 Jesper Lohse, chair Foreningen Far, Denmark, one of the oldest parents´ organization in Scandinavia:  Look to Denmark!

10.15 Sandra Ines Feitor, lawyer, assistant law professor. Portugal: 

Parental alienation under the right of good administration and effective measures- children´s rights are human rights

10.40 Ola Tellesbø, Lawyer (presenter), Martin Jullum and Eivind Meland: How and why the Norwegian Supreme Court is uncompliant with ECHR

11.10 Øivind Østberg, lawyer, Norway: Challenges in the Norwegian child support system: Addressing parental alienation and financial motives.

11.30 10 minutes break.

11.40 Anthony Bezzina, Occupational Health and Safety Director, Trendsafety Malta: Health and Safety – the Effects of Parental Alienation and Separation Cases at Work.

12.00 Natalie Wiliamson & Cory M. Sprunger, lawyers, US: Trauma 

Informed Legal Counseling

12.20 Discussion

12.35 Lunch

Experiences and mastering

Breakout room 3

Targeted by the loss of a loved one, but not because of physical death

Moderators: Malin Gustafsson and Lena Hellblom Sjögren, who also lead the discussion at the end about reunification. 

9.05 Preludium one: Hanne Ramsdal, a Norwegian adult who experienced the loss of contact with a loved parent during her childhood

9.20 Preludium two: Susan Heitler, PhD. Building Public Awareness of Alienation: Two Potentially Potent Hooks

9.40 Ursula Kodjoe, psychologist, mediator, therapist, Germany: Memories from my experiences working with targeted families

10.05 Maciej Witscynski: Polish legal system supporting parental alienation – a perspective from a targeted father

10.25 10 minutes break.

10.35 Olga Odinetz (presenter), Jean-Hugues Rety and Christian Vrillaud: 

Fied data on parental and parents´requests in France

11.05 Anthony Gauchi, Malta: Mastering parental alienation cases in Malta

11.25 Dialogue between Nordic self-help groups, Denmark: “Take it as a man”, and Norway:“Comrades help” 

11. 45 Panel and discussion about methods for mastering reunification and experiences of trying to reunify after having been cut off from a loved one without justification.

12.30 LUNCH

Friday 6 September 2024, 14.00-18.00

Relevant help for the child

14.00 Reports from the three parallel seminars about research, law making, poster presentations and experiences from Friday morning that gives ideas about what can be helpful for a child living under coercive control, learning to hate a formerly loved parent, how to recover and be reunified with her/his cut-off parent

Moderators: Eivind Meland and Lena Hellblom Sjögren.

14.40 Lecture: Brian O’Sullivan. PhD, founder of Parental Alienation Europe, and of the Journal Parental Alienation practice, Ireland: Early interventions, scientifically based 

15.20 Ten minutes break

15.30 Dialogue Brian Ludmer, attorney, Canada, one of the drafters of Canada´s proposed shared parenting legislation and Marie-France Carlier, Judge of the Court of First Instance of Dinant: Family reunification – failures and success.

16.15 Dialogue Criminality, Social Deviancy and Institutional responses to the Crisis of the Child´s Best Interests. Stan Korosi, PhD (School of Law and Society UniSC, Australia, Provider of Integrated Assessment and Remediation Services, Australia), Teresa Silva, PhD assistant professor (department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mid Sweden University)

17.00 Panel summarizing conclusions about what is most important to promote the child´s best interests.

Moderators: William Bernet and Lena Hellblom Sjögren.

17.40 Closing remarks, 3 minutes each.

Alienated child, targeted parent, Lena Hellblom Sjögren, Eivind Meland, William Bernet, founder and president for PASG, Parental Alienation Study Group, and Philip Hendrix, president elect for PASG.

18.00 Thanks and goodbye! See you next year at the next PASG 2025 conference in a country not decided, perhaps Malta where there is a lot done by and for “happy parents” - and thus happy children.

Saturday 7 September

Sightseeing and Boat trip

10.00 We will meet outside the main entrance of the conference venue/Deichman Library.

From there, we will walk past the Parliament to Aker Brygge, where we will catch a ferry to the islands (approximately 45 minutes).

Upon our return, we will walk by the Nobel Peace Center (https://www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en), the National Museum (https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/), and the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (https://www.afmuseet.no/).


We will include a stop for lunch, with options for pizza, traditional Norwegian food, or Indian cuisine depending on preferences.

Next, we will take public transport to Vigelandsparken, which features a large collection of sculptures by one of Norway's most renowned sculptors (https://vigeland.museum.no/en/vigelandpark).

You will need to purchase a day ticket for public transport, available here: (https://ruter.no/en/buying-tickets/tickets-and-fares/24-hour-tickets/).

Participation fees:

• Personal presence: 3500 NOK. Lunch not included.

• Students and PASG members: 1000 NOK. Lunch not included.

• Presenters: 3000 NOK. Lunch not included.

• Digital participants (streaming): 1500 NOK. 500 NOK for students and PASG members.

The conference takes place at Deichman Library

Adress: Anne-Cath. Vestlys plass 1, 0150 Oslo