2nd International Conference on Grandparent Alienation
YOU ARE INVITED!
AGA’s International Conference Grandparent Alienation
Day 1 Friday, March 22, 2019
8:00 A.M. – 4:50 P.M.
CEU 7.5 credits
Location Day One: The Experts
Naples Daily News Bldg. Community Room 1100 Immokalee Road & Arthrex Blvd.
Naples, Florida 34110 (next to U.S. Post Office)
Reserve your seat (required) and request details: Email: info@AGA-FL.org ASAP
Limited Seating
$25 Registration fee includes Lite Breakfast & Buffet Lunch for All
Day 2 Saturday, March 23rd
650 Central Avenue Naples
Location: Naples Regional Library of Collier County – Rees Meeting Room
Central Avenue + 7th Street
10:00 – 2:00 Amanda & AGA Board Members Q & A
Informal Discussion
Leading International Experts in Grandparent Alienation and PAS
Keynote Speaker March 22, 2019
Joshua Coleman, PhD 8:05 A.M.
Author: When Parents Hurt
TOPIC: The Top 5 Reasons Why They Chose Estrangement
Divorce Daughter-in-Law Mental Illness Individualism Psychotherapy
Dr. Coleman is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan organization of leading sociologists, historians, psychologists and demographers dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best-practice findings about American families. He has lectured at Harvard University, The University of California at Berkeley, The University of London, Cornell Weill Medical School, and blogs on parent-adult child relationships for the U.C. Berkeley publication, Greater Good Magazine.
Dr. Coleman is frequently contacted by the media for opinions and commentary about changes in the American family. He has been a frequent guest on the Today Show, NPR, and The BBC, and has also been featured on Sesame Street, 20/20, Good Morning America, America Online Coaches, PBS, and numerous news programs for FOX, ABC, CNN, and NBC television. His advice has appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London, The Shriver Report, Fortune, Newsweek, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Psychology Today, U.S. World and News Report, Parenting Magazine, The Baltimore Sun and many others.
He is the author of numerous articles and chapters and has written four books: The Free Study Guide Makeover: Finding Happiness in Imperfect Harmony (St. Martin’s Press); The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework (St. Martin’s Press); When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don’t Get Along (HarperCollins); and Married with Twins: Life, Love and the Pursuit of Marital Harmony. His books have been translated into Chinese, Croatian, and Korean, and are also available in the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Read articles from Dr. Coleman
Amy J. Baker, PhD
Leading international Researcher in Alienation Author of numerous books on Alienation
TOPIC: Making Amends
Michael Bone, PhD. TOPIC: Personality Disorders And Glenn Caddy, Ph.D TOPIC: Treatment of the Alienated Child and the Alienated Parent.
Dr. Bone and Dr. Caddy are leading internationally recognized experts in the family conflict and parental alienation field.
Leading International Experts in Grandparent Alienation and PAS
Collaborate in efforts to identify and explore the complex dynamics of Grandparent Alienation.
Each has worked extensively with the courts and have authored many PAS scholarly articles as well as articles for the American Bar Association on child custody, high-conflict divorce, and PAS.
They are among the panel of experts appointed to evaluate the validity of PAS for inclusion in the DSM-V and ICD-9.
Carol Golly,P.L., MSW, LCSW, PTS
TOPIC: Results of AGA Survey Child Adolescent Family Therapist, PAS/AGA
Specialist Frequent Court-Appointed Child Therapist
Doctoral Student Dissertation: Intergenerational Conflicts- Grandparent Alienation
Former Clinical Director: StablePaths www.stablepaths.com Family Intensive Reunification Workshops intensive therapeutic reunification intervention for familiesThis model was developed by world renown expert on familial abduction and family reunification, Rebecca Bailey, PhD.
Charles D. Jamieson, Esq.
Expert in the field of highly contested divorce and PAS. Has led the efforts to parotect parental rights during divorce, and staunch advocate of protecting the best interests of children. Presenter of Alienation and the Law at national attorney conferences.
James, Karl, Esq.
Grandparent Visitation Rights
Planning Your Estate When Allienation is An Issue
Legislation State of Florida Lobbyist/ Advocate
Tallahassee, FL State Capitol Presenter: 2018 Constitutional Revision Committee 2015 Presenter: Grandparent Florida Visitation Rights Law
Rev. Dr. John Killinger
Pastor, Professor, Prolific Writer
Author: From Poppy With Love…Letters From A Grandfather to the Grandchilren He Isn’t Allowed to See
Topic: Hope, Faith, & Healing
Vickijo Letchworth
Elder Abuse/ Child Protection Consultant Collier County Residential Shelter Advocate Domestic Violence Child Welfare Specialist Collier County Leadership Council on Aging, Chairperson Certified Trainer FL Coalition Against Domestic Violence Facilitates Support Groups for Seniors Who Are Victims of Elder Abuse State-wide Speaker and Avid Researcher on Elder Abuse
ABOUT AGA -Alienated Grandparents Anonymous
Alienated Grandparents Anonymous focuses on the struggle so many grandparents have in being part of their grandchildren’s lives. AGA provides support, information, coping skills, and helps validate the feelings of those suffering some degree of estrangement, alienation, or isolation.
AGA offers suggestions from the advice of international experts who have shared their knowledge with AGA, combined with communications with many thousands of grands who have been extremely limited or cut off from access to their grandchildren.
AGA serves toward bringing alienated grandparents, parents, and grandchildren together. You may contact info@AGA-FL.org for assistance.
We have given this global epidemic a name. Grandparent Alienation.
AGA originated in Collier County Florida in September 2011. It was then established as a 501c3 Non Profit in October 2012. Send your inquiries to International Headquarters: info@AGA-FL.org
Connect to AGA’s link Grandparent Alienation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjppPc1mAVc&t=20s
Abandonment by our adult children is endemic in our society and globally.
Though common, it has been rarely talked about. Grandparents faced with this loss are wounded emotionally, psychologically, and have experienced physical illnesses. It has no socio-economic boundaries.
GA is complicated giref…grief without closure. There is no closure because there is continued hope and desire for improvement. There is a physical absence with the psychological presence.
Alienation is a willful intimidation. It is mind control within the family. It is about power and control. It involves unresolved childhood issues, neuro-linguistic programming, pathological lying, manipulation, brainwashing, cult-like thinking, and personality disorders including: narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and delusional disorder.
The unjustified abusive controlling behavior of our adult children is creating a lifetime of emotional problems for our grandchildren. Alienation is frequently multi-generational.
Grands are the victims of their adult children using the grandchildren as pawns. Who can these grandchildren turn to with this chaos in their lives? They must go underground with thier emotions.
Grandparent Alienation is considered by the experts in the field of Alienation to be a severe form of child abuse, and a severe form of elder abuse. Abuse is never acceptable; abuse is never OK. Severing the grandparent, great grandparet, grandchild relationship not only hurts the grands, but the child as well. Some grandparents have bonded with their grandchildren, only to have that love connection eventually denied. Some grandparents have never met their grandchildren. When a watchful eye is needed for children who may be in harm’s way and their grands have been isolated, this is a human tragedy.
AGA offers strategies for repairing, rebuilding, and healing these relationships with the gatekeeper…our adult children; thus, allowing for contact with the grandchildren to follow.
Understanding the complexities of alienation helps grandparents. Educate yourselves. Knowledge is power. Knowing helps you form a strategy and follow your plans for a hopeful reconciliation.
When we hear information with which we can personally identify, a light bulb goes off in our minds. A new piece of the puzzle comes together. If you take away with you even one piece of information from each support group meeting and from our website, process it, and then apply it to your adult children and grandchildren; eventually, you will begin to see a clearer picture of the bewildering phenomenon of our own children not wanting us to have a place in their lives and in our grandchildren’s lives.
You will come to realize that if you alone did not cause this, then you alone cannot fix this campaign of denigration. Healthy minds want to fix things, unhealthy minds do not. You will come to understand that you should not be embarrassed by this estrangement, If you did the best you could at the time raising your children, then you can stop blaming yourselves. Learn the skills to make amends.
This website receives thousands of hits each month. AGA recognizes that each situation is unique; however, many commonalities are shared. Simply knowing that you are not alone on this traumatic roller-coaster journey helps you to cope better with the heartbreak and frustration of being a targeted grandparent.
AGA support group meetings allow grandparents to share their stories in a safe environment and to strategize with one another. Grandparents who attend will remain anonymous so that everyone will feel free to openly share their plight. It is a place for those experiencing this excruciating emotional trauma to share circumstances with those who “get it”. Suggestions for communication and reunification will be discussed based on the information provided by our international expert consultants.
AGA meetings may include guest speakers. An interactive discussion would then be included. After each meeting, grandparents may then consult individually with all AGA professionals in attendance.
*Notice to Grandparents and Adult Children : If you would like to work toward communication and reconciliation, please contact AGA Headquarters (info@AGA-FL.org). Grandchildren, we would like to assist you as well.
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