RON BERGLAS, MA. ED.
By the time the words parental alienation were first uttered in Ron’s presence his children were already alienated. After years of watching helplessly as they grew increasingly hostile towards him until they rejected him completely, he decided to turn his despair into action and made it his goal to eradicate parental alienation from all children's lives.
The first step was to require all licensed mental health practitioners working with children as well as all graduate students studying to become mental health practitioners to be educated in parental alienation. He had first-hand experience watching therapists and custody evaluators, uneducated in parental alienation, actually exacerbate the alienation by unwittingly siding with the alienator/abuser.
As you read through this website, please don't forget to click the donate button. The money will go straight into our 501C3 Legislative Action account. We are now also fighting against a virulent misinformation campaign that is targeting judges and parental alienation specialists. Assisting us in this effort is the highly experienced Catherine Barankin of Sacramento Advocacy. But we need your help now more than ever. Please donate! Together, we can finally make a difference in the lives of children throughout California and beyond.
LYNN STEINBERG, PH.D
Dr. Steinberg works with families, couples, groups, and individuals. She has specialized in working with children and adults abused as children since 1974.
Her interest and background grew naturally to embrace the psychological abuse of Parent Alienation, which she has specialized in for the last 13 years. This includes false accusations of sexual abuse.
She is an expert witness in Parent Alienation in the Children’s Court, Family Court and Criminal Court. She can testify in every state and internationally to prove parental alienation and offer recommendations for treatment of the whole family.
Her 4-day intensive family reunification program for alienated parents and their alienated children: One Family at a Time takes place in Los Angeles.
Dr. Steinberg is a trained Mediator and has mediated for the Superior Court.
WILLIAM BERNET, M.D.
William Bernet, M.D., a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has testified as an expert in forensic psychiatry about 300 times in 24 states. in 2007, Dr. Bernet and Judge Don R. Ash published Children of Divorce: A Practical Gide for Parents, Therapists, Attorneys, and Judges. Dr. Bernet edited Parental Alienation, DSM-5, and ICD-11 (2010). He and his colleagues edited Parental Alienation: TheHandbook for Mental Health and Legal Professionals (2013). Dr. Bernet and Demosthenes Lorandos edited Parental Alienation - Science and Law (2020).
He is the founder and President of the Parental Alienation Study Group.
JOAN KLOTH-ZANARD, M.A.
Joan T. Kloth-Zanard, MFT, ADA Advocate, GAL, RSS, ABI, LC & PA Expert Founder, Board President of PAS Intervention. She has a Masters in Marriage & Family Magna Cum Laude, a BS in Health and Psychology, minor in business, associates in exercise science, and extensive training in PA Reunification, Psychological Abuse, Child Psychology and other aspects related to Dysfunctional Family Processes.
CATHERINE BARANKIN
I have been a legislative advocate for years, and have represented non-profit youth serving organizations, education clients including Pepperdine University and other private colleges, child safety and worker safety groups and others. I was also the advocate who sponsored legislation to the license clinical counselors, the first new mental health professionals to be licensed in over forty years. The journey to that success was long and difficult, and would not have been possible without the support of the counseling profession and the financial resources they were able to secure.
I am happy to have been invited to work with the Alienated Parents to promote a legislative agenda to educate mental health professionals and others about the issue of alienated parents and steps that can be taken to address this problem. It is the goal of the organization to raise the funds and support necessary to introduce a bill in the 2023-24 legislative session.
Our first objective will be to work with other mental health professionals to garner support for the alienated parent's proposal, and the second objective is to introduce a bill to support our legislative proposal.
To give you an idea about how the California Legislature operates and the timelines we will be dealing with, I have outlined the current session timeline. The Legislature re-convened on January 3rd, signaling the second half of this two-year session. Bills introduced in the first half of the session that did not move forward had a short window of time to get out of their house of origin, and on to the other house. Those bills that did not move forward on this accelerated timeline will be dead.
January was also the beginning of a new bill introduction session, which ended on February 21st. Over 2,00 new bills were introduced. All of them now bills have a 20 day wait period before they can be taken up and heard in their policy committees in order to give the public, members of the legislature and professional advocates an opportunity to review them and work with the author's office to support, oppose or amend them to be acceptable to those who have an interest or will be affected by the proposals.
Between March and September, when the Legislature finally adjourns, bills will be referred and heard in policy committees, the Appropriations Committee and on the floor of both the Assembly and the Senate. Those that make it all the way through the process will go on to the Governor for the consideration. At the end of session the Governor has 30 days to act on the bills that make it to his desk. He can sign the measures, veto measures or allow bills to become law without his signature.
The process of promoting a bill through the legislative process is complicated and requires a great deal of time and resources. I encourage you to become a supporter of the organization and share your stories and expertise in order to promote our shared vision of addressing the horrific issue of alienated parents and children.