03/06/2024
AFCC 2024 Symposium on Child Custody
The AFCC is having their 2024 Symposium on Child Custody in November in Columbus, Ohio. They are now “accepting proposals for 90-minute workshops for our 16th Symposium on Child Custody. All proposals must be submitted using the online form by May 3, 2024.”
I don’t submit to the AFCC. I consider them Mordor. The only reason I’d go to an AFCC convention is to destroy a ring in their mountain of doom.
But… I can give a seminar.
That’s easy, we have the Internet now. What would you like a seminar on? I can do a Fireside Chat on your seminar topic and then you can show it to the in-person people in Columbus, Ohio in November.
Flat-landers, sheesh.
Do you wanna have fun with them? I wanna have fun. Everything is so serious, we should take any opportunity we have to have fun.
The AFCC gave some suggestions for possible topics: “Proposals can draw on a topic related to the conference theme or from a topic below:” Well that’s helpful.
The Archery Challenge
How about I do a seminar on each topic they want a seminar on? Wouldn’t that be fun? I think that’d be fun.
That's "The Challenge" - I'm going to do an online Fireside Chat seminar on each topic area sought by the AFCC. The product will be The 2024 AFCC Seminar Series from Dr. Childress: Lightening from the Sky.
And look how helpful that is. I’m saving everyone lots of time waiting, reviewing, traveling, and presenting – AND – the information is available to everyone everywhere, not just to a few people in Columbus, Ohio in November.
Don’t you think that would be helpful? I think that’d be helpful – AND – it would still be available to the AFCC when they hold their Symposium in November. They can log into YouTube in November and all watch a seminar of their choice together - like a slumber party.
The AFCC Symposium & Slumber Party.
And just think, they’ll have the entire spectrum of content to choose from rather than forcing me to select just one area of their concern. They can watch each seminar and choose which one they’d like to present to the people in Columbus in November.
That seems like a win-win to me. You win, you get the information. They win, they get the information. I win because I don’t have to leave Seattle, and Mr. Pippin’s a happy kitty. So actually, it’s a win-win-win-win. So much winning.
So that’s what I’m going to do. The Challenge: I’m going to do a Fireside Chat seminar on each topic area suggested by the AFCC. The Dr. Childress AFCC 2924 Symposium Series. Then, if the AFCC is interested, they can watch them and decide which one if any to show to their membership in Columbus, Ohio in November.
It’s like an audition tape, I’ll be sending them a whole bunch of audition tapes via YouTube for their various expressed categories of interest.
From the AFCC: "Proposals can draw on a topic related to the conference theme..."
So what’s their “conference theme” this year? Shaping the Future: Screening and Assessing for Safety and Wellbeing of Parent-Child Relationships.
That's exactly right, that's exactly what I did. I shaped the future to properly assess for child abuse and spousal abuse in the family courts.
I shaped their theme. I will assert that their theme is year is my creation, I selected their theme. I'm telling you, my work is precise. That’s me. Surely you recognize my influence on their selection of the “convention theme” – I think they’re trying to bait me to submit a proposal to them... likely in the clinical psychology treatment topic domain.
If they are, I’ll be obliging them in abundance.
Convention Theme: Assessing for child abuse. I shaped their topic, so I have a choice. I could go meta and explain how I’m shaping them. I’ll assert that I created (shaped) this topic as becoming the “symposium theme” for the AFCC in 2024… assessing for child abuse. How did I do that? I'll explain how I did that.
Or... I can address assessing and diagnosing child and spousal abuse in the family courts. In all cases – all – of severe attachment pathology surrounding child custody conflict, a proper risk assessment for child abuse needs to be conducted to the appropriate differential diagnoses for each parent. All.
Or… I could do both and let them select which one they’d like to show at their in-person slumber party in Columbus, Ohio in November.
Do you want a Fireside Chat seminar on Screening and Assessing for Safety and Wellbeing of Parent-Child Relationships? Okay.
Then these are their other categories of their interest for which they are requesting submissions. Following each topic of theirs I'll provide my initial thoughts for my Fireside Chat for this topic area. My Archery Challenge is to provide a seminar in each topic area:
• Parenting Coordination
o Dr. Childress: Parenting Coordinators should be ended as a role for a variety of reasons. Prominent competence issues exist for them and substantial potential for human rights violations with the parents. The existence of this role is a clear indication of the failure of the forensic psychologists to treat and resolve the pathology. This role exists in no other medical, psychiatric, or psychological pathology. Any mental health things that ONLY exist in the family courts should be highly suspect.
• Mediation with IPV Dynamics
o Dr. Childress: Forensic psychologists consistently misdiagnose Spouse or Partner Abuse, Psychological (DSM-5 V995.82) using the child as the weapon. When spousal abuse is the diagnosis, the victim should not be in the same room as the abuser - i.e., the targeted parent should not be in the same room as the psychologically abusive allied parent.
• Online Dispute Resolution
o Dr. Childress: It is unnecessary to do online dispute resolution. What is the diagnosis being resolved through “online dispute resolution”? They see a problem but not the pathology that causes the problem. You can't fix the problem without fixing the pathology that causes the problem - narcissistic-borderline-dark personality pathology.
• Impact of Emerging Practice Legislation
o Dr. Childress: Impact of existing ethical obligations – OR – legislative solutions to the problems in the family courts - or both. I should do a seminar on a Pilot Program for the Family Courts under this topic area. I might have three Fireside Chat seminars for this topic domain.
• Interventions for Parent-Child Contact Problem
o Dr. Childress: Attachment pathology. Child Psychological Abuse. The AFCC needs to use real professional-level terminology rather than euphemisms that hide (conceal) the nature of the pathology in the family. What is the diagnosis being intervened with? There is no diagnosis of “Parent-Child Contact Problems” (what are you, a layperson?) and the use of that made-up construct in a professional capacity only reveals the abject ignorance of the mental health person who has to make-up pathology to cover-up for their absence of actual knowledge.
o Dr. Childress: Ethical obligations for ALL psychologists under Standard 2.04 Bases for Scientific and Professional Judgments of the APA ethics code.
• Coercive Control
o Dr. Childress: Psychological control – Barber. Intersubjectivity. Child Psychological Abuse, DSM-5 V995.51 – shared (induced) persecutory delusion – factitious attachment pathology imposed on the child FDIA.
• Litigation Abuse
o Dr. Childress: Spouse or Partner Abuse, Psychological using the legal system as the weapon – the courts and attorneys are participating in the spousal abuse – Machiavellian manipulation by a dark personality parent.
• Cross-Allegations of IPV and PCCP
o Dr. Childress: There is no such thing as PCCP (Parent-Child Contact Problems). Research citation requested. STOP making up new forms of pathology – use professional-level descriptions if you are functioning at a professional level – attachment pathology - a shared (induced) persecutory delusion – false (factitious) attachment pathology imposed on the child for secondary gain to the parent (Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another; FDIA) – Child Psychological Abuse DSM-5 V995.51. If you use PCCP you are simply trying to hide your abject ignorance of real knowledge.
o STOP concealing the nature and severity of the problem by using euphemisms of arbitrary creation. The pathology of concern is Child Psychological Abuse (DSM-5 V995.51) - call it what it is.
It is child abuse. It is spousal abuse of the targeted parent by the allied parent using the child as the weapon.
• Ethics and Professionalism
o Dr. Childress: Forensic psychologists consistently violate Standards 2.01, 2.03, 2.04, and 9.01 of the APA ethics code and consistently fail in their duty to protect obligations for both the child and the targeted parent – 100% of the time.
• Legal Representation and Courtroom Practices
o Dr. Childress: Cross-examining forensic custody evaluators to expose their ignorance and unethical malpractice.
• Psychometric Testing
o Dr. Childress: The Roberts Apperception Test for Children. Why have you not been administering the Roberts Apperception Test for Children? Are you just lazy? Must be.
• Diversity/Culture and Parenting Time
o Dr. Childress: There is consistent, rampant, and unchecked cultural bias and counter-transference bias in forensic custody evaluations. The family courts are a cesspool of Cultural Psychology incompetence.
• Screening/Assessment for IPV
o Dr. Childress: Screening – in all - all - cases of court-involved custody conflict, a proper risk assessment for child abuse and IPV should be conducted to the appropriate differential diagnoses for each parent – all cases.
• Screening/Assessment of PCCP Dynamics.
o Dr. Childress: I will assert that this topic area is in violation of ethical Standard 2.04 Bases for Scientific and Professional Judgments of the APA ethics code. The established scientific and professional knowledge of the discipline required for application with court-involved custody conflict is:
• Attachment pathology - Bowlby & others
• Family systems therapy - Minuchin & others
• Child abuse and complex trauma – van der Kolk & others
• Personality disorder pathology - Beck & others
• Child development – Tronick & others
• Psychological control – Barber & others
• DSM-5 diagnostic system - American Psychiatric Association
o Dr. Childress: I will assert that the AFCC is fostering unethical malpractice among its membership - violation of Standard 2.04 Bases for Scientific and Professional Judgments.
o There is no such thing as PCCP (Parent-Child Contact Problems). Research citation requested. STOP making up new forms of pathology – use professional-level descriptions if you are functioning at a professional level – attachment pathology - a shared (induced) persecutory delusion – false (factitious) attachment pathology imposed on the child for secondary gain to the parent (Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another; FDIA) – Child Psychological Abuse DSM-5 V995.51. STOP concealing the nature and severity of the problem by using euphemisms of arbitrary and personal creation. You are just ignorant - Google ignorant: lack of knowledge or information.
o The assessment protocol for AB-PA.
• Services for Self-Represented Parties
o Dr. Childress: The systems should anticipate the arrival of narcissistic-borderline-dark pathology and be sufficiently structured to successfully resolve the pathology for pro se parents 90% of the time, only 10% of high-conflict custody litigation should require attorney representation. That should be the goal (see abusive use of litigation).
• Court-Involved Therapy
o Dr. Childress: This is me, I am a court-involved clinical psychologist. Diagnosis guides treatment. What is the diagnosis being treated? I will assert that the forensic psychologists in the AFCC routinely misdiagnose Child Psychological Abuse and Spouse or Partner Abuse, Psychological, a shared persecutory delusion, and factitious attachment pathology imposed on the child for secondary gain to the parent. All of them misdiagnose the pathology. I will assert that the forensic psychologists in the AFCC routinely fail in their duty to protect obligations because of their negligent misdiagnosis (because they are practicing beyond the boundaries of their competence in delusional thought disorders and attachment pathology). All of them. So sayeth the court-involved clinical psychologist. Diagnosis guides treatment – what is your diagnosis guiding your treatment?
Are we having fun yet? This should be fun… and illuminating.
• Multidisciplinary Teamwork
o Dr. Childress: I’ll offer recommendations for working collaboratively with trained family coaches and with data-driven para-professional recovery programs that have proven efficacy.
• Cost-Effective Evaluations
o Dr. Childress: A clinical diagnostic assessment for the pathology involved can be brought in within 4-to-6 weeks for an approximate cost of $2,500 ($5,000 with second opinion) – and – that’s been true for the past 40 years of their $40,000 forensic custody evaluations that solve nothing.
• Conducting Virtual Evaluations
o Dr. Childress: I have been the second opinion telehealth consultant in the assessment and diagnosis of family court pathology. I have both directly assessed the pathology by court order in person, and by court order I have participated via telehealth as a direct second opinion on clinical diagnostic assessments of the pathology in the family courts. If you're a psychologist in the family courts, you may be working with me by court order. Wanna hear what I have to say about that?
• Voice of the Child in High Conflict Cases
o Dr. Childress: Diagnostically differentiating the child’s authenticity from the child’s manipulated “voice” within a shared (induced) delusional disorder.
• Parent Education
o Dr. Childress: Parent empowerment to seek and obtain professional competence that leads to a proper assessment, an accurate diagnosis, and effective treatment and resolution of the problem 100% of the time.
Is that it? Is that all you have AFCC? I'll add one, a bonus seminar:
o Dr. Childress: Forensic psychologists are participating child abusers because of their ignorant and incompetent misdiagnosis of the pathology - if you believe a shared delusion, you become PART of the shared delusion. When that shared delusion is the psychological abuse of the child, you become PART of the psychological child abuse. Oh my.
Oh-my-goodness, this should be so much fun. The Challenge: produce a seminar in every topic area requested by the AFCC: AFCC 2024 Symposium Series from Dr. Childress.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, CA PSY 18857
