April 25, 2007 will mark the second annual Parental Alienation Awareness Day, Which was started by the Parental Alienation Awareness Organization, or PAAO. This organization was created to help get the word out about parental alienation, as well as hostile aggressive parenting. This year there will be a workshop, sponsored by the PAAO, as well as PsyCare held in Palmetto, FL from April 14 through the 15th.

The workshop will cover legal, psychological, social, and familial aspects of Parental Alienation, child abduction, child abuse, and custody and divorce issues.

Renowned speaker, television guest, researcher, and author of "Jeopardy in the Courtroom," Dr. Stephen Ceci, will be the featured guest. Dr. Ceci will be joined by other nationally recognized speakers, including: Dr. Michael Bone, Ph.D., P.A.; Dr. Randy Kolin, Psy.D., Clinical Psychologist; David Carico, Appellate Law Attorney; Charles Jamieson, P.A., Family Law Attorney; Dr. Stephen P. Herman, M.D., Forensic Child Psychiatrist; and Harvey Shapiro, retired law enforcement official.
-From Press Release

The PAAO is also seeking volunteer to go to their local governors office to ask that April 25th be officially proclaimed as Parental Alienation Awareness Day. Their goal is to have the day, as well as the issues behind it recognized on a statewide level. There is a lot of controversy over parental alienation, as well as hostile aggressive parenting, with some states, individual judges and lawyers, and mental health professionals believing in it, while just as many of the same professions do not share the same beliefs and will not let PAS or HAP issues be brought up in the court room, or in other official settings. While initially the APA was swayed towards believing and enforcing PAS, here is the now official stance on the matter.

The American Psychological Association (APA) believes that all mental health practitioners as well as law enforcement officials and the courts must take any reports of domestic violence in divorce and child custody cases seriously. An APA 1996 Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family noted the lack of data to support so-called "parental alienation syndrome", and raised concern about the term's use. However, we have no official position on the purported syndrome.

So with their official stance, being that they have no official stance, the organization is hopeful to get the word out about their own reports and findings, and to sway local governments as well as the APA into seeing that this is a matter which needs to be addressed and to be taken seriously.

Have you experienced PAS, or HAP in your own life? Do you feel as though you were alienated from your child by the custodial parent? For more information on Parental Awareness Day, as well as PAS, and HAP in general, please click on the following links.

Parental Alienation Awareness

Hostile Agressive Parenting

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