Parents rights and responsibilities experience of parental alienation

Parents‘ rights and responsibilities experience of parental alienation in Slovenia Matej Zaplotnik, social pedagogue

Ideas and suggestions for progress in the field of Parental Alienation for countries with low awareness and no professional support Matej Zaplotnik: - Therapeutic boarding school - Private practice – developing knowledge in the field of divorce - Parental alienation as part of a family dynamics in divorcing families Situation in Slovenia: Slovenia has no scientific research in any field or subfield of divorce.

Private practice activities Counselling for parents Translating and publishing scientific material: - Book Parenting Apart (Christina Mc. Ghee) DVD Lemons to Lemonade DVD program Welcome Back, Pluto (Richard Warshak) Questionnaires on Parental Acceptance and Rejection (Ronald Rohner) - Video Split (Ellen Bruno) - Coming soon: Help Book Getting Through My Parents‘ Divorce (Baker & Andre)

Writing peer reviewed articles: - In December 2017 I published a peer reviewed article ‘Parental Alienation‘ in Judicial Bulletin. - In 2018 I am going to write an article on children‘s best interest after their parents‘ divorce. Cooperating with Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman!

Lectures for professionals - April 2017 – The conference ‘In the Name of a Child‘ for Slovenian judges, prosecutors and criminologists (250 participants). 90 -min lecture: Parental Alienation – Child Emotional Abuse. - In November 2017 and in April 2018 – 8 -hour seminar for (mostly) social workers: Parental Alienation (understanding, diagnosis, interventions etc. )

Expert opinions - I present the situation of (mostly alienated) children and parents in a particular family. My opinions are based on 15 – 20 books or peer reviewed articles. - I critically review child custody evaluations, which are often not supported by any research. Family Bridges

National media - Four times I have been invited to present and speak about the conflicts and the dynamycs of divorcing parents on the national TV. - An extensive interview on Parental Alienation in one of the main Slovenian magazines. Presentation of parental alienation as a type of child emotional abuse in Slovenian parliament (February 2018).

In parallel with my activities there have been some other changes in Slovenia: - In June this year the first Appeal against Slovenia was sent to the European Court for Human Rights. The father hasn’t seen his daughters for 7 years already (severe alienation). - Slovenia is changing the Family Code. Soon judges will be allowed to decide about co-parenting also in families where both parents do not agree about equal responsibilities. Before the change this was possible only when both parents agreed on co-parenting.

Plans for the future - Peer reviewed articles about co-parenting and parental alienation - Workbook Getting Through My Parents‘ Divorce - Reunification program for mildly and moderately alienated children - Program for children of divorcing parents (in private practice and in schools) - Reunification programs (Family Bridges) - Child custody evaluator

Thank you for your attention … and welcome to Slovenia!