Registration: $10* (includes CLE and CEUs for Social Work and Behavioral Health)

Limited number of OFR scholarships available – first come first serve, contact Allyson McCormick, allyson.mccormick@laok.org for more information

With Timothy Michaels-Johnson, J.D. & Tessa Chesher, DO, IMH-E

Having earned his Juris Doctorate with Honors from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2011, Timothy Michaels-Johnson focused his career in child welfare. He joined the District Attorney’s Office of Tulsa County and prosecuted deprived child cases for nearly 5 years. In July 2016, Michaels-Johnson joined Tulsa Lawyers for Children representing children and training TLC’s volunteer attorneys. He subsequently served as TLC’s third Executive Director until April 2024. Michaels-Johnson now assists with the development and roll out of Oklahoma’s new central office of parent and child representation as the Region 5 Managing Attorney for Child Representation with the Oklahoma Office of Family Representation. In addition, Michaels-Johnson has returned to the University of Tulsa College of Law as an adjunct professor teaching Juvenile Law and serves as a Commissioner on the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

Dr. Chesher is a child and adolescent psychiatrist interested in pediatric trauma, infant and early childhood mental health, and behavioral health integration into primary care. She is from Oklahoma and went to medical school at Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Chesher completed a psychiatry residency at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Tulsa followed by a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship and an Irving Harris Fellowship in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health at Tulane School of Medicine. She was on faculty at Tulane School of Medicine as an instructor, OU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, OK as an assistant clinical professor and the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine as an associate and then full clinical professor. Dr. Chesher is the Medical Director of the Children’s Specialty Program at Oklahoma Complete Health. Dr. Chesher owns TC², offering consultation and training in infant and early childhood mental health.

Workshop description: QIC-ChildRep is an evidence-based best practice model of child representation. This training was developed to advance the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model and integrates key aspects of Oklahoma child welfare law and practice, including Oklahoma practice standards, with the goal of advancing high quality legal representation for attorneys representing children in Oklahoma child welfare cases.

*Please note the payment transaction will appear as “Haruv Institute” (mahon harov) and the confirmation may take several hours to appear in your email.

The post Creating Champions for Children: Best Practices for Oklahoma’s Attorneys – VIRTUAL TRAINING appeared first on haruv.

April 23, 9am-11am CDT at Circle of Care: 1616 N Gilcrease Museum Rd, Tulsa, OK 74127

Registration: $20* (FREE CEUs available for Social Work and Behavioral Health – with registration)

Workshop Description: this training addresses the heavy emotional toll caregiving can take, including feelings of hopelessness, overwhelming stress, and persistent guilt. Participants will learn how to compassionately support caregivers who feel emotionally exhausted or stuck, validate their experiences without judgment, and offer practical strategies that restore hope, resilience, and connection within the family system.

Presenter’s Bio: Tara Glenn, LCSW, IMH-E® (III)– Tara is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and is an endorsed infant mental health clinician by the Oklahoma Association of Infant Mental Health. Tara’s work has focused on treating childhood sexual abuse and trauma, treating families with infants/young children who have experienced scary and confusing things or have experienced attachment disruptions, and serving adults with complex trauma histories. Tara is an EMDR trained therapist as well as Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Circle of Security. Tara believes we are created for connection and with a purpose and wants to serve people so that any barriers to that fulfillment can be diminished.

The event is open to the general professional audience.

*Please note the payment transaction will appear as “Haruv Institute” (mahon harov) and the confirmation may take several hours to appear in your email.

The post Parenting Through Emotional Strain: Supporting Families Facing Hopelessness, Stress, and Guilt appeared first on haruv.

Participation is FREE with registration in advance.

CEUs available for social work: $10 for 1 credit hour

Lecture description: This lecture will present the speaker’s empirical research into family court responses to custody cases involving family abuse and parental alienation allegations.  These cases are often characterized as “high conflict.” The findings shed light on courts’ reluctance to believe domestic violence and particularly – child abuse – allegations by mothers against fathers; and the powerful role of crossclaims of parental alienation in reinforcing that reluctance. The findings also describe the rates at which mothers lose custody after alleging abuse.

Lecturer: Joan Meier,  Professor of Law and Director of  National Family Violence Law Center, George Washington University Law School

Prof. Joan Meier has been a clinical Law Professor for over 30 years at George Washington Law, where she founded three pioneering and nationally recognized interdisciplinary domestic violence clinical programs. She has published widely on domestic violence, custody, clinical teaching, criminal procedure, and various Supreme court decisions. Her major study “Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations,” funded by the National Institute of Justice, was completed in 2019. Its findings have been written about in scholarship and multiple media outlets including The Washington Post and The New Yorker.

The post “High Conflict” Child Custody Litigation Involving Abuse and Alienation Allegations appeared first on haruv.