March 20, 2024
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Pacific
3 Hours | 3 CEs
$150 Registration | Live Virtual Training via Zoom
Diana Lynn Barnes, PsyD, and Gina Wong, PhD present live virtual professional training program Advanced Issues in Maternal Mental Health Forensics. This is the third program in the Maternal mental Health and Its Application to Forensics: Training the Expert Witness series.
Designed for professionals interested in advancing their understanding of psycho-legal issues pertaining to maternal mental illness, this program provides a nuanced understanding of relevant issues in forensic settings, utilizing actual cases.
This interdisciplinary program addresses a range of topics, including altruistic filicide, pseudocyesis, paternal filicide, and unperceived pregnancies (pregnancy denial), as well as child abuse and neglect leading to injury or the death of a child. The role of complex and developmental trauma and its neurobiological impact on maternal mental illness is also addressed.
The program content focuses on advanced issues in maternal mental health forensics as they relate to practice, education, and research. Augmented by real case examples and the instructors' combined breadth of experience as forensic expert witnesses, this training provides a nuanced understanding of maternal filicide and other crimes perpetrated by mothers in the throes of mental illness.
Maternal mental Health and Its Application to Forensics: Training the Expert Witness
Series Overview: More psychiatric admissions are around the childbearing years than at any other time in the female life cycle. Women’s reproductive mental health is a highly specialized field of study with an increasingly critical role in the arena of criminal justice. This four-program series introduces participants to the foundations of maternal mental health as it applies to forensics and women who are criminally charged for harm to their child/children. Each program furthers the current empirically based understanding of maternal mental health forensics as well as promotes accepted standards and protocols in this emerging specialty. This series advances fundamental clinical, legal, and sociocultural perspectives in addition to encouraging critical dialogue in this evolving field. Basic diagnosis and assessment, the expert witness's role in evaluation and report writing, and advanced training in expert testimony is included. Case analysis and discussion are integral parts of the didactic learning inherent in this program.
Programs in this series include:
- Basic Diagnosis and Assessment of Maternal Mental Illness in the Forensic Arena
- Role of the Expert Witness in Establishing the Relationship Between Maternal Mental Illness & Criminally Charged Behaviour
- Advanced Issues in Maternal Mental Health Forensics
- Advanced Training in Maternal Mental Health Forensics and Courtroom Testimony
- Wong, G., & Parnham, G. J., (Eds.). Infanticide and filicide: Foundations in maternal mental health forensics . American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
- Recommended Resources Barnes, D. (Ed.). (2014). Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan
- Spinelli, M. (Ed.) (2003). Infanticide: Psychosocial and legal perspectives on mothers who kill. American Psychiatric Publishing.
Program Materials |
The materials listed below are not included with the program purchase and must be purchased separately.
Strongly Recommended |
Foundational Texts
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Intended Audience
This live program is intended for mental health and other allied professionals.

Experience Level
This live program is appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level clinicians.

CE / CPD Credit
APA, ASWB, CPA, NBCC: Click here for state and other regional board approvals.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this program you will be able to:
Identify the differences in motivations between paternal and maternal filicide cases through evidence-based research and actual cases
Describe the role of childhood trauma and its connection to altruistic filicide cases through case examples
Describe the relationship between a woman’s reproductive history and later psychiatric illnesses that increases vulnerability to criminal behavior
Describe the implications of intergenerational trauma on attachment security and its relationship to impoverished brain development and lower executive functioning skills
Identify the symptom presentation and the demographic profile of women with unperceived pregnancies
Formulate an understanding of how the birth of a baby can act as a catalyst for criminal behavior that does not involve infanticide (e.g., kidnapping, homicide of other victims)
Describe the role of media in affecting public perception on cases of maternal and paternal filicid

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Event Communications
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Cancellation Policy
Have a sudden change of plans and are unable to attend live? No worries; you will be given access to the on-demand version of the program once available. Please note if you attend live, no access to the recording will be given.
Event Conduct
Professional conduct is expected during our live programs. Our goal is to make our events as interactive as possible for all participants. We reserve the right to remove any participants who are disruptive, act unprofessionally, or who we are unable to verify their purchase.
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CE Sponsorship Information
Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT), SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0356 and the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0073. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6811. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CONCEPT Professional Training, #1480, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. CONCEPT Professional Training maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 11/22/23-11/22/26. Social workers completing this course receive (clinical or social work ethics) continuing education credits.