Sherrol Cassedy, J.D., is a Certified Family Law Specialist, who after 20 years of family law practice, since 2005 has dedicated herself exclusively to mediation and private judging. She is the principal of Threshold Resources, devoted to marriage and divorce resolution, education and ritual. Sherry is a frequent speaker to legal and psychological professionals on legal and financial topics, conflict resolution strategies, and self-care and self-awareness practices as well as on financial topics in family law such as stock options, tracing, premarital agreements and support. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology where she teaches Law and Ethics. Ms. Cassedy was selected for Best lawyers in America, 2003, and was named the 2008 Fellow of the Year by the Northern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). Sherry has served on the Board of Directors of Overcoming Barriers including as Board President.

Anthony Chambers, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Chief Academic Officer at The Family Institute at Northwestern University (TFI). Dr. Chambers is also the Director of Northwestern University's Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies and is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Chambers is also the former President of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Couple and Family Psychology (Division 43) and is the Past-President of the American Academy of Couple and Family Psychology (AACFP). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Psychological Association (APA).

Dr. Chambers received his BA in Psychology from Hampton University and completed both his M.A. & Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Virginia. He completed his internship and postdoctoral clinical residency at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Chambers engages in scholarly writing, teaching and public speaking aimed at disseminating the latest knowledge about how to have a healthy relationship. Noteworthy academic achievements include co-authoring Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST); co-editing the Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy; co-editing an APA Series on Couple and Family Psychology; and co-editing a TFI book series on IST.

Dr. Chambers' professional accomplishments have resulted in becoming a fellow of the APA, a fellow of the AACFP, and a diplomat of the American Board of Couple and Family Psychology. He also serves on the editorial board of the journal Family Process and is the past Associate Editor for the journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. 

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View all courses available by this faculty member (2):

• Couples Therapy with Interracial and African American Couples
• Assessing Couple Distress: The Four Session Evaluation

Shelley Spear Chief, MSW works with First Nation individuals with complex historical and ongoing traumatic experiences, within her private practice. She has supported First Nation Schools, Women Shelters, Children Services providing group counselling, art therapy, and a variety of kinship, parent capacity assessments. Shelley has been affiliated faculty for University of Calgary and Red Crow College teaching and infusing Indigenous framework into university transfer courses. In her clinical practice, she uses EMDR and Somatic approaches, as well as traditional psychotherapy, art therapy, mindfulness, and hypnotherapy within the cultural understanding of the client.

Shelley is a First Nations Lakota Woman who prioritizes client’s spiritual needs and strengths with a cultural framework of understanding. She is knowledgeable of the challenges faced by First Nations people. She is married to Moses Spear Chief of the Kainai Nation. They have three grandchildren members of the Kainai Nation. She is an accomplished Women’s Traditional Dancer along with her spouse who is a champion Men’s Traditional Dancer. They have been part of their sacred societies on the Nation. She has presented a variety of topics in the past on First Nation Trauma in surrounding Indigenous communities within Alberta.

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Emberly C. Cross, JD, MSW has been the Coordinating Attorney at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic in San Francisco, CA since 1996, helping domestic violence victims obtain restraining orders and child custody and support orders. She obtained her law degree and her Master’s of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan. Prior to working at CROC, she was in private practice in family law in San Francisco.

Lynette Danylchuk, Ph.D., a Clinical Psychologist, has been working in the trauma field since mid-80, starting with Vietnam Vets and people with DID. She served 12 years on the original Board of Directors of Survivorship, and then worked for the Board of the Star Foundation for several more years. She had her private practice in San Mateo, California, where, in addition to working with clients, she did (and continues to do) periodic consultation and teaching where she sees a need, including a local graduate school, juvenile hall, and the county trauma-informed services conference. Lynette has been adjunct faculty to graduate schools in the San Francisco area where she has taught, and been a dissertation chairperson. She has given keynote speeches and workshops across the state and internationally at conferences of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). She is co-author with Kevin Connors of the book, “Treating Complex Trauma and Dissociation: A Practical Guide for Navigating Therapeutic Challenges”, Routledge, 2016.

Lynette is a Past President of ISSTD. She has been an active society member since 1996. She has chaired the Volunteer Committee, the Professional Training Program, and the ISSTD UN Task Force, gaining Affiliate Status for ISSTD with the United Nations. She is currently a member of the Conference Committee, and Chair of the Certificate Program Committee. She is an ISSTD Fellow, and winner of the ISSTD Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Frank Davis provides multimodal, specialized trauma informed psychotherapy to adults, children, and families exposed to racial discrimination, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and severe neglect. He also provides individual and group psychotherapy treatment for both adult and child perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse. In addition, Dr. Davis provides psychotherapy treatment to children who have been abruptly separated from their parents (e.g., child abduction, high-conflict divorce, foster care, or parental relocation). He Provides specialized psychotherapy treatment to children and families of transracial adoption. Provides specialized psychotherapy treatment to adults, children, and families dealing with substance abuse. Provides comprehensive psychological test batteries for adults, children, and families. Dr. Davis Provides stress reduction and stress management techniques and strategies to corporate professionals (i.e., managerial staff, CEOs, and CFOs)

Nick Demara, Ph.D. was born in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He has had two distinguished careers - as a Professor of Italian Literature at Michigan State University from 1973-1983 and as a licensed Psychologist from 1989 to present.  His dissertation focus was on the psychology of loss and grieving. He has had a long-term private practice in San Francisco and served as a Staff Psychologist in the Department of Adult Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa from 2001-2012. Dr. Demara opened a private practice in Santa Rosa in 2012 and has continued to work in that capacity. He has particular expertise in trauma and LGBTQ issues, having served on the Surgical Board for sexual reassignment at Kaiser Permanente.

Robin Deutsch, Ph.D., ABPP was the founder and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law at the William James College (www.williamjames.edu/cffc). For 25 years she was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, most recently as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology. Dr. Deutsch is a child and family forensic psychologist, mediator, Parenting Coordinator, and is board certified in couple and family psychology.  She provides consultation and expert witness services on child custody and parenting evaluations, ethical issues, complex custody issues, and child and adolescent development.  She developed and teaches the Certificate in Child and Family Forensic Issues at William James College and is a founder of Overcoming Barriers, an organization that provides family-centered services for families in conflict.  She has published extensively on issues related to attachment, alienation, co-parenting after divorce, high conflict divorce, parenting plans, and parenting coordination, and is the co-author of 7 Things Your Teenager Won’t Tell You: and How to Talk about Them Anyway (Ballantine, 2005, 2011) and co-editor of the book Overcoming Parent-Child Contact Problems: Family-Based Interventions for Resistance, Rejection, Alienation (Oxford, 2016). 

Cress Forester, Psy.D. has been working with patients since 1986.  She is also adjunct faculty at the Wright Institute, as a clinical supervisor (since 2006).  She worked in Community Mental Health for 10 years, seeing patients, supervising, and providing trainings, and also worked at the Boyer House foundation as an individual psychologist.  She teaches at graduate and post-graduate level, has presented at international conferences (ISSD, ISTSS, ISPS), and provides trainings on trauma and clinician-self-care at clinics throughout the Bay Area including the VA, SFGH’s trauma team, and Mills College.  She has focused on working with severe mental illness, trauma and dissociation.  She is particularly interested in attending to somatic experience in the clinical hour.  Her paper on the use of somatic countertransference was published in 2007. She has private practices in San Francisco and Sonoma, offering psychotherapy and consultation.

A. Steven Frankel Ph.D., JD, ABPP (Clinical and Forensic), is founding President and Curriculum Director of the Steve Frankel Group (SFG). He is a Clinical Psychologist (PSY3354) and an Attorney at Law (SBN192014), and is a Diplomate in both Clinical and Forensic Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University, and interned at the Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University. He then joined the full-time faculty of the University of Southern California, where he served for eleven years, including five years as the Chair of Clinical Psychology (Director of Clinical Training). Although he is no longer full-time, he remains a Clinical Professor of Psychology at USC.

Ben Garber is a New Hampshire licensed psychologist. In the role of clinician, Dr. Garber provides systemically-informed, child-centered therapies, focusing on services intended to help separated, divorcing and divorced parents to keep their kids out of the middle of their conflicts. As family law professional, Dr. Garber conducts Child-Centered Family Evaluations (Child Custody Evaluations) and provides both testamentary and non-testamentary expert consultation to counsel and the courts across North America. Dr. Garber is a prolific author and a highly respected family law trainer. He is the author of hundreds of popular press articles, twenty peer reviewed professional publications, several book chapters and seven acclaimed books, most recently, “Holding Tight/Letting Go: Raising Healthy Kids In Anxious Times (Unhooked Books, 2017). Learn more at www.HealthyParent.com and www.FamilyLawConsulting.org.

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Highly-qualified certified management professional with extensive experience and formal training in research, information- gathering and investigative techniques. Over 34 years of practical experience in law enforcement is enhanced with extensive professional training and higher education. Proven analytical expertise and excellent organizational skills provide a keen ability to investigate and solve complex traumatic relationships. High proficiency in; Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Rorschach administration with Intermediate Level Training through Michigan Psychological Association, Thematic Apperception Test procedures, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – IV, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – V, Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – III, Conner’s Continuous Performance Test – III, Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, Draw-A-Person (DAP) House, Tree, Person (HTP), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), California Psychological Inventory (CPI), and skilled in psychoanalytical theoretical therapy. Consistently strives for excellence and is a positive attribute to any organization.

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