3 Hours / 3 CEs

On Demand | Self-Paced Professional Training

This on-demand professional training program on Advanced Issues in Maternal Mental Health Forensics is presented by Gina Wong, PhD, and Diana Lynn Barnes, PsyD.

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. 

Program Materials (not included with purchase) 

Strongly Recommended 

Wong, G., & Parnham, G. J., (Eds.). Infanticide and filicide: Foundations in maternal mental health forensics. American Psychiatric Association Publishing.

Foundational Texts: Recommended Resources

Barnes, D. (Ed.). (2014). Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan. Springer International Publishing.

Spinelli, M. (Ed.) (2003). Infanticide: Psychosocial and legal perspectives on mothers who kill. American Psychiatric Publishing.

Maternal mental Health and Its Application to Forensics: Training the Expert Witness series overview

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 and 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:

1. Basic Diagnosis and Assessment of Maternal Mental Illness in the Forensic Arena

2. Role of the Expert Witness in Establishing the Relationship Between Maternal Mental Illness & Criminally Charged Behaviour

3. Advanced Issues in Maternal Mental Health Forensics

4. Advanced Training in Maternal Mental Health Forensics and Courtroom Testimony

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

  • 1 Identify the differences in motivations between paternal and maternal filicide cases through evidence-based research and actual cases
  • 2 Describe the role of childhood trauma and its connection to altruistic filicide cases through case examples
  • 3 Describe the relationship between a woman’s reproductive history and later psychiatric illnesses that increases vulnerability to criminal behavior
  • 4 Describe the implications of intergenerational trauma on attachment security and its relationship to impoverished brain development and lower executive functioning skills
  • 5 Identify the symptom presentation and the demographic profile of women with unperceived pregnancies
  • 6 Describe the role of media in affecting public perception on cases of maternal and paternal filicid

  • Intended Audience

    This training is designed for licensed mental health professionals seeking to expand their expertise in forensic applications related to maternal mental illness. The program is especially relevant for those working in forensic mental health, providing practical knowledge and skills for professionals involved in court-ordered evaluations, correctional settings, psychiatric hospitals, and private forensic consultation. The training is suitable for a wide range of licensed practitioners, including psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists (MFTs), who wish to deepen their understanding of maternal mental health within forensic contexts.

  • Experience Level

    This training is designed for licensed professionals (mid-career to advanced), and is suitable for those with experience in clinical or forensic mental health settings.

  • Practice Setting

    • Court-ordered evaluation settings

    • Correctional facilities

    • Inpatient or outpatient psychiatric hospitals

    • Private forensic consultation practices

Presented By

Gina Wong, PhD, Professor at Athabasca University

Dr. Gina Wong, Ph.D., is a Registered Psychologist in Alberta, Canada, and a professor at Athabasca University. She specializes in perinatal and reproductive mental health and has researched perinatal mood and anxiety disorders from narrative perspectives. She educates, consults, and trains in the field, which includes working with provisional psychologists to develop this specialization. Dr. Wong is the Vice-President of the Postpartum Support International Canada that launched on World Maternal Mental Health Day in 2022. She also specializes in maternal mental health forensics and serves as an expert witness in Canada. Dr. Wong is actively involved in developing a competency-based model in becoming a perinatal mental health expert witness. She has published 4 books which include editing Moms Gone Mad published by Demeter Press (Wong, 2012) and co-edited Infanticide and Filicide: Foundations in Maternal Mental Health Forensics published by the American Psychiatric Association (Wong & Parnham, 2021). Dr. Wong received the 2023 Media Award from the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta for exceptional contribution to portraying psychological knowledge to the public; the 2022 Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Leadership Award; and the 2022 Psychologist of the Year Award from the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta for her work in racial justice and perinatal mental health.

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Gina Wong, PhD

Presented By

Diana Lynn Barnes, PsyD, Forensic Expert in the specialized area of maternal mental illness

Dr. Diana Lynn Barnes, Psy.D., PMH-C, LMFT practices in Los Angeles, California. She has been a forensic expert in the specialized area of maternal mental illness for over 20 years. She is frequently retained by legal counsel on cases of pregnancy denial and neonaticide, postpartum psychosis, and infanticide; as well as child abuse and neglect where a child/children may have been harmed. She is on the editorial advisory board for Forensic Scholars. Dr. Barnes has been specializing in women’s reproductive mental health for over 25 years and has widely published on all facets of women’s mental health around the child-bearing years. She published the guidelines for the assessment and treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders for the Perinatal Advisory Council of Los Angeles. She is the editor and contributing author of Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan, published by Springer in 2014. She is a past president of Postpartum Support International and currently sits on their Advisory council. In 2015, Dr. Barnes was appointed as the mental health consultant to the California Commission on the Status of Maternal Mental Health and in 2016 to the California Maternal Mortality Review Panel. She currently Chairs the Special Interest Group on Forensics and Maternal Mental Health for the International Marcé Society. In 2009, Dr. Barnes received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Eli Lilly Foundation for her extraordinary contributions to the field of maternal mental health and child-bearing-related mood disorders. She maintains a private practice in the greater Los Angeles area.

View More Programs from this Presenter
Diana Lynn Barnes, PsyD

Training Outline

Key topics covered in this training include:

  • Address role of complex and developmental trauma and its neurobiological impact on maternal mental illness

  • Provide a nuanced understanding of maternal filicide and other crimes perpetrated by mothers in the throes of mental illness

CE Sponsorship Information

Palo Alto University, Continuing & Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by, recognized by, or maintains sponsorship provider status with the following boards and agencies. We maintain responsibility for all content in our CE/CPD programs. For more information, visit here. 

  1. American Psychological Association (APA): Approved sponsor of continuing education for psychologists.

  2. Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB): Approved continuing education provider (ACE program, Provider #1480), 11/22/2023–11/22/2026.

  3. Canadian Psychological Association (CPA): Approved to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

  4. National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC): Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP No. 7190).



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.