How One Reunification Therapist Upended the Lives of Parents and Children (cont.)
This second part of the series continues to expose the harm caused by reunification therapist Jessica St. Clair, who was recently discovered to have treated victims of domestic violence and child abuse in family law cases without the proper credentials. Before proceeding, readers are encouraged to review Part One for background context.
In April, St. Clair abruptly withdrew from all of her family law cases (see article). Shortly after, reports surfaced that she had misled the courts by falsely presenting herself as a doctor, despite not holding a Ph.D. (see article and documents).
St. Clair has been part of a network of mental health providers and minors’ counsels who worked together to “reunify” children with parents in Orange County family court cases (view video here and here). Multiple sources, including articleshere and here, have linked this group together.
This technique of reunification therapy was honed and publicly demonstrated in an instructional webinar hosted by the Orange County Bar Association (view here). The webinar featured several prominent OC family court professionals, including Nicole Schmidt, CFLS (Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara, LLP), Kristen Przeklasa, Esq. (OC Child & Family Formation Law Group, LLP), Dr. Linda Grossman (The Center for Positive Solutions), Dr. Sue Tonkins (Creative Custody Solutions), and Stacey White Kinney, MS, LMFT. None could be reached for comment, including Dr. Amy Stark. These allegations come from parents and children who, spoke anonymously due to their ongoing involvement in the family court system. They describe a pattern of abuse claims being dismissed by court professionals who are supposed to have their clients best interest in mind—all while Orange County family courts and judges looked the other way.