Julia Steiny, 401-421-6238, [email protected], YouthRestorationProject.org, residing in Rhode Island, writer and education consultant takes a concept that has evolved out of ancient techniques of council circles and currently called Youth Restoration. She is the director of the Youth Restoration Project in Rhode Island which teaches schools and parents to substitute the common practice of punishment with teaching kids how to engage in the life of the community and away from external control to internal self control.

Ben Robinson, [email protected], and Cheryl Wallace, [email protected], President and Vice-President of Rose Hill Center-MI, 248-634-5530, a mental health treatment center, describe what a parent can do when their young adult child shows signs of a serious mental health disorder, the different types of professional interventions parents might choose, and how successful the interventions can be.

Dan Kirschenbaum PhD, 404-343-0799, [email protected], wellspringweightloss.com, explained why child and adolescent obesity is now being called a disease and epidemic, what the medical consequences can be and what are the responsible ways of preventing or intervening that are based on science rather than fads.

Ken Huey, 877-879-2256, [email protected], caloteens.com, explains how and why golden Retriever dogs are effective in residential treatment for children with attachment problems, and especially those who are adopted.

Fred Goodall, [email protected], mochadad.com, parenting expert living in Houston, TX, talked about the traits that real men have, as opposed to some of the negative stereotypes that are all too common of bungling, clueless adult men who need a women to save them from themselves. The summary of all the traits he talks about is a real man is a real dad.

Jayne Selby-Longnecker, 800-474-4848, [email protected], www.benchmarktransitions.com, Founder, Ex. Dir. and CEO of Benchmark Transitions in California explained how the problems of young adults (18-25) are increasiing, why that seems to be happening, and what parents can do to prevent or intervene to help their young adult children.

Tricia Powe 951-313-1984, [email protected], stepfamilysystems.org, Ex. Dir. of Stepfamily Systems Co-parenting Center, describes the various types of step and blended families, the myths about them and how step-families often don't measure up to the often unrealistic ideals of the 1970s TV series "The Brady Bunch" and what is needed to have a successful blended family.

Randy Russell, 509-671-1598, [email protected], innerpathworks.com, empoweringyoungadults.com, Co-founder of Soulful Passages and Innerpathworks talks about different times in life where the question of Who Am I? becomes important in helping the person successfully grow to the next stage in life. One of the results of our society doing a poor job of facilitating those passages are adults who see no meaning in life and with no purpose in life and still in the adolescent stage.

Lisa Hester, 208-267-7522 x3022, Director of Student Life at Boulder Creek Academy, Idaho, bouldercreekacademy.com, talks about how adding restorative Justice Circles concept last year transformed their whole school to create better emotional safety and a respectful procedure to develop a cooperative culture and effectively with dignity handle incidents of real or perceived bullying and other potential conflicts.

Hellen Chen, [email protected], matchmakerofthecentury.com, (phone through agent Yin Chen 323-842-3108) facilitator of workshops internationally on topics related to marriage and family matters and author of The Matchmaker of the Century. She talks about how parents can create a marriage balanced between work, family and relationships. In raising emotionally healthy children, she explains the importance of being sure to talk with them honestly frequently and with no real secrets, really listening to them and take their concerns seriously, and the need to work at building a healthy relationship with their spouse. She observes that children of parents with unbalanced marriages all too often grow up into unbalanced young people.