Our Founder

Jill Jones Soderman, MSW, MSHS

Executive Director | Clinical Psychoanalyst | Forensic Expert | Author

Born into a family of two generations of medical practitioners, her earliest immersion in medicine began literally from the cradle. At age 12 she was formally employed as a nurse’s aide at the private hospital founded and directed by her father, The Memorial Hospital of Queens, providing hands-on care in the emergency room, surgical wards, and OBGYN services, and successfully petitioning for the hospital’s first pediatric patient rights program. Early volunteer work at the Children’s Center on 105th Street, an emergency placement facility for children removed from crime scenes, followed by her role as Lead Crisis Intervention Strategist at the Woodstock Music Festival 1969, ignited her enduring commitment to the advocacy and care of traumatized youth. She subsequently pursued advanced academic and specialized training to equip herself with the credentials, clinical insight, and forensic expertise necessary to confront and challenge the systemic failures that place abused children at risk across the United States.

Today, Jill Jones Soderman is a nationally recognized expert in judicial accountability and child protection within the United States family court system, with specialized focus on cases involving abuse, coercive control, and institutional failures that imperil vulnerable children and protective parents. She commands more than 50 years of elite psychoanalytic and forensic expertise, marked by groundbreaking whistleblower reforms and the development of specialized forensic interventions that have exposed and dismantled harmful rulings and practices in family court cases across the United States.

As Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Child Victims of the Family Courts, Jill personally directs all case strategy. Her approach is grounded in a multidisciplinary foundation, rooted in advanced psychoanalytic training across leading institutions, specialized clinical training in child and family psychopathology, trauma, and sexual abuse, and recognized subject-matter expertise at the intersection of mental health and the legal system, particularly in matters involving child abuse, coercive control, and high-conflict custody dynamics. Her expertise is further informed by formal forensic certification, mediation and arbitration training, and clinical specialization in family systems and chemical dependency, and is shaped by her integrated roles as a psychoanalyst, clinician in private practice, and court-qualified expert witness in Federal, Superior, and Family/Juvenile Courts.

Referred to as the “grand dame” of judicial accountability and child protection in the U.S. family court system, her life’s work is defined by a sustained commitment to speaking truth to power, exposing institutional abuse, advancing administrative reform, and securing tangible protections for children in family court. Her forensic strategies have resulted in the disbarment of unethical attorneys, revocation of licenses for mental health providers, judicial incarceration, and the exclusion of debunked pseudo-scientific narratives such as parental alienation and forced reunification therapy from high-stakes rulings.  

An accomplished author, Jill’s work bridges clinical theory and real-world advocacy. Her publications include the book Family Court Corruption, which examines patterns of misconduct, the handling of abuse allegations, and systemic failures within the family court system, as well as the trusted How to Talk to Your Children About Divorce.  She has also authored numerous articles and essays addressing the psychological impact of custody litigation, the misuse of mental health evaluations in family courts, and the lived experiences of children and families navigating high-conflict divorce, including “Serious Disorder in the Family Court” and “Not Victims – Experts by Experience.”

Her academic and clinical teaching roles include instruction and lecturing in clinical psychiatry, social work, and forensic practice at institutions including Columbia University, Fordham University, and Lehman College. She has developed and delivered advanced training programs and professional seminars addressing high-conflict custody litigation, trauma, coercive control, and the forensic evaluation of abuse allegations, contributing to the education and practice standards of clinicians, legal professionals, and multidisciplinary teams operating within the family court system.

Her professional influence extends to public and interdisciplinary engagement, including lectures and panel discussions worldwide, appearances on television and radio, and collaborative initiatives across the United States and internationally addressing civil rights, child protection, and systemic accountability.