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About EMMM
At the Eeny Meeny Miney Mo Foundation, we work to identify and disrupt coercive control when it operates within families, especially when children are psychologically manipulated to fear, hate, or reject a safe parent in the absence of any bona fide abuse, neglect, or threat.
This form of relational abuse is often overlooked, hidden beneath claims of protection or preference, but its impact is profound: ruptured attachment bonds, identity distortion, emotional and behavioural conditioning, long-term developmental disruption, and a constellation of complex psychological and relational impacts that often go unseen.
Vision
A future where every child is free from abuse, coercion, manipulation, and emotional harm, and can safely maintain loving relationships with both parents and extended family. We champion safe co-parenting and family connections, uphold each child’s autonomy and right to participate in decisions affecting their lives, and oppose practices that divide families without evidence-based intervention. We strive for communities and systems that recognise and respond effectively to hidden harms, protecting every child’s identity, wellbeing, autonomy, and right to belong.
Our vision includes:
- Children living free from coercion and emotional harm
- Advocacy for safe, evidence-informed co-parenting
- Upholding children’s autonomy and participation
- Opposition to family separation without appropriate intervention
- Recognition of coercive control as a serious form of child abuse
Mission
Our mission is to reduce the impact of coercive control and psychological manipulation within families, especially when children are influenced against a safe parent or extended family. We build awareness, develop prevention strategies, and provide trauma informed resources to protect children’s psychological safety, promote healing, restore vital family bonds, and uphold each child’s autonomy and voice in decisions that affect them.
We achieve this by:
- Educating communities and professionals about abuse, including coercive control
- Providing tools to identify and interrupt harmful family dynamics early
- Advocating for trauma-informed reforms in legal, mental health, and social systems
- Supporting families with inclusive, culturally sensitive resources that respect children’s perspectives and choices
Guiding Values
Our work centres on protecting children’s safety, wellbeing, and autonomy. We address coercive control and abuse with honesty and courage, while offering empathy and respect to families and professionals. Through collaboration with lived experience advocates and experts, we deliver inclusive, trauma-informed psychoeducation and support that honours diversity, upholds professional integrity, and empowers children to participate in authentic decisions about their lives.
Our core values:
- Child-focused protection from all forms of harm
- Respect for children’s autonomy and participation
- Courage to confront coercive control
- Empathy, respect, and cultural sensitivity
- Partnership with lived experience and experts
- Gender-inclusive, trauma-informed, evidence-based practice
- Accountability and professionalism
Our Board
Ms Amanda Sillars BPsycSc DipAcc
(CEO and Founding Director)
Amanda Sillars is the founding director of the Eeny Meeny Miney Mo Foundation, drawing on profound personal experience as both a child and a parent affected by parental child abduction and coercive family dynamics. After years of separation, Amanda has successfully reunified with both of her children, and has stuck around to help others navigate these situations and bring about change.
Since 2014, Amanda has committed herself to supporting families impacted by coercive control and harmful family dynamics, helping parents and children navigate the complex path toward healing and reconnection. She delivers workshops, creates resources, and provides evidence-informed guidance rooted in empathy and critical understanding.
Through EMMM, Amanda collaborates with the UTAS, promoting research that explores the dynamics and consequences of coercive control and alienation. Holding a Bachelor of Psychological Science from Griffith University, she applies trauma, attachment, and family systems informed principles to her advocacy, education, and systemic reform work.
Dr Mandy Matthewson PhD, BA (hons)
(Director)
Dr Mandy Matthewson is an experienced clinical psychologist, educator, and researcher with over two decades of work focused on complex trauma, family systems, and child wellbeing. Her career has been dedicated to supporting children, young people, and adults impacted by relational trauma, family violence, and high-conflict family dynamics. Dr Matthewson leads research into parental alienating behaviours and the long-term psychosocial effects of disrupted parent-child relationships. She is a co-author of Understanding and Managing Parental Alienation: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention, which has been widely used by practitioners across legal, health, and social service systems. She regularly presents nationally and internationally on the intersections of trauma, family law, and child protection. Dr Matthewson has designed innovative approaches to professional training in trauma-informed practice and has mentored many early-career psychologists. She is committed to translating research into practical, compassionate responses that prioritise the rights and well-being of children and families. Her contribution to EMMM reflects her independent professional expertise and longstanding commitment to advocating for children whose needs and voices may otherwise go unheard.
Ms Fiona Blane
(Director)
Fiona Blane has supported women impacted by domestic and family violence for many years, facilitating peer support groups for those navigating the complex challenges that often follow separation. Through this work, she witnessed a recurring and distressing pattern: many parents faced unjustified rejection or loss of contact with their children after leaving abusive relationships.
Today, Fiona assists with co-facilitating gender-inclusive support groups in Sydney and online for parents who have been psychologically or relationally cut off from their children. Her focus is on helping parents cope with the emotional toll of these experiences, strengthen their communication strategies, and prepare for safe, meaningful reconnection where possible.
Dr Kristine Estensen B.Sc MB.BS (Hons) GDipNut/Diet (Dist) FCICM Cert Lead (ALP)
(Director)
Dr Kristine Estensen is a senior Intensive Care Specialist with a strong background in clinical medicine, research, and multidisciplinary healthcare. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology from the University of Queensland and completed postgraduate studies in Nutrition and Dietetics at QUT. She practised as a clinical dietitian before earning her medical degree with honours from UQ.
Kristine has worked across both public and private health sectors and has led and contributed to research projects as a principal and sub-investigator. She holds a Fellowship with the Australian and New Zealand College of Intensive Care Medicine, and has undertaken specialty training in psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, and lung transplant medicine. She also serves as an examiner for the University of Queensland Medical School and is completing a second Fellowship with the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine.
With lived experience as a mother who has been unjustifiably separated from her child, Kristine is committed to systemic change. She advocates for greater awareness, robust research, and legislative reform in family law and domestic violence—particularly in relation to post-separation coercive control. Her work aims to support and protect the rights and relationships of children and safe parents affected by these under-recognised forms of harm.
Our SUPPORTERS
Would you like to support EMMM, and see your business listed
Please Sign Our Petition
Parental Alienating Behaviours
are Child Abuse & Family Violence.
This serious form of abuse and family violence can no longer be ignored. Parental alienating behaviours must be acknowledged in Australia as it is in other parts of the world. We need legislation that not only acknowledges its existence but firmly and clearly legislates against it.