The Asia Regional Online Community (ROC) was established in March 2023 with the mission to work to further the understanding of complex trauma and dissociation in Asia.
The Scope of the Asia ROC is: To support the creation, discussion and dissemination of knowledge about complex trauma and dissociation in Asia by bringing together the members of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) located in Asia, and to work with ISSTD to support the education and training of clinicians and researchers in Asia.
The current executive committee comprises of Shekhar Seshadri as Chair, Sukanya Ray as moderator, Prathama Raghavan as Secretary and Hvovi Bhagwagar as Secretary Elect. One new member joined the ROC this year. The community currently has 13 members.
Asia ROC has wanted to hold educational programs in Asia about Trauma and Dissociation and spread the word about ISSTD. This year we have held one such program for professionals and post-graduate students in the field of mental health in Asia ’Structuring Treatment for Complex trauma’ presented by Dr.Hvovi Bhagwagar in January 2025. The presentation was followed by an engaging Q&A. The program included a presentation of ISSTD and member benefits inviting participants to sign up for the membership. 312 people registered for this presentation and everyone who registered was sent a recording of the presentation.
ISSTD’s professional training Program for India has been started and four members of the Asia ROC are facilitators in level 1 of this program.
ISSTD members from Asia who are interested in joining Asia ROC can write to the Secretary of the ROC at the email address mentioned here. We request all ISSTD members to support this ROC by inviting colleagues from Asia to join.