Dear ISSTD Community: It is a pleasure to write as the incoming President of ISSTD for 2024, and I am fortunate to have Michael Salter as the Past President and Michael Coy, as the President Elect to bookend my presidency. It’s comfortable to know I can rely upon their wisdom and experience to guide me […]
Michael Salter – 2023 ISSTD PresidentWe’ve reached the close of 2024 and, as always, I’m struck by the tireless work of our members who are serving survivors of abuse, trauma and violence. This year, like all years, has been rife with interpersonal and political conflict that will draw on huge reservoirs of care and support […]
Dear ISSTD Community, 25 November marks the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The theme this year is “invest to prevent”. Our responses to child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault have clustered at the so-called “tertiary” end, focused on trying to heal survivors after the fact, and hold perpetrators to account. […]
Dear ISSTD Community, World Mental Health Day was a few weeks ago now on October 10, and it aims to improve community awareness and reduce the stigma of living with mental illness. The theme of the day this year was that “Mental health is a universal human right”, recognising that mental health is a necessary […]
Dear ISSTD community, A major task for our Society this year is the updating and revision of our treatment guidelines for dissociative identity disorder. The previous edition was published in 2011, and the dissociative disorders field has progressed in leaps and bounds over the last decade. The guidelines revisions are no small feat, and we […]
Dear ISSTD community, New York Magazine recently published a cover story by Danielle Carr, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Society and Genetics at UCLA, on the career of trauma luminary Bessel van Der Kolk. The development of Van der Kolk’s theoretical and empirical contributions to trauma studies provides a lens through which Dr Carr […]
Dear ISSTD community, July 30 is the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, a day that has been set aside to raise awareness about the plight of human trafficking victims. Although the term “trafficking” is used with increasing frequency, it is not always clear what it means. Indeed, the legal definition of trafficking has changed […]
Dear ISSTD Community, This month, two pioneers in the field of complex trauma and dissociation retired: Professor Jennifer Freyd and Professor Ross Cheit. They were personal heroes of mine a long time before I had the chance to meet them. While each has made a distinctive contribution, I’ve been struck by their similarities. They are […]
Dear ISSTD friends, Our recent Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, was attended by a couple of journalists who are undertaking deep dives into abuse, violence and trauma. One of them was Janelle Nanos from the Boston Globe, who in July 2022 published a startling longform article called “Kate Price remembers something terrible”. The article chronicles […]
Dear ISSTD community, It was a great pleasure to connect with so many of you at the annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky. While most of us have become accustomed to increasingly technology-mediated lives, with so many professional activities pivoting online during the pandemic, the chance to come together as a professional society and community is […]
