April was Child Abuse Prevention Month and the ISSTD Child and Youth Month, so the ISSTD Child & Adolescent Special Interest Group (C&A SIG) would like to update everyone on our activities over the last year.
The C&A SIG currently has 50 members, which is a small increase on last year. Our SIG members bring a wealth of knowledge and experience about working with traumatized children and adolescents, using diverse trauma-specific modalities and different clinical settings.
We ran a range of events last year, with Patti van Eys as the driving force behind the program.
For 2026, the past and present executives decided that the experiment of a meeting time that was friendly to international members had failed to generate attendance from outside the USA, and had reduced the numbers who could attend from inside the USA. The meeting times for 2026 have reverted to the 2nd Monday of the month 10am EST – 7am PST (all times USA), alternating between SIG meet & greet and a structured meeting, three times throughout the year:
- Feb 9 – SIG meet & greet
- Apr 13 – Annual conference debrief and planning
- Jun 8 – Informal training: Michele Yarberry
- Aug 10 – SIG meet & greet
- Oct 12 – Watchparty: Doris D’Hooge – Invisible Attachment Trauma: A Novel Perspective on the Early Parent-Child Relationship
- Dec 14 – Structured meeting: Preview of 2027 conference presentations
Our meeting at the annual conference resulted in a few new members. We felt that a child and adolescent track is warranted for our annual conferences, and previously, the child and adolescent sessions have been well attended. This, and consideration for a one-day preconference specialisation on attachment, will be suggested for future events.
In 2025, the SIG recommenced regular meetings after a hectic time in 2024 when the SIG was focused on new treatment guidelines. Our meetings featured:
- A Fireside Chat with Joy Silberg, May 27. This was an unscripted opportunity for members to ask Joy questions and to chat in a collegial way about various ideas. The event was well attended.
- Ethical dilemmas, Oct 9. A robust discussion with several interesting quandaries led by Patti and opening with a discussion of transference and countertransference.
- Watch party, “When Angels Fear to Tread: Perpetrator Introjects in Children” presented by Renée Potgieter Marks, Aug 19. This meeting had 25 attendees and was followed by a Q&A with the presenter Renée Potgieter Marks, and members were able to complete the application for CE credits afterward.
Other highlights over the past year were the Child and Adolescent webinars relevant to our SIG, which had 96 live registrants in total, over 2025:
- Living Legends: How Theory Informs Treatment of Dissociative Children and Adolescents.
- The Long-Term Relational Consequences of Unseen Attachment Trauma.
- Child and Adolescent Dissociative Disorders: Case Studies that Demonstrate and Clarify the Diagnostic Process.
The SIG has many members who contribute a great deal, with a special note of appreciation to Patti van Eys, Michele Yarberry, and Eva Young. Our community message board has become very active over the last 18 months, and the executive thanks all members for their enthusiasm and willingness to help and share with other members.
More information about joining the C&A SIG is available here.