With April being Child Abuse Prevention Month and the ISSTD’s Child and Adolescent Month, what better time than to provide an update on the ISSTD’s Child & Adolescent Special Interest Group (SIG)! Currently 37 members strong, members of the Child & Adolescent SIG bring a wealth of knowledge and experience about working with traumatized children and adolescents, through the use of many different trauma-specific modalities and in different clinical settings.
The Child & Adolescent SIG experienced some shifts and changes as the New Year rang in. One shift included the introduction of an entirely new SIG leadership team, who continue to explore new ways of building the Child & Adolescent SIG into an increasingly helpful and supportive space for members. The new leadership team, which happens to be all Canadian, consists of Billie-Jo Bennett (Secretary), Alexis Arbuthnott (Moderator), and me, Jill Hosey (Chair). Together, we hope to build on the foundation laid by previous SIG Leadership and the collective wisdom of both past leadership and the SIG membership to grow and thrive as a learning community.
As a starting point, the Child & Adolescent SIG members were recently surveyed about potential activities that members find interesting or of value. SIG leadership is now reviewing the results of this survey to plan for upcoming SIG activities to increase opportunities for networking and peer support, as well as to share knowledge between members. This may include sharing updates on research and inviting experts in the field to join for question-and-answer sessions.
The Child & Adolescent SIG has just met as a group at the ISSTD Annual Conference for our annual meeting, during which time 20 SIG members met and socialized online. This meeting felt like a great success, in that both newer and older members had an opportunity to liaise, learn about each other’s work and practice, and network. We are always welcoming new members, and we want encourage you to join the Child & Adolescent SIG and stay tuned for more details!
Kid’s Korner Articles
The Child & Adolescent SIG also welcomes any ISSTD members who enjoy writing, to engage and participate through article writing for Kid’s Korner in ISSTD News. Kid’s Korner runs quarterly and focuses specifically on child and adolescent news and issues. Kid’s Korner articles may reflect on specific treatment issues in working with children and adolescents, upcoming training events, useful books and resources, new research and proposals, or reflections on practice. If you have given a presentation recently, consider writing up a summary into an article for Kid’s Korner! This is a great chance for readers to learn more about working with children & youth, and our readers may also discover how relevant these articles are in working with persons across the lifespan.
If you are a writer, we would love to hear your ideas about working with children and youth who have experienced complex trauma and dissociation. You do not need to be a SIG member to contribute to Kid’s Korner, but the SIG leadership is assisting ISSTD News by coordinating contributions for this column. Please get in touch with Jill Hosey to discuss your idea prior to submitting the article, at jillhoseymsw@gmail.com.
In closing, we want to thank you for taking the time to read this update on the ISSTD’s Child & Adolescent SIG. We would love to hear from you with any feedback or ideas, or even to join the SIG! For anyone interested in joining us, please reach out to the SIG Secretary, Billie-Jo Bennett, at billie@healingwingstherapy.ca