In March 2027, clinicians and researchers from across the trauma and dissociation field will descend on Boston for the ISSTD 44th Annual Conference. Leading this year’s theme — “Beacons of Hope: Lighting the Way to Connection and Courage” — are three plenary speakers who have spent their careers reshaping how the field understands trauma!
Understanding the neurobiology of the traumatized brain and its application in trauma treatment often feel disjointed, as if speaking two different languages. Dr. Ruth Lanius steps into the role of translator, drawing from her career connecting both sides, studying trauma survivors’ first-person experience alongside their brain function. The conference’s opening plenary speaker is a Psychiatry Professor and Harris-Woodman Chair at Western University of Canada, where she directs the Clinical Research Program for PTSD. Dr. Lanius has spent over 25 years studying trauma-related disorders, publishing more than 200 research articles and co-authoring five books on trauma and the brain. Read more about Dr. Ruth Lanius’ work and accomplishments here.
Next to take the stage, Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD, will draw on her research and expertise to unravel complex trauma within the immigrant context using a psychodynamic perspective. Dr. Tummala-Narra’s work explores collective and interpersonal traumas faced by racial minority immigrants and subsequent generations, along with the sociocultural dynamics within the psychotherapeutic relationship that facilitate healing and growth. A Professor of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at Boston College, Usha is a clinical psychologist whose research and scholarship focus on immigration, trauma, and culturally informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Read more about Dr. Tummala-Narra’s work and accomplishments here.
Dr. John Read will present, “Childhood Adversity and Psychosis: From Heresy to Orthodoxy.” Mainstream psychiatry has long dismissed the link between childhood adversity and psychosis, treating it as fringe or unfounded. In his plenary, Dr. Read draws on decades of his own research to explore this shift and trace how this link moved from clinical heresy to a position increasingly supported by evidence, challenging attendees to reconsider the causal models still shaping diagnosis, treatment, and training. Dr. John Read is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, where he has published over 200 research papers on childhood adversity, psychosis, and the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on psychiatric research and practice. Learn more about Dr. John Read’s work and accomplishments here.
Don’t miss these plenary speakers — beacons of hope lighting the way! Registration for the 2027 ISSTD Annual Conference will be opening in October 2026. The early bird deadline for registration is December 15, 2026. The ISSTD Annual Conference Committee looks forward to seeing you there!