The Research Special Interest Group (SIG) launched just under three years ago as a place for researchers to interact and collaborate. Our members range from those highly established in their fields, to early career investigators and students – essentially, anyone interested in learning more about research. We continue to organize quarterly events, both via Zoom and in-person (our most recent, at the ISSTD Annual Conference in Boston, featured Drs. Sherain Harricharan & Juliann Purcell).
We are excited to announce two upcoming events:
Dr. Bethany Brand is scheduled to present a talk entitled “Guiding Traumatized Clients to Find Solid Ground,” on Thursday, October 9th, from 4-5pm Eastern US time. The research SIG would like to express gratitude to ISSTD for providing a generous educational grant, enabling us to cover costs associated with producing this event. Here is a description:
Until recently, there was little treatment research to guide clinicians about how to stabilize the most severely dissociative and traumatized clients. More than a decade of research and input from clinicians and individual living with dissociative reactions informed the development of the treatment program called Finding Solid Ground. Dr. Brand will provide an overview of the randomized controlled trial that assessed the impact of the Finding Solid Ground program. Patients who participated in the study showed a wide range of benefits including decreased posttraumatic stress symptoms, enhanced self-compassion, and improved emotion regulation and adaptive functioning. Clinicians who participated in the study deepened their understanding of practical approaches. To receive zoom information for the event, please email SIG chair, Jon Cleveland, at jonathan@collectivewithin.com.
* This talk will precede another ISSTD event featuring Dr. Brand, her Ask the Expert series appearance – for more information: https://cfas.isst-d.org/content/ask-expert-bethany-brand
Also, on September 30th, the research SIG is presenting “Feedback Sessions, 2025,” our second annual student and early career researcher event where newly developed ideas will be presented to established researchers for feedback and encouragement (this year’s panel included Drs. Martin Dorahy, Negar Fani, and Milissa Kaufman; registration for this event was limited to presenters and panel members, but be sure to look out for our next call for submissions, summer of 2026).
To join the research SIG: please send an e-mail to our secretary, Juliann Purcell – jpurcell1@mclean.harvard.edu. She will reply with a brief form for you to complete.