Presidential Voice
Helping to Alleviate Trauma Around the World
By: Elizabeth Carll, PhD
Coping with traumatic events have been at the forefront, both globally and nationally, resulting in much needed work by those trained to help in such dire situations. Globally, in August and September more than 650,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar due to ethnic persecution resulting in killing of families, rape, and burning of villages. It is unfathomable to think about so many people fleeing their country in such a short period of time. An imploding economy has driven almost half-a-million Venezuelans to live in Colombia.... Full Article
Editor's Note
By: Bryan Reuther, PsyD
Welcome to the Winter Issue of Trauma Psychology News! I would like to start with a warm, personal thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Carll for her tireless efforts as our division president. Although she will be shifting to the role of immediate past president, her presidential work in international trauma psychology along with the Refugee Mental Health Network remains a major focus of our division, and a lasting part of her legacy as president....Full Article
Editorial
It’s Not All Black or White: Response to Shedler’s Psychology Today Blog “Selling Bad Therapy to Trauma Victims”
By: Christine A. Courtois, PhD ABPP
I write this blog response as a clinician with over 40 years of experience (just retired from practice) and an author/trainer who has devoted my career to the development of treatment approaches for different types of interpersonal trauma. I have recently served as Chair of the American Psychological Association Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of PTSD in Adults (2017) (the subject of Dr. Shedler’s critique) and over the years have helped develop other professional practice and clinical practice guidelines...Full Article
Special Section
Trauma Psychology Takes to The Hill: APA Division 56 Joins APA Partners in Cosponsoring Policy Workshop & Advocacy Day
By: Diane Elmore Borbon, PhD, MPH, Erin Hambrick, PhD, Jessica Lambert, PhD, and Christopher DeCou, PhD
Trauma psychologists often have the desire but lack accessible and meaningful mechanisms to engage in policy activities. On August 1-2, 2017, the APA Trauma Psychology Division (Division 56) joined APA’s Public Interest and Science Government Relations Offices, APAGS, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI-Division 9), and the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA-Division 27) in co-sponsoring a special summer Policy Workshop & Advocacy Day, in conjunction with the 2017 APA Annual Convention in Washington, DC....Full Article
Featured Articles
A Brief Review of the Conservation of Resources Theory as it Applies to Military Trauma
By: Jordan Joyner, MS & Valerie Leake, PhD, LCP
The Conservation of Resource Theory (COR; Hobfoll, 2001) has been found to be a reliable basis for understanding the processes involved with experiencing, coping with, and overcoming chronic and traumatic stress (Hobfoll et al., 2001). The COR theory postulates that individuals are motivated to protect, procure, and preserve resources (Hobfoll, 1991). Resources are anything that a person values and can be broken down into four categories: objects (e.g., house, phone), conditions (e.g., stable employment, good health), personal characteristics, (e.g., optimism, hope), and energies (e.g., knowledge)... Full Article
Intensive Outpatient Prolonged Exposure for PTSD in Post-9/11 Veterans and Service-Members: Program Structure and Preliminary Outcomes of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program
By: Carly Yasinski, PhD, Andrew M. Sherrill, PhD, Jessica L. Maples-Keller, PhD, Sheila A.M. Rauch, PhD ABPP, and Barbara O. Rothbaum PhD ABPP
Exposure-based psychotherapies are highly effective and strongly recommended by APA and VA/DOD Clinical Practice Guidelines as first-line treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (American Psychological Association, 2017; VA/DOD, 2017) Unfortunately treatment completion rates, particularly among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans and service members, are low, with 30 to 46% of patients dropping out (Kehle-Forbes, Meis, Spoont, & Polusny, 2016; Mott et al., 2014)...Full Article
New Fellow!
Learn more about Division 56's newest fellow, Dr. Regina (Gina) McGlinchey! She is a Supervisory Research Scientist at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and much more.
Convention 2017 Award Winners
Please join us in celebrating the award winners from the 2017 convention in Washington, DC! We are especially proud of the picture that included most of the division presidents from the first 10 years.
Refugee Mental Health Resource Network Database Update
Learn more about this exciting APA interdivisional project that has focused on gathering the names of psychologists and mental health professionals interested in volunteering to provide services to refugees, migrants and internally displaced people. Some volunteers have experience working with refugees, and others have trauma experience.
Multicultural and Diversity
Utilizing a Multicultural Framework in Trauma Psychology: Highlight of Division Resources
By: Shavonne J. Moore & Lesia M. Ruglass
As the world’s population continues to become more diverse, clinicians will have to broaden their therapeutic approaches to include more than a single cultural context (Zayfert, 2008). This notion is consistent with what scholars have been saying for years, that utilizing a multicultural framework is particularly relevant and necessary (Sue, 2001), especially when it comes to culturally competent work with survivors of trauma (Brown, 2009). Trauma reactions can be broadly defined as normative responses to abnormal events....Full Article
International Perspectives
International Committee Update and Student Interview
By: Elizabeth Carll, PhD and Vincenzo Teran, PsyD
As part of the series of interviews conducted by student members with trauma psychologists from various parts of the world, Rayna Sanghvi, a student member of the International Committee, interviewed Dr. Leonidas Castro-Camacho, a clinical psychologist based in Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. He is in private practice and also an associate professor at the University of Los Andes.... Full Article
Student Spotlight
WEIRD Trauma Research: We Can Do Better
By: Cathryn Richmond & Selamawit Hailu
Approximately 99% of all psychological research has been conducted by researchers at Western universities with 96% of samples from Western industrialized countries, though these countries represent only 12% of the world’s population (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). Not only does this lead to incorrect conclusions about the human species as a whole, but WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic; Henrich et al., 2010) methodology also dramatically limits our understanding of individuals within one’s own society.... Full Article
Member News
What to know more about what your colleagues are doing? Check out the member news section for a summary of activities, books, and presentations Division 56 members are doing.
Fellows
Division 56 welcomes new fellows who have made significant contributions to the field, please check the application requirements for further information.
Who's Who
Please meet Robyn Gobin, one of Division 56's amazing members-at-large and responsible for the suite planning at the 2017 convention.