Presidential Voice

By: Diane Castillo, PhD

Greetings fellow Division 56 members. For the four short months of being President of the Division, I have been allowed to gain a perspective of Division and APA functioning and politics, which is quite a different angle than being a member. We have a broad membership and we face a number of issues—not all of which we agree upon. I see this as a good thing... Full Article

Editor's Note

By: Bryan Reuther, PsyD

It’s hard to believe that three years ago I was appointed as the editor of Trauma Psychology News. Over that period of time, I’ve met and worked with many brilliant people in the trauma psychology community, which has certainly left a significant impact on me.  I immensely appreciate those who put their confidence in me throughout my tenure as editor... Full Article

Featured Article

Use of Logic-Based Therapy to Encode Emotional Reasoning on the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

By: Elliot D. Cohen, PhD

The Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC) of the brain has been linked to value-based decision-making and regulation of negative emotions. Further, one study of the vmPFC utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has helped to refine the nature of the reasoning process by which such activities as value-based decision-making proceed, especially in contexts involving negative emotions (Goel & Dolan, 2003).  Such research suggests that a cognitive-behavioral therapeutic approach that identifies the logical structure of patients’ reasoning involving emotional content may be more aligned with the way the vmPFC operates in performing the latter functions than an approach that does not directly identify such reasoning structures.    Accordingly, this article suggests that a form of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) known as Logic-Based Therapy (LBT), which identifies patients’ emotional reasoning dispositions, may be more suitable as a cognitive-behavioral approach than traditional REBT... Full Article

Student Spotlight

Trauma before Incarceration: Examining the Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences

By: Kayleigh Watters, MA & Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD

According to the World Prison Population List, the United States has the highest prison population with 716 incarcerated per 100,000 (Walmsley, 2013), and these high rates of incarceration occur regardless of the fact that victimization rates do not differ from that of Western Europe (Dijk, Kesteren, & Smith, 2007). More concerning though, is that the prevalence of mental health disorders is higher among the incarcerated population than the outside community (Campbell et al., 2016). Indeed, the rate of pottraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this population is between 4- 21.4% (Campbell et al., 2016) and of the 105,500 women who were serving a year or more in state or federal jurisdiction, almost half had been physically or sexually assaulted prior to incarceration (Lynch et al., 2012). Higher rates of legal involvement among men who experienced sexual abuse have also been documented (Leach, Stewart, & Smallbone, 2016). Thus, exposure to trauma and resulting symptoms are a serious concern among justice-involved individuals, but unfortunately empirical data related to this population are limited. This paper will explore how adverse childhood experiences and exposure to trauma can affect incarcerated persons before and during their prison sentences... Full Article

Book Review

Review of Adaptive Disclosure: A New Treatment for Military Trauma, Loss, and Moral Injury

By: Z. Benek Altayli, PsyD

Adaptive Disclosure is written with heart and clarity to provide an alternative treatment approach to widely accepted, manualized, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based treatments for service members and veterans who suffer from posttraumatic syndromes. The treatment approach, Adaptive Disclosure, comprises of eight, 90-minute sessions that aim to “plant healing seeds,” rather than a “prescriptive dose of a treatment that cures.” Adaptive Disclosure is written for a clinician who is interested in learning about the principles and fundamentals of posttraumatic stress treatment, with or without prior experience... Full Article

Division 56 Listservs

Anyone who belongs to Division 56 is added to div56announce@lists.apa.org listserv, for news and announcements. Join any of the following lists by sending an email to listserv@lists.apa.org and typing the following in the body of the note:subscribe name (where name is the part before the @, for example, subscribe div56stu):