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

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

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.