2012 APA Convention in Orlando, Florida
Our theme this year is Best Practices for the Treatment of Traumatic Stress Disorders.
APA assigns hours to each division based on the number of people who list that division as their primary division when registering for convention. Please help us increase our available hours by indicating that Division 56 is your primary division when you register for the convention.
2011 APA Convention in Washington, D.C.
Invited Addresses
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Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery Systems
Sandra L. Bloom
Listen to audio | View the slides -
Traumatic Bereavement After Group Violence: Restoring Community, Restoring Self
Laurie Anne Pearlman
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A Dynamic Maturational Perspective on Danger, Attachment, and Adaptation
Patricia M. Crittenden
Listen to audio | View the slides
Presidential Address
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Incest as Complex Trauma: Relational Healing for Relational Injury
Christine A. Courtois (with introduction by Steven Gold)
Listen to audio |
Symposium: Clergy Sexual Abuse - Advances in Prevention, Recovery, and Treatment of Survivors and Perpetrators
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Chair
Donald F. Walker
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Understanding and Responding to Roman Catholic Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse
Terence M. Keane and Robert McMackin
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Let the Data Speak: Evidence-Based Approaches to the Clergy Abuse Situation in the Catholic Church
Thomas G. Plante
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Soul Searing: The Spiritual Abuse Inherent in Clergy Sexual Abuse
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea
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Discussant
Christine A. Courtois
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Q & A
Listen to audio
2010 APA Convention in San Diego
Symposium: Rethinking Trauma Psychology Training - A Multicultural and International Perspective
This symposium offers perspectives on training in trauma psychology from psychologists working in the international arena.
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Chair
Sandra Mattar
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Trauma Training and Practice in New Zealand
Steven Little
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Trauma Psychology Training: A Multicultural and International Perspective
Thema Bryant-Davis
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Discussant
Kathryn Norsworthy
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Q & A
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Symposium: Ethical and Professional Considerations in Trauma Psychology - Psychotherapy, Forensics, Research
This symposium explores the range of ethical consideration of trauma psychology practice across several different domains.
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Ethical and Professional Considerations in Trauma Psychology: Psychotherapy
Lisa Rocchio
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Ethical and Professional Considerations in Trauma Psychology: Forensic Psychology
Dawn Hughes
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Ethical and Professional Considerations in Trauma Psychology: Research
Richard Thompson
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Q & A
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Invited Addresses: Trauma Research and Practice
These invited talks explore the interface of research and practice in trauma psychology.
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Chair
Laura Brown
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Disclosing Trauma: Research and Implications
Jennifer Freyd
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Trauma Science in the Context of Human Connection: P <.05
Constance Dalenberg
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Q & A
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Presidential Address
This lecture offers a paradigm for social justice ethics in trauma psychology.
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Can We Create Social Justice? Toward an Ethic of Justice in Trauma Psychology
Laura Brown (with introduction by Steven Gold)
Listen to audio | Read the paper | View the slides
2009 APA Convention in Toronto
Discussion Panel: Trauma Treatment in Independent Practice: Principles and Resources
This program offered a spontaneous interactive interchange between experienced trauma psychologists in independent practice, focusing on challenges and solutions for effectively working with this client population.
- Dawn M. Hughes, Chair
- Christine Courtois
- Melba Vasquez
- Lenore Walker
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Panel discussion
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Symposium: Trauma Courses: The Time Has Come
This program offered a series of perspectives on teaching trauma in graduate settings, and explored how APA and its various systems for recognizing proficiences and programs might begin to intersect with training in trauma.
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Chair
Sandra Mattar
Listen to audio -
Teaching Trauma to the Traumatized
Judith Alpert
Listen to audio | Read the paper -
Educating Traumatologists: Moving Toward Change
Sylvia Marrotta
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Teaching Trauma Psychology: Cultural Challenges
Sandra Mattar
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Discussant
Priscilla Dass-Brailsford
Listen to audio
Symposium: Special Issues in the Clinical and Forensic Evaluation of PTSD
This program focused on specific strategies for the assessment of PTSD. The choice of assesment instruments, with particular attention to which ones would best elicit reliable and valid information from a range of populations, and the challenge of assessing both malingering and minimization were discussed.
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Chair
Constance Dalenberg -
Evaluation of PTSD with Dissociative or Recovered Memory Clients and Plaintiffs
Constance Dalenberg
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Evaluation of PTSD in Elderly and Cognitively Impaired Populations
Sage Schuitevoerder
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Q & A
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2008 APA Convention in Boston
Symposium: Ending Long-Term Trauma Psychotherapies - Clinical and Ethical Considerations
This symposium offered wisdom from three experts in the field of doing long-term psychotherapy with survivors of complex trauma.
- Chair
Karen Saakvitne
Listen to audio - Therapist-Initiated Terminations of Long-Term Trauma Therapies
Laurie Anne Pearlman
Listen to audio - Risk Management and Ethics Issues in Termination of Long-Term Psychotherapy
Christine Courtois
Listen to audio | View the slides - Providing a Container for the Container: Consultation to Trauma Therapists
Karen Saakvitne
Listen to audio | View the slides - Q & A
Listen to audio
2008 APA Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships
from the first Division 56-sponsored APA Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships are now available for download.
2007 APA Convention in San Francisco
Symposium: Prostitution, Trafficking, Sexual Compulsivity and Trauma
This symposium considered the multi-faceted relationship between prostitution, trafficking and psychological trauma. Contributions of cultural norms about gender and violence, and issues of public policy, were explored.
- Chair
Steven N. Gold - Interlocking Traumatic Harm of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
Melissa Farley
Listen to audio | View the slides - Role of Psychologists in Combating Trafficking Through the United Nations
Thema Bryant-Davis
Listen to audio | View the slides - Normative Male Sexual Socialization: Harmless Fun or Sexual Trauma?
Gary R. Brooks
Listen to audio | View the slides | Read the paper - Normative Gay Normative Male Sexual Socialization: Harmless Fun or Sexual Trauma?
William Elder
Listen to audio | Read the paper - Discussant
Laura S. Brown
Listen to audio - Q & A
Listen to audio
Symposium: Innovations in Psychological Care for Returning War Veterans
This symposium examined the considerable and unique challenges posed for psychologists by military veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq for the involved healthcare delivery systems of the military and Veterans Administration.
- Chair
Terence M. Keane
Listen to audio - Rapid Mental Health Intervention for Physically Injured Combat Trauma Victims
Harold Wain
Listen to audio - Pain Among Returning Military Service Members From OEF/OIF
Robert D. Kerns
Listen to audio | View the slides - Meeting the Needs of Returning Veterans: Dissemination of Evidence-Based PTSD Treatment
Josef I. Ruzek
Listen to audio | View the slides - Traumatic Brain Injury in Returning Veterans: Implications for Comprehensive Treatment
Rodney Vanderploeg
Listen to audio | View the slides - Examination of PTSD and Its Relationship to Veterans' Health Functioning
Matthew Jakupcak
Listen to audio | View the slides - Discussant
David Riggs
Listen to audio - Chair
Terence M. Keane
Listen to audio
Film Presentation and Panel Discussion: Deliver Us from Evil
After the showing of the film Deliver Us From Evil, a panel of experts on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church discussed their work with survivors, the church, and the legal system.
- Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, Chair
- Christine Courtois
- Gerald J. McGlone
- John C. Manly
- Patrick Wall
- Panel discussion
Listen to audio - Q & A
Listen to audio
2006 APA Convention in New Orleans
Treating Traumatized Children and Families
This symposium, the Division's first substantive APA Convention program, was designed not only to cover a broad spectrum of topics in the field of trauma, but also to reflect the Division leadership's commitment to addressing the needs and interests of both researchers and practitioners.
- Introduction
Judith Alpert
Listen to audio. - Treating Survivors of Clergy Abuse and Their Families: Trauma and Spiritual Bereavement
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea
Listen to audio | Read the paper. - Treating Battered Mothers and Their Traumatized Children
Lenore Walker
Listen to audio | View the slides. - Innovations in Treatment of Returning OIF/OEF Combat Veterans and Their Families
Terrence Keane
Listen to audio | View the slides. - Why Cross-Cultural Competence Must Inform Trauma Treatment of Children and Families
Melba J. T. Vasquez
Listen to audio | Read the paper. - Using Research to Inform Trauma Treatment: Insight from Betrayal Trauma Studies
Jennifer Freyd
Listen to audio | View the slides. - Discussant
Robert Geffner
Listen to audio.

It is disturbing how many trauma clients I see have been told by misinformed mental health professionals that "there is no recovery from PTSD." In light of these circumstances, the formation of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology was sorely needed. It is gratifying to know that the APA Council tacitly acknowledged this need by enthusiastically endorsing and promptly approving formation of the Division at its February, 2006 meeting.