Programs & Training

2010 APA Convention in San Diego

Division 56 has an exciting program at this year's APA convention, with symposia, poster sessions, and discussions. You can find out all the details by using the searchable database on the Convention Website. You can also download the Division 56 program here so that you can plan your activities during convention. Questions can be directed to our Program Chairs, Dawn Hughes and Kate Richmond.

For the first time, Division 56 has its own Hospitality Suite, located at the San Diego Marriott. The Suite Program includes meetings of Special Interest Groups and Committtees, and a mentoring social hour for students and Early Career Psychologists. There are also free times when you can simply drop into the suite and chat with our student and ECP volunteers.

Also for the first time, Division 56 has produced a Continuing Education program on the topic of Working with Adult Trauma Survivors. This full-day CE workshop, featuring some of the foremost names in trauma psychology, will be held on Sunday, August 15th from 8:00 am to 3:50 pm at the San Diego Hilton. Information and registration are available on the APA convention website.

We had many more excellent programs than we could accept. You can change this by helping us to get more hours on the program. The number of hours a division receives is determined solely by the number of people who indicate it as their primary division when registering for convention. So please, when you do register, list 56 first, so that next year we'll have more than the minimum number of hours for your excellent work to be showcased.

Division 56's famous dessert social hour, co-sponsored with the Divisions for Social Justice, will happen from 8-10 pm on Friday, August 13th, San Diego Marriott Hotel, Manchester Room. Free and welcome to all. This year's award winners will be announced at the social hour.

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

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.

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.

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.

2008 APA Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships

Photos and materials 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.

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.

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

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.