Editorial note – Spring 2025

Dear TPN friends,

The editorial team and I welcome you to the Trauma Psychology News, Volume 20, Spring 2025 issue, themed “Commemorations and commencements.”

As we reckon with a swiftly shifting sociocultural-political climate in this new year, may we also pause to reflect on and commemorate our past(s) and recognize the collective history that we are making. The release of this issue marks the 50th year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975—a date deeply etched in my mind as a child born to Vietnamese refugees. And lest we forget, the Fall of Phnom Penh and the Fall of Vientiane were also in 1975.

That trifecta of falls in Southeast Asia brought about a rise in the field of trauma psychology with the addition of PTSD in the DSM-IV and into our diagnostic vernacular—and now, five decades later, we introduce present-day clinical practice guidelines for adults with complex trauma histories (see Feature Article, p. 8). This TPN issue also invites us to consider what histories we want to tell and what learnings we want to pass on—whether through your next familial generation (see Dr. D. H. Vu’s Who’s Who discussion on the passing down of war traumas among Vietnamese families, p. 14) or the next generation of trauma-informed trauma psychologists (see Student Section, p. 40).

With that, thank you to Dr. Elizabeth Carll and Dr. Priscilla Brailsford for their decades of contributions as TPN section editors and as division committee chairs. Your kindness and support have meant a lot to me. And thank you to you, for reading this note and for choosing to engage with these words at this moment. I await the flowers of May, and I look forward to the opportunity to hear, share, and honor your stories in this TPN space.

Editorial Trio
Viann Nguyen-Feng, PhD MPH LP
Editor

Vera Békés, PhD LP
Nicole Mantella, PhD PsyD
Associate Editors