President’s column – Spring 2025

Jessica Punzo, PsyD

I am thrilled to write my first Presidential Column of the year for Trauma Psychology News! Although we are only a few months into the year, we have been hard at work making some big changes. We started the year with a very large (and very new) Executive Council (EC). Currently we have a total of 37 members that make up our Executive Council, with more than half of those folks being new to their positions (some are even brand new to APA). Bringing new faces into leadership was one of my biggest goals for my presidential term and I am happy to report it has been going wonderfully!

We also obtained a new Executive Director this year, Deb Doepp. She has been instrumental in getting us more organized and efficient (another presidential goal) so that we may focus on what our specialties are and what matters.

Another presidential goal of mine was to increase communication and community within our Division. I have been writing monthly emails in hopes of sharing with you all the things that go on “behind the scenes” so that you may feel more connected to your EC. I have been sending those out on the Div 56 Listservs, so please make sure you are subscribed to in order to be up-to-date on all our news blasts and information sharing. If you need help signing up for the listserv or are not sure if you are subscribed, please reach out to Deb at info@apad56.org for help. Moreover, I have asked our secretary to post a summary of our EC meetings to the listserv as well, so you may see what is discussed in these meetings and how hard each of our EC members are working. Finally, for the first time in our history we will be having a second in-person EC meeting here in Chicago, in an effort to continue to promote team building and community in leadership.

Did you know we have 18 committees within the Division? Yes, you read that right! If you have been wanting to get involved within the Division, but have been unsure of how, joining a committee is a great first start! It is also a great pathway to becoming more involved in Division leadership. You may use this JotForm link to see our current list of committees as well as indicate which ones you would be interested in being involved in.

We recently finalized our programming for the Annual APA Convention, which I could not be more excited about. Division 56 continues to see excellent and high quality submissions each year, with this year being the most submissions we have received to date! While we love the interest in trauma psychology, we always have to turn down really stellar proposals each year due to not having enough programming hours. However, we did get an increase in programming hours this year, as our programming last year was one of the highest attended across the entire convention!

As you may have seen, my presidential theme for this year’s convention is: The Future of Trauma Psychology: Innovation, Integration, and Impact. We are highlighting symposium, skill building sessions and critical conversations that address cutting-edge approaches to trauma treatment, interdisciplinary collaboration, and application of new technologies. We will be sharing the full details of the schedule once they are finalized by APA. Moreover, we will be soliciting for informal programming to be held in the informal programming spaces at the convention in the next coming months, so keep an eye out in your inbox for that call. If you have an idea now, please email our current Program Chair: Robyn Gobin at info@robyngobin.com.

I am most excited for my Presidential Panel Discussion at the convention entitled: Evolving the Practice of Trauma Psychology: Innovative Treatments and Emerging Trends. I have invited Dr. Barbara Rothbaum, Dr. Alan Peterson and Dr. Damon Krohn to have an engaging and thought-provoking discussion on the future of trauma-focused treatments. I hope you will join us in Denver in this August and attend some of our amazing programming.

Lastly, I want to share an update on our CODAPAR project with Divisions 12, 29, 30, 32, and 36. For those of you who may not know, Division 56 spearheaded a CODAPAR project on educating psychologists about psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT). The project will consist of a series of webinars eligible for free Continuing Education credits, a survey to assess psychologists’ perspectives on PAT, and a basic toolkit to support practitioners and their clients. Here is the link to register. If you are interested in completing our survey you can do so at this Qualtrics link.

As I said, we have been busy! I look forward to the coming months and getting more connected with you all both virtually and hopefully in person at the convention. Please feel free to email me directly with any questions, concerns or feedback you may have!