APA Guidelines for Working with Adults with Complex Trauma Histories
Learn about the new set of guidelines approved by the APA Council of Representatives at the APA 2024 convention in Seattle, August 2024.
APA’s clinical and professional practice guidelines are science-backed tools that showcase the latest clinical and practice knowledge for clinicians.
Developed by Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD)
OUR LEADERSHIP FOR 2025
Jessica Punzo, Psy.D.
President
Dr. Jessica Punzo is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Illinois and also an active member of PSYPACT. She completed her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Traumatic Stress at Adler University.
Janna Henning, Psy.D.
President-Elect
Dr. Janna Henning has been providing mental health services for adults with complex trauma, PTSD, dissociative disorders, chronic/life-threatening illness, and grief/loss-related concerns for over 20 years.
Carlos Cuevas, Ph.D.
Past President
Dr. Carlos A. Cuevas is a Professor and Co-Director of the Violence and Justice Research Laboratory at Northeastern University in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Trauma Psychology News
Editorial Note – Fall/Winter 2023
Dear TPN friends, THE EDITORIAL TEAM & I WISH YOU A HEARTFELT WELCOME to the Trauma Psychology News Fall/Winter 2023 issue, themed “Fragility, solidarity, and refuge.” As we continue in this fragile, trying time for the world and our community, may we find solidarity with each other and co-create a space of refuge, recovery, and…
Fall/Winter 2023 | Vol. 18, Issue 3
Fall/Winter 2023 | Vol. 18, Issue 3
Book Review – The blue dragonfly: Healing through poetry
By Veronica Eley2021Hidden Brook Press Veronica Eley’s The Blue Dragonfly: healing through poetry offers an unusually poignant testament of the poet’s decades-spanning struggle with traumatic after-effects in daily life. Eley’s poems trace a lifelong struggle with mental illness that first emerges in childhood. By age 7 she was: “alreadyshowing signsof emotionaldisturbancebipolarin today’s terms.” She portrays…
CALL FOR FELLOWS
DUE DATE: November 1 Fellows Committee Chair:Priscilla Dass-Brailsfordpd227@georgetown.eduPhone: 202-706-5078 Fellow status in APA is given to those who have made unusual and outstanding contributions to the field of trauma psychology. Their distinguished contributions are the foundation on which the future of trauma psychology builds. Fellows make on-going contributions to science, practice, and public policy through…
Integrating familismo into evidence-based trauma therapies to increase treatment engagement among Latine youth
Yesenia Aguilar Silvan & Lauren C. NgSection Editor: Antonella BarianiPeer Reviewers: Linda Zheng & Molly Becker Trauma Exposure Disparities for Latine Youth By age 17, 46% of youth in the United States will have experienced at least one potentially traumatic event such as community violence or family separation (Sacks & Murphey, 2018). This major public…
Exploring the Wellness of Black Women Who Describe a Criterion A Trauma in their Life Story
Jessica Krukowski, Ed St. Aubin, & Karen RobinsonSection Editor: Sydney Timmer-Murillo Black women live in an intersection between two marginalized identities: their Blackness and their womanhood (King, 2019). Oftentimes the challenges Black men and boys face become synonymous with the entire Black experience (Patton et al., 2016). As a result, solidarity becomes asymmetrical, and the…
Contextualizing Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders
Multicultural Considerations for the Past, Present, & Future of our Field Nicholas A. Pierorazio, Christina M. Dardis, & Bethany L. BrandSection Editor: Claire J. Starrs Dissociation is presently understood as a disconnection and/or disintegration in consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, somatic experience, motor functioning, and/or behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). Dissociation may range from being…
RMHRN and International Committee Updates
Elizabeth CarllSection Editor; Founder & Chair, Refugee Mental Health Resource Network Refugee Mental Health Resource Network The Refugee Mental Health Resource Network (RMHRN) free webinar on Cybersecurity was unique for the RMHRN as it addressed the increasing concerns that have arisen from colleagues being hacked and data lost or stolen, resulting in access to confidential…
Who’s Who: Ilene Serlin, PhD
Dr. Ilene A. Serlin, BC-DMT she/herPsychologist and Dance Therapist Formal education: Areas of expertise/interests: Existential/humanistic psychology, all the arts, travel and cross-cultural exchanges Self-care activities: Dance, yoga, hiking, sleep, healthy diet, friends, love, family, reading, films, the arts, painting watercolors What led you to this Field and career path? I have been a folk dancer…
My daughter was murdered: “There are no words”
Deborah A. Stiles There are no words. I am a white woman who is a professor and psychologist; I suffered a traumatic loss in 2022 when my 34-year-old African American foster daughter was murdered. Although we were not biologically related, I was her mother, and she was my daughter; I deeply cherished and depended upon…