Bringing Together Clinicians and Researchers From Around the World to Advocate for the Field of Traumatic Stress.
Healing Trauma Together
The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is dedicated to sharing information about the effects of trauma and the discovery and dissemination of knowledge about policy, program and service initiatives that seek to reduce traumatic stressors and their immediate and long-term consequences. ISTSS is an international interdisciplinary professional organization that promotes advancement and exchange of knowledge about traumatic stress.
Registration is Now Open!
Join us in Boston on September 25-28, 2024 for the ISTSS 40th Annual Meeting. The ISTSS Annual Meeting provides a forum for the dissemination of theoretical work, scientific research, and evidence-based clinical approaches in traumatic stress studies.
Conversations and Consultations
Our Conversations and Consultation series is a members-only series that provides members with the opportunity to exchange valuable insight and advice with subject-matter experts, mentors, and/or colleagues in the trauma field. Each session is facilitated by one or more experts and presented to ISTSS members as a free membership benefit. Check out past sessions on industry careers, part-time private practice, and our most recent session on international collaboration.
Grow Your Professional Network by Volunteering with ISTSS
Volunteers play an integral role in ISTSS' day-to-day activities and form a broad professional network. Interested in adding an ISTSS volunteer position to your CV?
Call for contributing editors – NULL
The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) publishes StressPoints, an award-winning electronic newsletter to support the professional development needs of its membership. Four issues are published annually. The purpose of StressPoints is to provide an outlet for rapidly sharing news and recent advances in global trauma research and practice.
New mental health award – Marit Sijbrandij, PhD
Developmental Traumatology: On holding and being held: Therapists, traumatized youth and the pandemic – Sarah K. Abel, LICSW
Many children who have suffered traumas early in their lives have also experienced profound losses of relationships. They may have lost or been separated from family members, experienced war and displacement, and/or lived in multiple placements. Because children with developmental trauma can show difficulties with cognition, emotional regulation and behavioral control (Spinnzola et al., 2021), they often cannot articulate their struggles, instead demonstrating them through behavioral responses. When children with histories of developmental trauma and loss enter treatment, the therapist must create an environment that offers protection and containment so that the child feels safe enough and can regulate sufficiently to explore thoughts, feelings and memories. Creating that therapeutic space is not always easy.