3 online training programs about traumatic stress and interventions: high quality, free, and convenient

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I recently saw a Dutch poster about a conversation going something like

“How are you doing? “

“Busy, busy”

“That’s not what I wanted to know”,

It commented on people’s tendency to always be, or feel, busy-busy-busy. This busy-ness also gets in the way of professional development it seems. When we interviewed teachers about which medium they preferred to learn about trauma in children, a workshop or training turned out not to be feasible. Several teachers explained  that they wouldn’t be able to fit a workshop in their (busy) schedule, even though they were enthusiastic about attending one. Also for the clinical professionals around me, it seems to be an eternal struggle to make time for whole days of training.

Now, unfortunately, I don’t have a solution to busy-ness (though I try to figure it out for myself with some zen/mindfulness). But I do see interesting options which make training more convenient. In the trauma domain, we have a number of high-quality, free (or low-cost*) online training programs that I am not sure everybody is aware of. Continue reading →

Parents tell about their children’s recovery from trauma

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A child has been injured in an accident. Or has witnessed a suicide. Or has been assaulted on the way home from school. What is parents’ story when such a thing happens? How do they describe the recovery of their child? And what can we learn from their experiences?

We spoke in-depth with the parents of 25 children who had been through varied types of trauma, including serious road traffic accidents, witnessing murder, sexual assault, the loss of a sibling, and an explosion at home. The events had happened at least 6 months previously and the children were between 8 and 12 years old at the time of the interview.

Even though our questions mainly regarded the child’s recovery, parents talked a lot about their own role in this recovery. In particular, they spoke about two elements of their parenting. The first concerned becoming aware of the child’s needs. Parents tried to figure out what would be normal reactions to the event and to what extent their child showed those or more severe reactions. They used various strategies, including: Continue reading →

PhD scholarships at Monash University

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There is an interesting opportunity for young trauma researchers: to do a PhD at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). Monash Injury Research Institute is a multidisciplinary center, doing research on both the prevention and outcome side of trauma, which may lead to creative cross-overs. Particularly interesting for researchers in psychotraumatology are the topics adolescent refugee mental health, child abuse, disaster resilience, and injury outcomes.

For the full text of the advertisement, see below. Beware that the deadline for expressions of interest is 12 October. Continue reading →

Predictors of PTSD in children and adults

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We know that traumatic events occur quite often. We also know that most people are resilient, even though many survivors experience some distress in the direct aftermath of an event. Only a minority will develop longer-term stress symptoms. What are their characteristics? Who is ‘at risk’ after trauma? If we know the answer, we can target mental health care services to the survivors who are most in need.

In the last 30 years, more and more research has been published on predictors of posttraumatic stress. Mainly in adults, but also in children. Continue reading →

ISTSS conference about trauma

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The annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is approaching. Early November the Mariott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore will be crowded with psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, journalists, policy makers, victim advocates, counselors, and many others. This year’s theme is “Social Bonds and Trauma Through the Life Span”. The meeting may not be in the most beautiful city of the US (although, even Baltimore has its hidden charms), but it looks like there will be quite a number of interesting presentations.

Judith Herman, a pioneer in traumatic stress research, will give a keynote lecture. Her book Trauma and Recovery was probably the only textbook that really touched me during my studies. As always during the ISTSS conferences, there will be an overwhelming amount of research presentations and posters. One that I look forward to regards a meta-analysis on the relation between parent functioning and child posttraumatic stress, by Morris and Delahanty. It will be interesting to hear what they think about the ways parents influence their children; and where we can intervene. Another one that sounds promising is a symposium on challenges and successes in evaluating community-based interventions for children (Jaycox and colleagues). Continue reading →