Trauma research foundation & Bessel van der Kolk are delighted to announce the 34TH Annual Boston international trauma conference
For the 34th year, Bessel van der Kolk hosts some of the world’s most innovative leaders from the field of trauma, attachment, neuroscience, mindfulness, body oriented work and psychedelic studies.
The study of trauma has probably been the single most fertile area in helping to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship among the emotional, cognitive, social and biological forces that shape human development. Starting with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults and expanding into early attachment and overwhelming attachment and social experiences in childhood (“Developmental Trauma”), this endeavor has elucidated how certain
experiences can “set” psychological expectations, bodily experiences and biological selectivity.
When addressing the problems of traumatized people who, in a myriad of ways, continue to react to current experiences as a replay of the past, there is a need for therapeutic methods that do not depend exclusively on drugs, talk or understanding. We have learned that most experience is automatically processed on a subcortical level of the brain; i.e., by “unconscious” interpretations that take place outside of conscious awareness. Insight and good intentions only have a limited influence on the operation of these subcortical processes, but synchrony, movement and reparative experiences do. This conference will present both basic research about the impact of trauma over the life cycle, and a range of effective interventions that are being practiced in clinics, schools, prisons, families, and communities around the world.
Join Us Live Online And In-person
The main objective of this conference is to present current understanding of how people’s minds, brains, bodies and social organizations respond to traumatic experiences, and what currently appear to be the optimal clinical interventions, including the role of relationships, movement, synchrony, justice and processing to protect and restore safety and regulation.
Central is the role of affect regulation and the resolution of misinterpretation of innocuous stimuli as threats, which require interventions that can restore a sense of active mastery and the capacity to mindfully focus on the demands of the present.
We will also explore how different populations, ethnic groups and cultures may deal differently with traumatic experiences, and address how the legacy of trauma, systematic discrimination, isolation, blame, and social inequality can have profound effects on the capacity to cope and recover from trauma.