In keeping with our mission to provide reparative care with cultural humility, STEPS offers a monthly reading group with an explicit focus on the sociopolitical roots of psychological distress. Psychology’s understanding of the impact of historical and intergenerational trauma has significantly grown in the past decade and we hope to use writings by experts in the fields of psychology as well as cultural studies to deepen our knowledge on working effectively with the effects of patriarchal norms, intergenerational racial harm, queer phobia, and political violence. As a NYS CE provider for psychologists, we offer one CE per class hour for this reading group. This is an open group but we ask for a commitment of at least six classes. Please write to info@traumaprofessionals.com or dr.almas.merchant@gmail.com if interested.
Workshops can be tailored to address a variety of topics upon request. Below is a sample of invited workshops that STEPS clinicians have delivered:
- Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS) Intervention for Military and Veteran Families. /Clinician Masterclass provided to Cohen’s Veterans Network/
- Advanced Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Techniques in Working with Childhood Sexual Trauma. /Clinician Masterclass provided to NYPCC/
- Introduction to Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for Traumatized Children and Adolescents. /Clinician Masterclass provided to NYPCC/
- What (Not) to Do When Someone Has Post-Traumatic Stress: A Field Guide for Loved Ones, Clinicians, and the Community. /Invited presentation at the Association for Mental Health and Wellness, Long Island/
- The unconscious rediscovered: How everyday Unconscious processes impact clinical practice. /Invited presentation at the Suffolk County Psychological Association (SCPA)/
- Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who have experienced trauma webinar series: Building resilience in families contending with intellectual and developmental disabilities. /Live webinar delivered for members of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, with Drs. Daniel Hoover & William Saltzman/
- Meeting the needs of children and families of US Veterans: A panel discussion on the report by the NCTSN-VA subcommittee. /Panel presentation at the 36th annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)/
- Understanding Collective Trauma /Invited presentation at the NYC Fusion Academy/
- Trauma and Mental Health: The Impact of Trauma/presentation to over 300 state troopers and campus sexual assault prevention, response, and recovery workers & first responders/
- Trauma and Mental Health: Managing Our Own Responses to Working With Trauma/presentation to over 300 state troopers and campus sexual assault prevention, response, and recovery workers & first responders/
- The Intersection Between Trauma, Eating Disorders, and Addiction: From Isolation to Reattachment/at the 1st annual Enough Is Enough conference for campus sexual assault prevention, response, and recovery/
- Expanding Veteran Care to the Family/at the 4th annual Community Strong Military Veterans conference/
- TF-CBT Adaptations for Military and Veteran Families/at the Mental Health and Wellness Association/
- What Challenges are Military Families Facing Today? /at the annual VHALI conference/
- Front Lines: Working in Public Institutions during the Pandemic /at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis’s Weekend Symposium series/
- Striving for Mediocrity: Breaking down the Defense of Excellence. Steering Committee Invited panel: Fracturing the American Dream: Trauma Within and Between Us /at the annual conference for the American Psychological Association’s Division of Psychoanalysis/
- Feet on the Ground: Leading the Way for Community Psychoanalysis /at the annual conference for the American Psychological Association’s Division of Psychoanalysis, Philadelphia, PA/
- Exorcise Our Demons: Queering the Fort/Da Game /at the annual conference for the American Psychological Association’s National Multicultural Summit, Denver, CO/
- Relational Principles in the Community for Underserved Populations /at the annual conference for the Association for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, NJ/