Pathways to healing & empowerment: Exploring adversity trauma, & resilience

Program Narrative: Pathways to Healing and Empowerment: Exploring Adversity, Trauma, and Resilience Across Contexts brings together scholars, clinicians, educators, and students to examine the psychological, social, and structural dimensions of adversity and trauma across diverse populations and settings. Grounded in empirical research and interdisciplinary scholarship, the conference will explore mechanisms of trauma exposure, transmission, and recovery at individual, family, community, and societal levels. Sessions will highlight evidence-based clinical interventions, culturally responsive healing models, and resilience frameworks that support post-traumatic growth and empowerment. This conference aims to advance scientific dialogue, promote trauma-informed practice, and foster collaborative strategies that support healing, resilience, and sustainable empowerment across clinical, educational, and community systems.

Continuing Education Credits for this program are pending.

For further information, contact Dr. Nouriman Ghahary @ [email protected]

Info: This presentation provides an accessible overview of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy as a trauma-informed framework, while emphasizing attachment- and somatic-based principles that are applicable across clinical settings and treatment modalities. Designed for graduate students and clinicians not formally trained in EMDR, the session introduces the core concepts of EMDR. This talk will include how traumatic experiences become “stuck” in the nervous system and how healing occurs through integration, regulation, and relational safety. Attachment theory will be used to deepen an understanding of how early relational experiences, intergenerational trauma, and systemic oppression influence clients’ emotional regulation, coping strategies, and engagement in therapy. Participants will learn practical, somatically informed strategies.

Info: Why Mattering Matters: Complex Trauma Understood Through a Global Lens of Human Rights and Meaning Making. This presentation examines complex trauma globally, where it often stems from chronic political instability, conflict, displacement, and human rights violations rather than solely childhood maltreatment. These experiences are both individual and collective.
Interventions must be grounded in a human rights framework that restores dignity and agency. Meaning-making and Prilleltensky’s (2020) concept of mattering, being valued and adding value, offer a foundation for community-based approaches that promote resilience, belonging, and recovery.

Info: Can continue through lunch time.

Info: Understanding the many layers of trauma and resilience- Trauma is not only a psychological response to harmful events; it is also shaped by historical context, systemic inequities, and collective experiences. Likewise, resilience is not simply an individual strength but a dynamic process that develops through relationships, cultural meaning-making, and access to supportive resources. Presenters explore how trauma affects development, identity, emotional functioning, and relationships across the lifespan. The panel also highlights how communities facing chronic stress, violence, displacement, or marginalization develop adaptive strategies that preserve identity, foster connection, and sustain hope. Special attention is given to the intersection of personal and collective resilience, including the roles of family systems, cultural traditions, and community-based healing.

Info: Managing Threat Within Precarious Social Hierarchies: Assumptions, Discussion, and Conclusions about a Changing Social, Political, and Cooperative Environment.

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Host or Publisher Felician University Doctoral Program in Counseling Psychology