Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of the ESTD,

We are entering the last quarter of the year and plenty of exciting events are being prepared for the coming months in which, as members of our association, you can take part in with highly preferential conditions.

So I suggest everyone open their agenda and take note of the following ESTD events :

First of all, the next ESTD congress will take place in Brussels on 9, 10 and 11 March 2023. The theme will be exciting and of interest to both child and adult mental health professionals:

“When attachment meets trauma: disorganisation and dissociation from childhood to adulthood”.

Details of the programme are now available on the congress website: http://www.estd-aftd2023.brussels/

Through this congress we intend to connect clinical and research fields that have developed in often very separate worlds. However, we know that disorganisation of attachment is associated with abuse, neglect and, more broadly, adversity faced by children. In addition, studies on dissociation and clinical work with our DID patients clearly show that disorganised attachment is at the heart of their problem.

The organisation of this congress is the result of intense cooperation between the ESTD and the Association Francophone du Trauma et de la Dissociation (Francophone Association of Trauma and Dissociation, AFTD). This gives us a unique opportunity to join forces to disseminate the research and clinical practices that are dear to our members.

Still on the subject of important dates to remember, our scientific committee will continue its series of webinars about the “diagnosis and evaluation of dissociation” by offering you two new online conferences before the end of the year. On 29 September 2022, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm (Paris time), we will welcome Ellert Nijenhuis, PhD for a webinar entitled “Somatoform Dissociation: A Major Feature of Dissociative Disorders”. On 28 November 2022, at 6:00 pm (Paris time), we will host Olivier Piedfort-Marin, PhD and Marlene Steinberg, M.D. for a 3-hour webinar entitled “The SCID-D Interview: An Evidence-Based Approach to the Diagnosis and Therapeutic Assessment of Dissociation”. Take the opportunity to attend because live participation is free. Register through our website (https://www.estd.org/).

Finally, the end of the year is approaching and we will be holding our next AGM online on 19 November from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (Paris time). This AGM will mark the end of my presidency and I will be passing the baton to our colleague Igor Pietkiewicz, who will chair our association for the next 2 years. Each of you will be invited by email, and we hope to see many of you there.

I will end my letter with good news… and God knows good news is welcome in these times! This news will delight readers of our scientific journal, as well as the many colleagues who contribute to it. As you may know, our scientific journal (EJTD) has been indexed in the Web of Science’s Emerging Source Citation Index (ESCI) for a number of years. Our editor-in-chief, Professor Cyril Tarquinio, has just announced that ESCI journals will be soon included in the Journal Citation Report. This means that the EJTD will have an impact factor next year, which is sooner than we expected! I would like to congratulate all those who have contributed to this success!

Raphaël Gazon,

President of the ESTD