Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of ESTD,
In January, we started the year with the hope of getting out of the pandemic as soon as possible. At the start of the summer vacation, we realised that it will take a little while before we get back to a completely normal life!
In any case, our society has decided to move forward and a lot has changed during this first half of 2021. First of all, we held elections to replace our former president, Andrew Moskowitz, as well as Anabel Gonzales who chaired the education committee for many years. We have two new members on our board: Lise Møller, PhD (Denmark), who has joined the scientific committee and will develop the association’s scientific projects under the leadership of Ellen Jepsen. Suzana Guedes, PhD (Portugal) will join the education committee alongside Paola Boldrini who replaces Anabelle Gonzales.
As I announced in January, we have launched a series of expert discussions concerning diagnosis and assessment of dissociation. These discussions are organised in the form of online seminars and we have had the pleasure of welcoming several internationally renowned speakers over the past few months!
In May, Marylene Cloitre, PhD, gave us an excellent presentation on the differential diagnosis between PTSD, Complex PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder. We have also welcomed Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Bethany Brand, PhD, and Paul Frewen, PhD for a fascinating discussion about dissociation in complex PTSD and PTSD as described in DSM V, as well as the overlap between these disorders and dissociative disorders. These first two events were free and hundreds of people took part. As a member, you have free access to the recordings on our site by clicking on the following link: https://www.estd.org/estd-online-courses (you will have to enter your login and password to access them) .
This series will continue in September 2021 and will extend into 2022. The next two seminars take place on September 16, 2021 and October 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (GMT + 1, Brussels / Berlin /Warsaw/Madrid time). In September, we will invite Martin Dorahy and Vedat Şar for a webinar entitled “The Many Faces of Dissociation: Concepts and Phenomenology of Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders.” In October, we will have the pleasure of hearing Constance Dalenberg and Simone Reinders’ talk “The Evidence for the Trauma-Dissociation Relationship and the Validity of the DID Diagnosis.” As a member, you will receive details of upcoming seminars, as well as registration instructions by email and you will benefit from very advantageous access conditions!
In the coming months, you will also receive information about our next congress which will take place in Brussels in October 2022. The dates I announced in January will certainly change as conference venues are under pressure and we need some confirmations before setting a definitive date.
We hope that the public health situation will allow for a complete opening of the borders by then. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you online for more exciting debates on the diagnosis of dissociation.
Thank you again for your support and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you a wonderful summer!
Raphaël Gazon
ESTD President