Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies - ASTSS

28/09/2026

Meet our second, national keynote speaker Professor Angela Nickerson!

Angela Nickerson is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney, where she is Director of the Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program. Her research focuses on the mental health of refugees and people affected by forced displacement, with particular interests in post-traumatic stress, emotion regulation, moral injury, and the development and implementation of effective psychological interventions.
Professor Nickerson has led major research programs in Australia and internationally, including longitudinal and intervention studies with refugee communities in Australia and Indonesia. Her work has examined how experiences following displacement, including visa insecurity, ongoing adversity, and post-migration stressors, shape psychological adjustment and recovery. A major focus of her current research is understanding why some people respond well to psychological interventions while others do not, and identifying the mechanisms that can be targeted to improve treatment outcomes.

She has published extensively in the fields of traumatic stress and refugee mental health, and has been supported by competitive fellowship and grant funding throughout her career, including an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)Investigator Grant. Her research has involved partnerships with refugee communities, settlement and clinical services researchers and policy stakeholders.

Professor Nickerson is a Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). In her work, she is committed to generating research that is both scientifically rigorous and directly relevant to improving services, policy and mental health outcomes for refugees and other populations affected by trauma and displacement.

18/09/2026

We're excited to announce the first keynote for , Professor Debra Kaysen!

Debra L. Kaysen, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Chief of the Division of Public Mental Health and Population Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. A licensed clinical psychologist Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, she has spent more than two decades developing, adapting, and disseminating evidence-based treatments for and co-occurring substance use, depression, and anxiety.

Her research spans some of the most complex contexts in which trauma occurs: sexual assault survivors, military personnel and veterans, Native American communities, torture survivors, and sexual and gender minority populations, in settings ranging from the United States to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq. Her work adapting Cognitive Processing Therapy across cultures while preserving treatment fidelity, and her research on task-sharing models that extend specialist-level care through trained community providers, has shaped how evidence-based trauma treatment is delivered in low-resource and crisis-affected settings worldwide. Her current research includes NIH-funded work developing responsible, equitable AI-based tools to train therapists at scale.

A Past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and President-Elect of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Kaysen has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and secured research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and USAID, among others. Her work continues to shape clinical practice, research, and public mental health policy internationally.

07/09/2026

🎉 Our website and registration are finally live! 🎉

Our website contains all of the essential information about , registration, abstract submission and more!

We'll be regularly updating our website with information, so be sure to check it out or join our mailing list!

The homepage of the Australasian Conference for Traumatic Stress (ACOTS)

31/08/2026

Just a reminder to submit your abstracts for ! We've made it really easy to submit by just clicking the link below 👇

The Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ASTSS) and Phoenix Australia - Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health invite abstract submissions for the 2027 Australasian Conference on Traumatic Stress (ACOTS) that are aligned with the theme - Rethinking and Navigating Trauma in a Complex Wo...

25/07/2026

Very excited to share some research in the Medical Journal of Australia headed by Simon Rosenbaum and the NExuS consortium. We're very proud of our former and current executives and members involved!

"Reorienting Allied Health Into Community-Based Care for People Experiencing Trauma and Social Disadvantage"

Trauma and social disadvantage are strongly associated with higher rates of chronic disease, partly driven by modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity and poor diet. Despite strong evidence supporting exercise and dietary interventions for both physical and mental health, access to allied...

04/07/2026

Attention all and professionals - next week the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies is holding a fantastic webinar with Mary Goslett, Yuin Budawang women!

It's free for members, $45 for regular tickets, and $30 for students.

Register here - https://events.humanitix.com/relational-selfhood-trauma-and-the-limits-of-individualised-psychology-colonial-harm-to-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-ways-of-being

29/06/2026

We at ASTSS have been trying to collate all the Australasian trauma research published in the past 5 years, but we need your help to find more!

If you've published (or know of) a study, review, white paper, proposal, presentation, or anything in the field of traumatic stress (or adjacent), then please submit it to this very simple form!

We're looking to collate all of the research related to or adjacent to traumatic stress in the Australasian Region. If you have something to suggest that you've written or read, please submit it here!

27/06/2026

Today is PTSD Awareness Day.

The science of traumatic stress has transformed. What we understand about the brain, the body, and the lasting impact of traumatic experience has shifted enormously, and that shift has changed lives. Treatments have evolved. The evidence base has deepened. And the conversation has moved into places it simply didn't exist before: to workplaces, schools, policy rooms, and public life.
Awareness is rising.

Lived experience is increasingly recognised not just as something to be treated, but as a source of knowledge in its own right. People with direct experience of traumatic stress are contributing to research, to governance, and to the shape of the field itself. It represents a fundamental change in who gets to define the experience, and who gets to help design the response.

None of this happened by accident. It happened because researchers keep asking hard questions. Because people with lived and diverse experiences keep showing up and ensuring they are heard. Because clinicians keep looking for better answers. Because communities like this one keep doing the work, long after awareness days have passed.

So today, alongside everything that still needs to change, we celebrate what this community has built. And we recommit to building more.

Credit to Flourish Australia for the beautiful image!