37th Annual Boston Trauma Conference: Psychological Trauma, Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Restoration of Self – Trauma Research Foundation

Activity Date: May 27, 2026 – May 30, 2026 Activity Type: Live

Location: Boston, MA, USA CE: 22.25 total credits

This activity offers 22.25 CE credits for:

1. Physicians (AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™)
2. Nurses (ANCC NCPD)
3. Pharmacists (ACPE CPE)
4. Physician Assistants (AAPA Category 1)
5. Social Workers (ASWB-ACE)
6. Psychologists (APA CE)
7. Dietitians (CDR CPEUs)
8. Dentists (ADA-CERP CME)
9. Athletic Trainers (BOC CEUs)
10. Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE)
11. Other*

*All other attendees will receive an AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ participation certificate

FACULTY:

Anita Shankar Ann Wahinya

Bernhard Wandernoth Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Brendon Hollingsworth, LICSW

C. Sue Carter, PhD Carolyn Scott Casey Lopez Christy Johnson

Claudia M. Gold, MD Colette Melancon Damilola Kolade

Dr. Matthew J. Bowerman Dr. Phyu Pannu Khin

Ellen H. Yates Emmanouil Tsakiris, PhD Eric Rindal

Frank G. Anderson, MD Fredric Schiffer, MD Gabriela Zapata-Alma Greg Siegle, PhD Hannah Swerbenski Heather A. Phillips Hernan G Rincon-Hoyos Ila Krishna Kumar

Ilya Yacevich

J. Walter Freiberg, III, PhD, JD Janina Fisher, PhD

Jared Fel Jennifer Hempen Joanna Bridger JoEllen Marsh

John M. Gottman, PhD Julie Gottman, PhD Junauda Petrus

Kai Cheng Thom Kekuni Minton Larissa Hope

Lucy Miller-Suchet Malachi Gillihan Mariah Maurice Mariah Rooney

Marlen Zoraida Gonzalez Caraballo Martin H. Teicher, MD, PhD Michael Niconchuk

Mint Elmokadm Molly Wolf

Mohsin Mohi Ud-Din Natalya Rakevich Nathaniel Harnett, PhD Noga Miron

Pat Ogden, PhD Regina M. Brown

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD

Robyn Henrietta McCarron Ruth Cohn, MFT

Staci K. Haines

Stephen W. Porges, PhD Sujin Ma

V (formerly Eve Ensler) Zindel Segal, PhD

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEARNING:

This activity is delivered as a multi-day, live conference featuring a combination of expert-led lectures, panel discussions, and experiential sessions. The program is designed to integrate trauma research, neuroscience, and clinical practice through a blended learning approach. Content is delivered through didactic presentations, interdisciplinary dialogue, and case-informed discussions that explore current advances in psychological trauma, neurobiology, embodiment, and relational healing. Learners also engage in reflective and experiential sessions that support deeper understanding and integration of concepts into real-world clinical practice. Additional resources may include presentation materials and opportunities for continued engagement within the professional community. The activity emphasizes reflection, peer learning, and interdisciplinary collaboration. To claim credit, learners are required to participate in the activity and complete post-session and/or post-conference evaluations, including

reflective questions and intention-to-change statements. Throughout the course, learners will develop practical strategies to integrate trauma-informed, neuroscience-based approaches into clinical care.

STATEMENT OF NEED:

This education is needed due to a well-documented gap between rapidly evolving trauma research and its consistent application in clinical practice. While advances in neuroscience, embodiment, and relational approaches have expanded the understanding of trauma, many clinicians struggle to translate this knowledge into practical interventions. Barriers include the complexity and inaccessibility of research, time constraints in clinical settings, and limited opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and integration. As a result, evidence-based trauma approaches are not consistently implemented in everyday practice. Learner feedback and observable practice trends indicate a strong need for education that bridges research and clinical application, providing accessible, clinically relevant frameworks. This activity addresses these gaps by presenting current research in an applied format, supporting reflection, and facilitating integration into diverse clinical settings to improve patient outcomes.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES BY SESSION:

Wednesday 8.30 am – Sexuality and Healing from Trauma: Reclaiming Self-Worth After Abuse by Powerful Perpetrators – 4 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Understand shame as a trauma response and distinguish between appropriate guilt (for actions) and destructive shame (a false belief about one’s essential worth).
2. Identify how powerful perpetrators weaponize shame to maintain control, prevent disclosure, and evade accountability.
3. Recognize somatic and embodied approaches to shame recovery, including practices that help survivors reclaim safety, sensation, and trust in their own bodies.
4. Apply transformative justice principles as alternatives to carceral punishment, centering survivor healing and perpetrator accountability.

Wednesday 8.30 am – Science to Practice: Diverse Neuromodulation Approaches Across Community Practice Settings – 4 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Understand the neuroscience foundations of infralow frequency (ILF) neurofeedback and how it differs from traditional frequency band neurofeedback approaches
2. Describe the mechanisms of brain self-regulation and autonomic nervous system modulation through ILF training, supported by recent Swiss neuroimaging research
3. Explain why infralow frequency training produces superior outcomes compared to frequency band training alone
4. Apply stabilization and calming protocols appropriate for diverse and vulnerable populations, with attention to accessibility barriers and adaptations

Wednesday 2.15 pm – The Evolution and Ontogeny of Human Affective Neurology: Why the Chronically Lonely Among Us Grow Ill and Die Young – 2.75 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. To understand the health implications of chronic loneliness.

1. To understand how our evolutionary development created modern humans to require successful affective connections with others in their lives, with failure to do so leading to suffering the pains of loneliness and the accompanying significant degradation of health and longevity.
2. To understand the neurological processes and sequela of maternal nursing, parental love, and free play with peers on the human infant with respect to the childʼs development of its brain. To understand how the teenage years serve as the development grounds to learn the interpersonal skills that will be needed to successfully form adult social relationships.
3. To understand the distinction between the functions of the limbic brain and those of the cortical brain in human interpersonal connectivity.

Thursday 10:15 am – Keynote with Julie Gottman, John Gottman, and Bessel van der Kolk: An effective treatment for situational domestic violence – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Learn the distinction between characterological and situational domestic violence.

1. Describe the two components of our intervention.

1. Learn the effects of physiological arousal on couples interaction.

Thursday 10:15 am – Inside Ordinary Moments of Meeting: An Early Relational Health Perspective on Trauma Informed Care – 1.5 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Define trauma-informed care from the perspective of meaning making in relationships

1. Describe the role of mismatch and repair in healthy and derailed infant development

1. Recognize the value of working in relationships from a stance of not-knowing

Thursday 1:15 pm – Lunch and Learn with Dick Schwartz: Working with Protectors in Exile – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe how protector parts can become exiled and identify clinical indicators of protectors in exile within a clientʼs internal system.
2. Apply Internal Family Systems-based interventions to engage protectors in exile while maintaining Self-leadership and internal system safety.
3. Differentiate clinical approaches for working with protectors in exile versus working with traditionally exiled vulnerable parts.

Thursday 2:45 pm – Researcher Flash Talks 1 – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Analyze how trauma exposure and resilience interact across diverse populations and cultural contexts to influence mental health outcomes.
2. Evaluate emerging trauma-informed interventions, including technology-based, somatic, and community-driven approaches.
3. Identify key psychosocial, biological, and systemic factors that impact trauma-related symptoms, recovery, and treatment engagement.
4. Apply trauma-informed principles to improve assessment, intervention design, and clinical decision-making in diverse populations.

Thursday 2:45 pm – Keynote: Breaking Cycles, Building Connection: A Relational Paradigm Shift in Psychotherapy and Healing – 1.5 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Identify common patterns of self-protection and disconnection that stem from past experiences and explore their impact on personal and relational well-being.
2. Explain how neuroscience and trauma awareness can inform a more empowered, self-directed approach to healing and transformation.
3. Describe practical strategies for shifting relational patterns, fostering self-compassion, and cultivating deeper, more meaningful connections.

Thursday 4:45 pm – Researcher Flash Talks 2 – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Analyze how trauma exposure, resilience, and adverse life experiences influence mental health outcomes across diverse populations.
2. Evaluate emerging trauma-informed interventions, including technological, somatic, and community-based approaches.
3. Identify neurobiological, psychological, and social mechanisms underlying trauma responses and recovery.
4. Apply trauma-informed and culturally responsive principles to clinical practice, intervention design, and patient-centered care.

Friday 8:30 am – Keynote – Sentinel Trauma: Autonomic Imprinting and the Loss of Safety – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Define sentinel trauma and distinguish it from complex/developmental trauma,

emphasizing single-trial autonomic imprinting versus cumulative relational threat exposure.

1. Describe the proposed time course from an acute autonomic signature of distress (mobilization/shutdown/oscillation) to a hardened autonomic imprint characterized by altered baseline, reactivity, and recovery.
2. Explain the role of neuroception and social neuropeptides (especially oxytocin and vasopressin) as mediators that may stabilize threat/safety learning and shape relational expectations after sentinel events.
3. Apply a Polyvagal-informed intervention logic to design strategies that signal safety, accessibility, and trust via co-regulation and state-shifting approaches that support autonomic flexibility and recovery.

Friday 8:30 am – Systems and Public Health Approaches to Interpersonal Violence – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Define mental health coercion and describe 3-5 common tactics.

1. Define substance use coercion and describe 3-5 common tactics.

1. Describe one new way to better support people experiencing mental health and substance use coercion.

Friday 10:15 am – Keynote: Embracing Our Fragmented Selves: A Mindful Approach to Working with Trauma-Related Parts – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe the structural dissociation theory (Van der Hart, O., 2021)

1. Identify triggered trauma responses as implicit memories (Alexandra-Kredlow et al, 2022; Perl et al, 2023).
2. Implement mindfulness-based techniques to treat implicit memories held by parts (Goldberg et al, 2022, Joss & Teicher, 2021).
3. Employ interventions for increasing self-empathy and self-compassion (Neff, 2022).

Friday 10:15 am – Chronic and Acute Trauma and Neurodivergence – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe ways in which the psychology of trauma and neurodivergence may interact.

1. Describe ways in which the neurobiology of trauma and neurodivergence may interact.

1. Describe pathways by which neurodivergent individuals may respond uniquely to common treatments and features of clinical environments.
2. Describe ways in which neurodivergence may qualify the presentation of acute trauma.

Friday 12:00 pm – Keynote: Lessons From The Clinical Application of Mindfulness Meditation to Trauma Care – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Review the evidence base for mindfulness meditation in the treatment of depressive, anxiety disorders and trauma.
2. Understand how to integrate and appropriately sequence formal/informal mindfulness practices into the psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with trauma.
3. Engage in experiential practice of the 3 Minute Breathing Space and understand how brief changes in attentional focus can be used to address negative automatic processing cycles.
4. Learn why mindfulness is about more than just relaxation.

Friday 1:15 pm – Lunch G Learn with Bessel van der Kolk: Trauma and the Soul of the Nation: Finding Our Way Toward Social Wellness – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Summarize the recent advances in neurobiology of trauma.

1. Explain how to integrate various treatment approaches in your practice.

1. Summarize treatment strategies alternatives to drugs and talk therapy.

Saturday 8:30 am – Keynote: Being, with a Deep Body in Mind – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. To understand how our sense of self is conceptualized and research in psychology and neuroscience.
2. To understand how different facets of our body awareness contribute to our sense of self.
3. To understand how interoceptive signals come to be consciously perceived and ‘mentalizedʼ.
4. To understand how our interoceptive awareness can influence our emotional and cognitive states.

Saturday 10:15 am – Keynote: Deep Healing of the Exiles – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe the roles of protective parts (Managers and Firefighters) in the IFS model and their relationship to exiled parts.
2. Demonstrate techniques to negotiate with protective parts for access to the wounded Exiles.
3. Apply IFS interventions to safely access, witness, and transform trauma within exile parts.
4. Explain the process of unburdening exiles and the impact on the internal system.

Saturday 10:15 am – Neuroscience of Dissociation, Embodiment, and Sensation – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Understand how understanding the neuroscience of trauma can help in evaluating vulnerability, case formulation, and optimizing interventions for trauma.
2. Evaluate whether reported lapses in hearing criticism reflect dissociative processes rather than generalized disengagement by examining condition-specific neural activation patterns.
3. Understand potential ways to help dissociative individuals to engage with mindfulness meditation

Saturday 12:00 pm – Keynote: Narrative to Nervous System – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Explain why Sensorimotor Sequencing is a bottom-up intervention

1. Identify present moment indicators of instinctive orienting and defenses

1. Apply SP bottom-up strategies in your clinical practice

1. Assess when to apply Sensorimotor Sequencing for Hyperarousal, Orienting, and Defensive Responses

Saturday 12:00 pm – The Healing Multiplier: A Global Framework for Community Healing in Times of Crisis – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe the core principles of Trauma-Informed Change-Making (TICM) as a framework for community-based healing.

1. Identify key components of a co-design process used to develop locally relevant healing initiatives.

1. Explore strategies for adapting trauma-informed approaches across diverse geographical, cultural and social contexts.

1. Evaluate factors that support the sustainability and scalability of community healing initiatives.

Saturday 1:15 pm – Healing the Legacy of Traumatic Attachment: Lunch G Learn with Frank Anderson and Janina Fisher – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Describe the effects of traumatic attachment on relationships

1. Articulate the attachment-related inner conflicts stimulated by closeness

1. Describe 2 parts work interventions for traumatic attachment

1. Describe 2 somatic interventions for traumatic attachment

Saturday 2:45 pm – The Somatics of Liberation: Embodying Resistance, Imagination, and Collective Trauma Care – 1.5 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Articulate how embodiment functions as both a clinical intervention and a political commitment in the context of rising authoritarianism, collective grief, and polycrisis.
2. Explain how somatic practices increase practitioner capacity, courage, and clarity during periods of systemic stress and social threat.
3. Describe how imagination, poetry, and artistic practice can disrupt dominant narratives and expand possibilities for collective healing and liberation.
4. Identify at least three ways trauma practitioners can integrate liberatory,

movement-informed somatic practices into clinical, organizational, or community settings.

Saturday 4:45 pm – Neuroscience of Development and Context – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. To describe endocrine mechanisms for the healing power of safety and nurture.
2. To explore the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in human sociality and human evolution.
3. To explain the specific role of oxytocin in “sociostasisˮ and “stress-response hormesis.ˮ
4. To discuss how these may help to explain the value of social support, psychotherapy and even psychedelics.

Saturday 4:45 pm – Closing Session: Authentically Safe – A Conversational Exploration on Authenticity, Safety, and Paths Forward – 1 CE

After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Participants will analyze how authenticity and internal safety intersect to create conditions for healing, especially for men and boys, by examining Ashanti Branchʼs work on vulnerability and Mike Niconchukʼs framework for trauma recovery.

1. Participants will be able to identify various elements that factor into the construction of felt safety across cultures and contexts, and be able to assess how these factors manifest in practice with clients

1. Participants will compare ancient concepts of safety and wholeness (e.g.,

salāma) with modern neuroscience and psychophysiology, and explore the universality and cultural and linguistic distinctions in trauma-informed practices.

1. Participants will expand their understanding of vulnerability and authenticity as concepts that interact with and affect the emergence and resolution of trauma in adversity-affected populations, especially men and boys.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

This activity is suitable for Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Physician Assistants, Social Workers, Psychologists, Dietitians, Dentists, Athletic Trainers, and other healthcare professionals.

It is particularly designed for psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, nurses, social workers, and other mental health and allied professionals, as well as researchers and academics involved in trauma-informed care and mental health practice.

DISCLOSURE DECLARATION:

It is the policy of Pinnacle Conference, LLC, to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, scientific rigor, and integrity in all of their CE activities. Faculty must disclose to the participants any relationships with commercial companies whose products or devices may be mentioned in faculty presentations, or with the commercial supporter of this CE activity. Pinnacle Conference, LLC, has evaluated, identified, and mitigated any potential conflicts of interest through a rigorous content validation procedure, use of

evidence-based data/research, and a multidisciplinary peer review process. The following information is for participant information only. It is not assumed that these relationships will have a negative impact on the presentations.

Faculty Disclosures

Anita Shankar has nothing to disclose. Ann Wahinya has nothing to disclose.

Bernhard Wandernoth has disclosed a financial relationship: BEE Group AG, Switzerland. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, has nothing to disclose.

Brendon Hollingsworth, LICSW, has nothing to disclose.

C. Sue Carter, PhD, has nothing to disclose. Carolyn Scott has nothing to disclose. Casey Lopez has nothing to disclose. Christy Johnson has nothing to disclose.

Claudia M. Gold, MD, has nothing to disclose.

Colette Melancon has disclosed a financial relationship: Bee Medic. Damilola Kolade has nothing to disclose.

Dr. Matthew J. Bowerman has nothing to disclose. Dr. Phyu Pannu Khin has nothing to disclose.

Ellen H. Yates has nothing to disclose. Emmanouil Tsakiris, PhD, has nothing to disclose. Eric Rindal has nothing to disclose.

Frank G. Anderson, MD, has nothing to disclose.

Fredric Schiffer, MD, has disclosed a financial relationship: Founder, sole owner, and CEO of MindLight LLC.

Gabriela Zapata-Alma has nothing to disclose.

Greg Siegle, PhD, has disclosed a financial relationship: Apollo Neuroscience. Hannah Swerbenski has nothing to disclose.

Heather A. Phillips has nothing to disclose. Hernan G Rincon-Hoyos has nothing to disclose. Ila Krishna Kumar has nothing to disclose.

Ilya Yacevich has nothing to disclose.

J. Walter Freiberg, III, PhD, JD, has disclosed a financial relationship: Managing Consultant to the Godfrey Foundation for Cinema Therapy.

Janina Fisher, PhD, has nothing to disclose. Jared Fel has nothing to disclose.

Jennifer Hempen has nothing to disclose. Joanna Bridger has nothing to disclose.

JoEllen Marsh has nothing to disclose.

John M. Gottman, PhD, has nothing to disclose.

Julie Gottman, PhD, has disclosed a financial relationship: Co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of The Gottman Institute.

Junauda Petrus has nothing to disclose. Kai Cheng Thom has nothing to disclose.

We are awaiting disclosure from Kekuni Minton. Larissa Hope has nothing to disclose.

Lucy Miller-Suchet has nothing to disclose. Malachi Gillihan has nothing to disclose.

Mariah Maurice has nothing to disclose. Mariah Rooney has nothing to disclose.

Marlen Zoraida Gonzalez Caraballo has nothing to disclose.

Martin H. Teicher, MD, PhD, has disclosed a financial relationship: Research collaborator on an NIH-funded study with MindLight LLC.

Michael Niconchuk has nothing to disclose. Mint Elmokadm has nothing to disclose.

Molly Wolf has nothing to disclose.

Mohsin Mohi Ud-Din has nothing to disclose. Natalya Rakevich has nothing to disclose.

Nathaniel Harnett, PhD, has nothing to disclose. Noga Miron has nothing to disclose.

Pat Ogden, PhD, has nothing to disclose. Regina M. Brown has nothing to disclose.

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, has nothing to disclose.

Robyn Henrietta McCarron has nothing to disclose. Ruth Cohn, MFT, has nothing to disclose.

Staci K. Haines has nothing to disclose.

Stephen W. Porges, PhD, has disclosed financial relationships: Sonocea; Unyte Health. Sujin Ma has nothing to disclose.

V (formerly Eve Ensler) has nothing to disclose.

Zindel Segal, PhD, has disclosed financial relationships: Royalties from Guildford Press and Little Brown Spark; Workshop fees for training in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.

Planning Committee

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, has nothing to disclose. Wendy D’Andrea has nothing to disclose

Pamela Mehta, MD, has nothing to disclose.

Content Reviewer

Shafqat Abbas, PharmD, has nothing to disclose.

All relevant financial relationships have been evaluated and mitigated.

Unlabeled Use Disclosure

Faculty of this CME/CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices. Pinnacle Conference, LLC, the faculty, planners, and Trauma Research Foundation do not endorse the use of any product outside of the FDA-labeled indications. Medical professionals should not utilize the procedures, products, or diagnosis techniques discussed during this activity without evaluation of their patient for contraindications or dangers of use.