Board Members - Trauma Research Foundation

Trauma Research Foundation

Board of Directors

Bessel van der Kolk, MD - Co-founder

spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences, and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults.

In 1984, he set up one of the first clinical/research centers in the US dedicated to study and treatment of traumatic stress in civilian populations, which has trained numerous researchers and clinicians specializing in the study and treatment of traumatic stress, and which has been continually funded to research the impact of traumatic stress and effective treatment interventions. He did the first studies on the effects of SSRIs on PTSD; was a member of the first neuroimaging team to investigate how trauma changes brain processes, and did the first research linking BPD and deliberate self-injury to trauma and neglect in early childhood.

Much of his research has focused on how trauma has a different impact at different stages of development, and that disruptions in care-giving systems have additional deleterious effects that need to be addressed for effective intervention. In order to promote a deeper understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and to foster the development and execution of effective treatment interventions, he initiated the process that led to the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a Congressionally mandated initiative that now funds approximately 150 centers specializing in developing effective treatment interventions, and implementing them in a wide array of settings, from juvenile detention centers to tribal agencies, nationwide.

He has focused on studying treatments that stabilize physiology, increase executive functioning and help traumatized individuals to feel fully alert to the present. This has included an NIMH funded study on EMDR and NCCAM funded study of yoga, and, in recent years, the study of neurofeedback to investigate whether attentional and perceptual systems (and the neural tracks responsible for them) can be altered by changing EEG patterns.

His efforts resulted in the establishment of Trauma Center (now the Trauma Research Foundation) that consisted of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applied treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide, a research lab that studied the effects of neurofeedback and MDMA on behavior, mood, and executive functioning, and numerous trainings nationwide to a variety of mental health professional, educators, parent groups, policy makers, and law enforcement personnel.

He is author of the New York Times best seller The Body Keeps the Score, which has been translated into 35 languages, and of well over 150 peer reviewed scientific articles.

View Bessel van der Kolk's Full Bio
View Bessel van der Kolk's Curriculum Vitae

Licia Sky

is a Boston based artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals and trains mental health professionals to use Embodied Self Experience in movement, theater exercises, writing and voice as tools for attunement, healing and connection.

Sean Walsh - Treasurer

Sean Walsh is CEO of South Pacific Health, a private behavioural healthcare company operating residential and day hospital programs across addiction treatment and mental health in Australia. He brings over 25 years of experience leading behavioural healthcare organisations, with a career defined by expanding access to care while preserving clinical fidelity to evidence-based treatment models.

Sean spent over a decade at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare in the United States, during his tenure, he led significant growth across the organisation's residential and outpatient footprint, launching new inpatient facilities and outpatient programs while ensuring the clinical integrity of the models underpinning them remained uncompromised. At Meadows, he worked alongside Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and other leading voices in trauma and addiction treatment, including Claudia Black, Pia Mellody, Patrick Carnes, and Dick Schwartz, shaping his deep commitment to trauma-informed, clinically grounded care.

Sean's career reflects a consistent throughline: building organisations that can grow in scale and reach without losing sight of the people they exist to serve.

J. W. Freiberg, Ph.D.; J.D.

was formerly Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at Boston University, and simultaneously Instructeur at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. At both institutions he taught Social Psychology. More recently he has published three prize winning books on the topic of chronic loneliness.

Subsequently, Freiberg practiced law at Hale & Dorr, leaving to become Chairman of Weston Patrick. He is the author of five books: Surrounded By Others and Yet So Alone; Growing Up Lonely; Four Seasons of Loneliness; The French Press: Class, State and Ideology; and Critical Sociology: European Perspectives, as well as over thirty-five articles, book introductions, and other scholarly works on social psychological, and legal issues. His recent work has concentrated on the public health ramifications of chronic loneliness, and his story-based writing style has led to him having been described as "The Oliver Sacks of Law."

Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

is the Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and a former instructor, Harvard Medical School.

An international expert on the treatment of trauma, is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Self-Alienation (2017) and Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: a Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021). She is best known for her work on integrating newer neurobiologically-informed interventions into traditional psychotherapy approaches. More information can be found on her website: www.janinafisher.com. Picture Learning Australia, and he also sits on the board of trustees for Rudolf Steiner College.

Frank Anderson, MD

completed his residency and was a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation and is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with the IFS model of therapy.

Dr. Anderson is a Lead Trainer at the IFS Institute with Richard Schwartz and maintains a long affiliation with, and trains for, Bessel van der Kolk’s Trauma Center. He serves as an advisor to the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP) and was the former chair and director of the Foundation for Self-Leadership.

Dr. Anderson has lectured extensively on the Neurobiology of PTSD and Dissociation and wrote the chapter “Who’s Taking What” Connecting Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology and Internal Family Systems for Trauma in Internal Family Systems Therapy – New Dimensions. He co-authored a chapter on What IFS Brings to Trauma Treatment in Innovations and Elaborations in Internal Family Systems Therapy, and recently co-authored Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual.

His most recent book, entitled Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems was released on May 19, 2021.

Dr. Anderson maintains a private practice in Concord, MA.

www.FrankAndersonMD.com

Martin Teicher, MD, PhD

is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital.

A pioneer in childhood maltreatment research, he has illuminated how early adversity shapes brain development, risk, and resilience, transforming understanding and treatment of trauma-related disorders.

Shekufeh Zonji

Shekufeh Zonji is the Global Technical Lead of ECDAN — the Early Childhood Development Action Network — a global platform that convenes governments, UN agencies, development banks, and philanthropies around the shared goal of building sustainable systems for the world’s youngest children. A founding architect of the network, she has helped shape its governance and strategic direction since inception, and leads its global agenda across parenting support, childcare, climate change, systems thinking, and the financing architectures that determine whether any of it reaches children at all.

With over twenty years of experience working in early childhood development, humanitarian response, and systems change across conflict-affected and low-resource settings, Shekufeh has worked on the ground in more than twenty countries — from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, Bolivia to South Africa. She has partnered with governments, UN agencies, and leading global organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, Save the Children, BRAC, and the Aga Khan Foundation, working across the full spectrum from national policy and strategy to program design on the ground. Her work has shaped national strategies, influenced policy, and contributed to building systems that reach some of the world’s most vulnerable children — documented across publications spanning research, policy, curriculum, and program design.

Trained in biology and psychology at McMaster University and fluent in eight languages, Shekufeh brings a unique combination of research depth, policy experience, and systems-level thinking to her work. She is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and speaks at the intersection of early trauma, global development, and the question that drives her work: why do so few of the children who need support actually receive it?