We invite the academic community to participate in the conference series organized by CIPsi. Research Laboratories invite distinguished national and international figures in their research fields to share different perspectives, methodologies, and approaches in the scientific investigation of the mind and behavior.
At the invitation of the Development and Psychopathology Laboratory, and with a presentation by Dr. Teresa Freire, Dr. Sherry Hamby brings us the conference "The resilience equation: How high dosages of strengths can counter even high burdens of trauma" on September 22, Friday at 12:15 PM, in the EPsi Amphitheater.
Bio
Sherry Hamby, Ph.D. is Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at the University of the South and Director of the Life Paths Research Center. She is also the founder of ResilienceCon. Dr. Hamby is an internationally recognized authority who is known for her work on trauma dosage and resilience. A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Hamby has worked for more than 30 years on the problem of violence, including front-line crisis intervention and treatment, involvement in grassroots organizations, and research leading to the publication of more than 200 articles and books. An influential researcher, she has been ranked in the top 1% among more than 6 million researchers in 22 disciplines based on citations to her work. Her awards include Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association (APA). Her newest book, with Victoria Banyard, is Strengths-Based Prevention: Reducing Violence & Other Public Health Problems (APA Books, 2022).
Summary
The coronavirus pandemic, climate change, crime. Trauma is in the news every day and, despite our efforts to reduce it, seems to be increasing. Sooner or later, almost everyone experiences trauma, which includes child abuse, domestic violence, bullying, community violence, bereavement, natural disasters, and other common life challenges. We’ve known for decades that exposure to trauma is associated with higher rates of many adverse psychological and physical consequences. In the last 25 years, we’ve learned that the key to understanding trauma is “trauma dosage,” our cumulative lifetime burden of trauma. Each subsequent exposure adds to the damage caused by trauma, in part because of the biological effects of exposure to chronic stress. Just like much of the harm from alcohol, drugs, or even the sun comes from repeated exposure, the same is true for trauma. Although this paints a grim picture, the good news is that resilience is far more common than we used to believe. Resilience refers to all the things we do—and all the help we get from others—to overcome trauma. Insights about trauma dosage are transforming our understanding of resilience and what we need to overcome trauma. Individual, family, and community strengths can also be thought of in terms of dosage, offsetting exposures to trauma and ameliorating harm. The higher our strengths dosage, the more resilient we are. This is the resilience equation: we can add up good stuff to overcome bad stuff. Even after considerable trauma exposure, it is still possible to thrive and put together the pieces of a good life.
