Five years in the making, Prof. Chérie Armour (Conference Chair), Prof. Dominic Murphy (Conference Co-chair, UKPTS President) and Dr. Joanne Mouthaan (ESTSS President) welcomed 600 delegates to Northern Ireland for four days of keynotes, workshops, flash talks, poster sessions, masterclasses and symposia at the ICC Belfast.

The first in-person conference since 2019 kicked off with a day of pre-conference workshops, hosted by Queen’s University Belfast School of Psychology featuring amongst others Prof. Anke Ehlers (University of Oxford), Prof. Neil Greenberg (King’s College London), Dr. Eric Vermetten (Leiden University), as well as the intrepid ‘Paper in a Day’ team tackling the ADJUST study on COVID-19 psychosocial responses. Keep an eye out for their output appearing soon.

Prof. Armour delivered a compelling public lecture on Northern Ireland’s history and the research findings, and future directions for study, policy and practice.  She highlighted the saliency of economic deprivation, as well as the work on adverse childhood experiences, interpersonal violence, and military veterans, all in relation to the Troubles and its lasting legacy.  The translational impact of the work took centre stage, and how research has and can continue to be a driver for change across society.

Belfast is a vibrant, dynamic and exciting city, and is uniquely qualified to host ESTSS 2023 not only on account of its past, but also its future.
– Chérie Armour

Across the three conference days at the ICC Belfast, on the banks of the River Lagan, delegates welcomed four acclaimed keynote speakers.  Prof. Sarah Halligan (University of Bath) focused on the socio-contextual factors key in understanding and intervening in children’s post-traumatic stress.  She highlighted the key role parental appraisals of a traumatic incident play in the child’s outcomes, and highlighted findings from the PROTECT longitudinal study.  In presenting work from both the UK and South Africa, she issued a rallying cry for more representation of children from low and middle-income countries in research, not only as a means of understanding key socio-cultural differences, but also because these children are those most exposed to traumatic experiences.

Prof. Soraya Seedat (Stellenbosch University) continued the focus on South African research with children and adolescents.  In communities where people may seek help from both traditional healers and biomedical healthcare, she challenged the orthodoxy of applying a Western lens on the development, implementation and evaluation of psychological interventions across the globe.  She introduced the concept of task-shifting whereby a task normally performed by a clinician is transferred to another health professional with a different or lower level of education or training.  Key to the success of this approach was adequate supervision, support, and more thorough evaluation across cultural contexts.

We found that social discrimination and maltreatment was five times more predictive of post-traumatic stress scores, than trauma exposure.
– John Briere

Dr. Natalia Nalyvaiko (European Confederation of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy; NGO Ukrainian Association of Specialists on Overcoming Traumatic Events) recounted powerful collected and personal testimony from the Ukraine frontline. Referencing Ukraine’s history of violence and conflict from the 1930s to the present day, she presented Ukrainian experiences of ‘the unspeakable’ through a psychodynamic prism, and how she and her colleagues have adapted to the current conflict both as professionals and those living in the midst of war.  Mirroring the discussion on task-shifting, she detailed the How Are U? project, tasked with training GPs, social workers and other healthcare professionals in psychological support, and the importance of establishing train-the-trainers pathways.

Finally, Prof .John Briere (Southern California Keck School of Medicine; USC-ATTC), made a compelling case for social discrimination and maltreatment (SDM) being classed as a traumatic stressor. Referencing recent events in the US as a catalyst to more closely consider whether or not his work was doing all it could to do help, he presented preliminary results from forthcoming papers, and charted the ongoing development of his Social Discrimination & Maltreatment Scale (SDMS).  The impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-LBGTQ+, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and others can and should prompt a discussion about how the concept of PTSD is structured in the future, he argued.  Most importantly, that in considering these inequalities as stressors, he proposed that we should focus on how to empower those who are marginalised.

There were no borders between the therapist and the patient; we were all sharing the trauma. The therapists just had a bit more training.
– Natalia Nalyvaiko

In excess of 150 posters across the subject streams were presented, with Jeanet Karchoud (Amsterdam UMC) awarded top prize for her work on The Functional & Economic Impact of Traumatic Injury Related PTSD: A 15yr Longitudinal Follow-up, whilst Dr Eva Alisic (University of Melbourne) received the award for best flash talk entitled Translating Trauma Through Art.  Much-coveted ESTSS water bottles were also bestowed on those brave enough to venture into the ESTSS Photobooth.

All the abstracts from across the conference are available now in a special supplement issue of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology.

In addition, delegates were also treated to a sample of some of Northern Ireland’s rich cultural output in line with the conference theme. Sole Purpose Productions performed an excerpt from their acclaimed stage production, Blinkered examining the role of intergenerational trauma, loneliness, and the legacy of the Troubles, whilst academic and poet Gail McConnell recited some of her powerful work from The Sun is Open which recounts the life and death of her father. The ESTSS Gala Dinner also provided and opportunity to showcase some stunning Irish and traditional music and dance, as well as an appropriate local dram.

Collaboration, connectedness, exchange and accessibility of best research and practice are at the heart of everything the ESTSS does.
– Joanne Mouthaan

The conference was also a celebration of 30 years of the ESTSS, the pan-European umbrella organisation dedicated to bringing together psychotraumatology societies to build networks, share best practice, foster research and contribute to public policy. The ESTSS Awards winners were honoured at a reception in Belfast’s stunning City Hall, as well as Figueroa et al (2022)  being announced as the European Journal of Psychotraumatology Best Paper for 2022.

Three ESTSS Special Interest Groups held sessions presenting their work and outlining their future events and focus. Colleagues from the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress presented a specially invited symposium on advancing international research on child trauma.

UKPTS members are automatically eligible to join the ESTSS for free, so if you haven’t signed up please see our membership section for more.

Live text coverage of the event can be viewed again on the @ESTSS2023 twitter account, and more content is expected to be released on estss.org over the coming weeks.

The countdown is now on for ESTSS2025 in Tbilisi, Georgia.