On Thursday 25th of September 2025, the management committee of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies travelled to Otautahi (Christchurch) to meet our colleagues from across the Tasman. As many of you know, this city has been through an immense amount of collective trauma, both natural and caused by violent extremism.
We held a workshop, facilitated by David Bennett, aimed at understanding who was in the trauma space in the city/region, what kinds of new approaches and knowledge was being used, and to connect us all so that we can collaborate and support each other. We met 20+ individuals who represented a range of different services, spaces, research institutes, and other pivotal supports for trauma. We can't wait to continue to connect with these individuals (and their organisations) into the future so that we can truly represent the Australasian region.
Overall I thought it was a great success and I am excited to see the future collaborations that evolve from it!
Big shout out to Ruth Troughton for making this happen on the ground and the rest of the committee for all their hard work Kate Carragher, Dr. Henry Bowen, Janja Bojanic (+ Zachary Steel)
