Please see the full program here

2025 International Childhood Trauma Conference presenters include:

Professor Anita Gibbs
Professor Anita Gibbs is currently a professor of criminology and social work at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand. Anita is a registered social worker, and her practice focuses on training for caregivers and professionals, alongside developing materials to work with neuro-divergent people.

Dr. Arielle Schwartz
Dr. Schwartz, PhD, CCTP-II, E-RYT, is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified complex trauma professional, EMDR Consultant, and Kripalu yoga teacher.

As the founder of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy, she offers an integrative, mind-body approach to therapy that includes relational therapy, somatic psychology, EMDR Therapy, parts-work therapy, and therapeutic yoga for trauma.

Dr. Bethany Brand
Dr. Brand, Ph.D. is a Psychology Professor at Towson University, Maryland, USA and has published over 130 papers focusing on treatment of complex trauma and dissociation (i.e., the TOP DD studies); the assessment of trauma-related dissociation; critiques of the fantasy model of dissociation; training about trauma; and the accuracy of textbooks’ coverage of trauma, among other topics. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Brand serves as a forensic expert in trauma-related cases including death penalty and death row cases.

Associate Professor Carlie (Caroline) Atkinson
Associate Professor Atkinson is a Bundjalung and Yiman women and an accredited Social Worker with a PhD (Charles Darwin University, 2009). Associate Professor Atkinson is an international leader in complex and intergenerational trauma and strengths-based healing approaches in Indigenous Australia focusing on the interplay between trauma and violence in Aboriginal peoples in Australia. She is the CEO of her family organisation, We Al-li, designing and coordinating delivery of Culturally Informed Trauma Integrated Healing Approaches (CITIHA) training and resource development for organisations and communities across Australia focusing on systems transformation and implementation.

Caroline Welch
Caroline Welch is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School with a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Welch provides lectures and workshops to enhance well-being in our personal and professional lives.

Dr. Cathy Malchiodi
Dr. Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT holds a doctorate in psychology and is an expressive arts therapist specialising in the treatment of traumatic stress. For the last three decades Dr. Malchiodi has worked with traumatized children, adolescents, adults, and families, expanding the range of understanding of non-verbal, sensory-based concepts and methods.

Dr. Malchiodi has extensive experience in the areas of trauma, attachment, disaster relief, and adversity.

Dr. Dan Hughes
Dr. Hughes has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Ohio University and specialises in the treatment of children and youth who had experienced abuse and neglect and for the most part now manifested serious psychological problems secondary to childhood trauma and attachment disorganization.

He developed an attachment-focused treatment that relied heavily on the theories and research of attachment and intersubjectivity to guide his model of treatment and parenting.

Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.
Dr. Siegel is the executive director of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where he was also Co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Culture, Brain and Development and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine.
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Siegel completed his postgraduate training at UCLA specialising in paediatrics, and adult, adolescent, and child psychiatry.

David Kessler
David Kessler is one of the world’s foremost experts on grief and loss. He is the author of six books, including his latest bestselling book, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. He is the founder of www.grief.com which has over five million visits yearly from 167 countries.

Deb Dana
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician, consultant, author and speaker. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, consultant to Khiron Clinics, and advisor to Unyte.
Deb’s work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma.
Deb is well known for translating Polyvagal Theory into a language and application that is both clear and accessible and for her significant contribution pioneering Rhythm of Regulation® methodology, tools, techniques and practices which continue to open up the power of Polyvagal Theory for professionals and curious people from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life.

Dr. Ed Tronick
Dr. Tronick received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and completed post graduate training at Harvard University. He has served on NIMH, NICHD, NIDA and NSF review panels and on the equivalent review panels for the British, Canadian, Australian, Swiss and New Zealand governments.

He is recognised internationally for his work on the neurobehavioral and social emotional development of infants and young children, parenting in the U.S. and other cultures, and infant-parent mental health.

Dr. Tronick developed the Still-face paradigm, which has become a standard experimental paradigm for studying social emotional development in the fields of pediatrics, psychiatry, clinical and child psychology, and nursing.

Emma Hakansson
Emma Hakansson is a survivor advocate who works with Australian Childhood Foundation to develop its Our Collective Experience Project, formerly known as Emma’s Project. She is also the Chair of the Project’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee, dedicated to child sexual abuse prevention driven by the wisdom of lived experience.

Fiona Cornforth
Fiona Cornforth is of the Wuthathi peoples of the far north-east cape of Queensland with family roots also in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait Islands). Fiona Cornforth is the Head ANU National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research and has gained experience and perspectives in education, leadership, governance and business development at home and globally and in all spaces, shares a message of celebration and gratitude for the greatness of ancestors, Elders, and the ontology and authority that holds individuals, families and nations.

Glenda Kickett
Glenda Kickett belongs to the Whadjuk and Ballardong peoples of the Bibbulumun Nyungah nation from the South West of Western Australia through both her mother and father’s family lines. She is a Social Worker, having graduated from the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1993; has a Master of Arts from Curtin University in Indigenous Research and Development in 2004; and is in the final stages of completing her PhD in Social Work at UWA, titled ‘Benanginy Dangalang’, Picking Everlastings, A Story to Listen and Learn.

Glenda is the CEO of Karla Kuliny Aboriginal Corporation, and Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work in the unit, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges and Worldviews in Social Work learning and practice.

Janise Mitchell (Australian Childhood Foundation’s CEO)
Janise Mitchell is the CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Arts and Social Sciences with Southern Cross University.

Janise has more than 38 years’ experience in the field of child protection and child trauma, with a focus on therapeutic care. She completed a Master of Social Work (Research) in 2008 in which she researched the implementation of therapeutic foster care in Victoria. Janise is a founding Board member of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse and Board member of the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.

Dr. Johanna Lynch
Dr Lynch MBBS PhD FRACGP FASPM Grad Cert (Grief and Loss) is a Senior Lecturer with The University of Queensland and President of the Australian Society for Psychological Medicine.
She spent the last 15 years of her 25-year GP career caring for adults who are survivors of childhood trauma and neglect. As a clinician and researcher, she has pioneered approaches to the whole person that are threat and healing informed.

Dr. Jon Baylin
Dr. Baylin received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1981. He has been working in the mental health field for 45 years. For the past twenty years, while continuing his clinical practice, he has immersed himself in the study of neurobiology and in teaching mental health practitioners about the brain.

Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson
Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson is a Jiman (central west Queensland) and Bundjalung (Northern New South Wales) woman, with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage.
As the founder of We Al-li she is currently their patron and working across many community-based trauma healing programs.  She is an international renowned leader and researcher in intergenerational trauma.  Her academic contributions to the understanding of trauma related issues stemming from the violence of colonisation and the healing/recovery of Indigenous peoples from such trauma has won her the Carrick Neville Bonner Award in 2006 for her curriculum development and innovative teaching practice. In 2011 she was awarded the Fritz Redlick Memorial Award for Human Rights and Mental Health from the Harvard University program for refugee trauma.

Dr. Kelly Royds
Dr. Royds is the General Manager at the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care (a division of the Australian Childhood Foundation), leading initiatives that equip organisations, carers, and practitioners with the knowledge and networks to improve outcomes for children and young people in out-of-home care and youth justice. She holds a PhD in Childhood Studies and has worked across Australia, South-East Asia, and the United States, shaping programs that centre the voices and experiences of children, young people, and their families. Her work spans digital learning, impact storytelling, and service evaluations, with a focus on strengthening systems through research, education, and collaboration.

Kim S Golding
Kim Golding, CBE, D. Clin. Psy., AFBPsS is a clinical psychologist living in the UK. She is a consultant and trainer in DDP and provides therapy, training, consultation, and supervision to a range of individuals and teams. Kim is author of books written for parents, educational staff and practitioners supporting children and families with experience of developmental trauma. In 2020, Kim was honoured with a CBE for her work by Her Majesty the Queen.

Marilyn Davillier
Marilyn R. Davillier is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked with infants, toddlers, children, and their families, in a teaching, research or clinical capacity for over 35 years. Marilyn is the Co-Director and Curriculum Coordinator for the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship Program, a nationally acclaimed two-year intensive interdisciplinary fellowship for licensed professionals whose mandate it is to treat the social, emotional and relational derailments that can arise in families with children ages birth to five years.
Marilyn lectures both nationally and internationally on meaning-making in the clinical treatment of young children, the importance of limit setting, family narratives, and the use of literature to promote resilience in the private life of the child. 

Morgan Cataldo
Morgan holds a degree in Social Science and is a Visiting Fellow at RMIT University School of Global, Urban and Social Studies.
As someone who moved through service systems from a young age, Morgan personally understands the importance of engaging ethically with those who are affected by systems and structures to imagine more just and impactful offerings.

Morgan has over 15 years of personal and professional expertise collaborating with individuals, communities and organisations to reimagine the role those who experience systematic exclusion play in social change.

Dr. Naomi Rutten
Dr. Rutten is a distinguished General Practitioner and Psychotherapist based in Gawler, South Australia, with extensive expertise in various therapeutic modalities. She specialises in the treatment, education, and prevention of developmental and complex trauma, as well as behavioural disorders. Notably, Dr. Rutten brings personal insight to her practice, having lived experience with Complex PTSD and ADHD. This unique perspective enriches her approach to treatment and support.
Currently, Dr. Rutten serves as the President of the Australian Society for Psychological Medicine, where she is committed to aiding General Practitioners and healthcare professionals in delivering whole-person, trauma-informed care.

Paul Denniston
Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga® and the author of Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss into Empowerment.
The mission of Grief Yoga is to use movement, breath, and sound to release pain and suffering to connect to empowerment and love.
Grief Yoga combines many different forms of yoga to channel and release anger to allow unresolved grief a compassionate space to breathe and move.

Prof Paul Gilbert
Prof Paul Gilbert has been a clinical psychologist of over 45 years with the focus of working with people with mood disorders, complex shame and trauma, and harsh self-criticism. He is professor at the university of Derby and visiting professor at the university of Queensland Australia.

He has published over 350 academic papers and 22 books. In 2006 he established the international charity the compassionate mind foundation (www.compassionatemind.co.uk) which is now one of the leading international organisations for the study of compassion and its applications. In recognition for his contributions to mental health he was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in 2011.

Dr. Rachel Yehuda
Dr. Yehuda, PhD, is an Endowed Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Trauma.  She is also Director of Mental Health at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Yehuda is a recognized leader in the field of traumatic stress studies, PTSD, and intergenerational trauma.  In 2019, Dr. Yehuda was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for her seminal contributions to understanding the psychological and biological impact of traumatic stress. 

Dr. Ruth A. Lanius
Dr. Lanius, M.D., Ph.D. is a Psychiatry Professor and Harris-Woodman Chair at Western University of Canada, where she is the director of the Clinical Research Program for PTSD.

Ruth has over 25 years of clinical and research experience with trauma-related disorders. She established the Traumatic Stress Service at London Health Sciences Centre, a program that specializes in the treatment of psychological
trauma.

Siobhan Wilson
Siobhan Wilson, 15, is an international speaker, author, entrepreneur, and youth advocate for Queensland Family and Child Commission. With lived experience of anxiety, PTSD, and NVLD, she has overcome complex trauma and gained unique insights into effective strategies for mental well-being. Through her company, Our Pixie Friends, she has supported over 5000 children, 1250 teenagers, and 1300 adults, donated to medical research, and provided 500+ gift packs to children in need. Siobhan’s resilience, advocacy for mental health, and dedication to helping others make her an inspiring voice for positive change and a source of hope for many.

Dr. Wenn Lawson
Dr. Lawson is an Adjunct Associate Professor with Curtin University, WA, and member of CARG (Curtin University’s Autism Research Group). He is passionate about autism, mental health, all things LGBTQIA+ and building autism understanding across the generations, professions and the world. He is a well know author, speaker and poet.
Wenn is a key theorist of the Monotropism theory of Autism.

Dr. Sally Denning
Dr. Denning is a lecturer in play therapy at Deakin University and has a private play and dance therapy practice in country Victoria. Previously, Sally worked for over 13 years as a therapeutic specialist at the Australian Childhood Foundation, working therapeutically with children who have experienced complex trauma and offering support to their carers.