Bessel A. Van der Kolk, M.D., is a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of post-traumatic stress.  His work integrates developmental, neurobiological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment.

Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development, memory, and the psychobiology of trauma.  He has published over 150 peer reviewed scientific articles on such diverse topics as neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, Developmental Trauma, yoga, theater and EMDR. 

He is founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts.  The Trauma Center consists of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applies treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide.  He also created the Trauma Research Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Trauma Center, that is organized to promote clinical, scientific and educational projects.

His most recent 2014 New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma, transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring – specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust.  He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, somatically based therapies, EMDR, psychodrama, play, yoga, and other therapies.

Dr. van der Kolk is the past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School.  He regularly teaches at conferences, universities, and hospitals around the world.

Tarana J. Burke, Founder, “Me Too” movement. Activist and advocate at the intersection of sexual violence and racial justice. Fueled by commitments to interrupt sexual violence and other systemic inequalities disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly black women and girls. She is the recipient of the 2018 MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award.

Robert Whitaker, author, Anatomy of an Epidemic and publisher of the web magazine, Mad in America.

Edward Tronick, PhD, is a developmental and clinical psychologist and is recognized internationally as a researcher on infants, children, and parenting. He developed the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm and videotaped micro-analytic studies of infant en face interactions, pioneered studies of the effects of maternal depression on infants, and carried out numerous cross-cultural studies of infant and child development. His Mutual Regulation Model and Dyadic Expansion of Consciousness hypothesis are widely accepted accounts of social interactions and therapeutic processes. Dr. Tronick is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, is director of the Child Development Unit, a research associate in Newborn Medicine, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, an associate professor at both the Graduate School of Education and the School of Public Health at Harvard.

Martin H. Teicher, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Director of the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program and Laboratory of Developmental Psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital. His research studies range from inquiries into the molecular mechanisms of brain development to brain-imaging studies of the effects of childhood maltreatment on brain development. He is a Callaghan Investigator by NARSAD.

Julian D. Ford, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor, department of psychiatry and law, University of Connecticut; President International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS); director, Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders and Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice; co-author, Treatment of Complex Trauma & Hijacked by Your Brain: How to Free Yourself when Stress Takes Over; author, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Scientific and Professional Dimensions; co-editor, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders & Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

Cathy Malchiodi, Ph.D., REAT psychologist and expressive arts therapist, founder and director of the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute. She writes the Arts and Health column for Psychology Today Online, with a following of 4.8 million readers. Author of Handbook of Art Therapy, Expressive Therapies, and Art Therapy Sourcebook.

Stephan Wolfert, MFA, is a military veteran and internationally acclaimed actor. He founded the DE-CRUIT program to treat the effects of trauma through the integration of Shakespeare and science.

Ali Smith, Executive director, the Holistic Life Foundation. He has helped develop and pilot yoga and mindfulness programs at public and private schools, drug treatment centers, juvenile detention centers, mental crisis facilities, and retreat centers, mental crisis facilities, and retreat centers, nationally and internationally. Ali has authored a series of children’s books and co-authored several yoga and mindfulness-based curriculum’s as well as developed numerous workshops and trainings.

Atman Smith, Co-founder of the Holistic Life Foundation, and director of development. Since 2001, he has been teaching yoga and mindfulness to a diverse population including underserved and high-risk youth in Baltimore City Public Schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges.

Andres Gonzalez, MBA, Co-founder and marketing director for the Holistic Life Foundation, Inc. in Baltimore, MD since 2001. He has partnered with John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and the Penn State’s Prevention Research Center on a Stress and Relaxation Study and is a published author in the Journal of Children’s Services.