Supporting our members in times of need has always been a core priority for IAGP. In today’s world, where the shadow of war looms, economic and social crises deepen, and countless traumas occur everywhere, unity is what we need most. All trauma work highlights the importance of cohesion and its connection to feeling safe.
With the mandate bestowed upon me and Nicola Policicchio by the Board of Directors, we have established the new “Social and Collective Traumas Committee.” Please find the committee’s composition below. With our esteemed consultants and expert committee members, we will strive to do our best. Existing support groups will be brought under this umbrella.
As group therapists, we are concerned with, value, share the pain of, and, if possible, provide assistance to the effects of traumas experienced by individuals and groups, beyond political debates and who is right or wrong. With this aim in mind, we also aim to establish an Emergency Response Sub-Team within the committee. We will strive to have a flowchart in place.
I am confident that with the support of IAGP President Heloisa Fleury, the committee will carry out its duties effectively. Our consultants empower us and are highly respected experts in their respective fields. Trauma workers are highly susceptible to trauma themselves, and therefore protecting our members is another priority for us.
We hope that this committee will lead us to live in a world where it is rarely needed.
We would like to express our gratitude to all the chairs and contributors of formerly known as the “Trauma and Disasters Committee”, which has been serving for a long time. We will continue to carry the flag from where they left off
Committee Co-Chairs:
Gaea Logan,
Nicola Policicchio
Committee Members:
Kostantinos Liolios,
Rebecca Walters,
Ayşe Naz Hazal Sezen (committee secretary,)
Abdelrahman Shaaban,
Adriana Piterbarg,
Scott Giacomucci
Committee Consultants:
Haim Weinberg,
Elizabeth Rohr,
Robi Friedman
With deepest regards,
Co-Chair of the Social and Collective Traumas Commitee
Chair of IAGP 50th Anniversary Celebration Task Force
Board Member of IAGP.
President of İstanbul Psychodrama Institute
Honorary Member of the Moreno Museum Association
The Social & Collective Trauma (SCT) Committee of the International Association for Group Psychotherapy (IAGP) is dedicated to supporting communities and clinicians working within conditions of war, oppression, disaster, and social rupture. Our purpose is to harness the healing power of group processes within psychoanalytic, group-analytic, psychodramatic, systemic, contemplative, psychodynamic and other modalities, to respond to collective suffering with clinical excellence, international collaboration, and a deeply ethical commitment to human dignity.
At the center of this mission is a committed focus on the Care for the Caregivers. The aim of our actions is to address burnout, moral injury, vicarious trauma, and the need for sustainable practices for clinicians working in wounded communities. These programs ensure that those who provide care also receive it, empowering communities, while demonstrating cultural sensitivity and honoring existing traditional approaches to healing.
From 2025-2028, IAGP marks a new chapter of leadership, clarity, and global engagement for the SCT committee. Through focused internal support, international partnerships, trauma-informed training, and cross-sectional collaboration, the SCT Committee aims to establish IAGP as a recognized leader in global trauma response, grounded in clinical excellence, ethical engagement, and the empowerment of both caregivers and communities.
At the American Group Psychotherapy Association Annual Meeting in New York, Gaea Logan led a five-hour hybrid workshop, Dreaming into Being: Community Psychoanalysis and War, based on her chapter in Cultural Diversity, Groups and Social Challenges. The workshop brought together Ukrainian and American faculty, Ukrainian students, and international participants, highlighting both the work of the Social and Collective Trauma (SCT) Committee and the emerging Task Force on Dialogue and Peace, while extending the reach of the publication itself. In parallel, SCT co-sponsored two Luminary Lectures in partnership with the International Institute for Trauma Studies and the Association for Psychologists and Psychoanalysts of Ukraine: Innovations in Psychodrama and Relational Group Psychotherapy: A Conversation, with Marcia Karp and Tetiana Komar, which wove Moreno’s foundational ideas with wartime clinical innovation and reached approximately 150 participants; and The Role of Expressive Arts in Healing Trauma, with Dr. Hande Karakılıç Üçer, co-sponsored with the IAGP Education and Expressive Arts Committees, drawing nearly 190 participants and reflecting a growing culture of collaboration within IAGP and with Ukrainian colleagues. Looking ahead, SCT is preparing an upcoming lecture with Maurizio Gasseau and exploring a new educational partnership with the Kettering Foundation’s Global Democracy program. Across these efforts, the work continues to move between immediacy and vision, tending both to the urgent realities of trauma and to the longer arc of dialogue, dignity, and peace.
Gratefully,
Gaea and Nicola
The Social and Collective Trauma (SCT) Committee is pleased to offer a direct access route for communities seeking trauma-informed support and training in contexts of large-scale communal trauma. We also invite IAGP members to participate in selected training webinars and to join the Trauma Response Collective, an IAGP network of clinicians committed to evidence-based trauma stabilization and coordinated, compassionate outreach in response to violence, armed conflict, war, and natural or human-made disasters. For more information, IAGP members, community leaders and organizations may contact the SCT co-chairs, Gaea Logan and Nicola Policicchi at [email protected].
SCT is also developing new cross-committee training initiatives in collaboration with the Education, Expressive Arts, and Research Committees, as well as the Analytic Group and Psychodrama Sections. Join us for an upcoming co-sponsored event with the International Institute for Trauma Studies (Ukraine) on February 21, Innovation in Psychodrama and Relational Group Psychotherapy, with Marcia Karp, Tetiana Komar, and Gaea Logan, and on March 14, Expressive Arts Therapy and Healing Trauma, with Hande Karakılıç Üçer.
Gratefully,
Gaea and Nicola
The practice of compassion is a shared responsibility.
IAGP invites our professional colleagues around the world to a solidarity and support meeti
This group has the goals of reach out and hear each other. To communicate the challenges of our work as professionals in Russia and us as human beings in the current climate.
We hope to see you, hear each other, connect and heal together.
Light, Hope
on the third Wednesday of every month 17:30-19:00 CET
