• Somerset Hunterdon Warren Psychological Association (SHWPA)

  Irit Felsen, Ph.D.

  
  

  IN PERSON ONLY – Register at shwpa.org

  Watchung Valley Golf Club 600 Mountain Blvd., Watchung, NJ 07069

  Friday, September 19, 2025
  Registration 10:15-10:50 – Program 11:00-3:30

  4 Continuing Education Credits

  Program Overview: The program will focus on the long-term effects of trauma and the intergenerational transmission of effects related to parental ancestral trauma descendants of massive collective social catastrophes.

  The lecture will focus on empirical research and clinical literature on survivors of the Holocaust and their families, as this is still the largest body of literature in this field. The research has by now covered the lifespan of survivors and their children, who are now entering old age. The mental health professionals have not readily accepted the validity of the concept of historical trauma, and the evidence from Holocaust families has opened the gate for research of historical trauma in other groups, including the indigenous groups of America and the descendants of black slaves in America. Potential risks for loss of empathy inherent to the confrontation of trauma therapists with stories of brutality and sadism presented by their patients will also be discussed, as well as s strategies to prevent such emotional biases from interfering with good therapy. Important issues to be aware of in interventions with individuals who share the painful legacies of historical trauma will be outlined.

  Irit Felsen, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist born in Israel, living in NY and practicing in NJ. She specializes in the treatment of traumatic loss. Her clinical work has focused on Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, and her research on intergenerational transmission has been published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. She taught as an Assistant Professor for 14 years at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in NYC, and the Chair of the Trauma Work Group at the NGO Committee on Mental Health in Consultative Relationship to the United Nations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Felsen was Chair of the Older Adults Work Group within the COVID-19 APA Interdisciplinary Task Force. She is a Fellow in Division 56 of the APA.

  Learning Objectives:

• 1.     Participants will learn about the mechanisms of transmission of trauma in families and groups who were exposed to historical trauma.
• 2.     Participants will learn about the “dual reality” in survivors of trauma and their descendants, and how this experiential trauma perspective acts as a lens for perceiving, understanding and for the emotional reaction of survivors and their descendants to current events/triggers which are trauma-reminders
• 3.     Participants will learn about unintentional, nonconscious dehumanization and mental health, its roots in evolutionary psychology and the dangers it presents in treatment of patients who are “other” than us.
• 4.     Participants will develop self-regulatory capacity and specific skills that will allow them to be responsive to the potentials triggering of trauma-related responses in clients and in co-workers.
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Dr. Felsen does not have any commercial support and or any conflict of interest with this program.

The programs level of learning is intermediate, and the target audience is psychologists.

ADA accommodations available upon written request by emailing Virginia Walters, Psy.D. at virginia.alters4@gmail.com no later than September 12, 2025.

SHWPA Program fee: SHWPA Member $105; Non-SHWPA Member $115.00; Students $15. Register at AS hwpa.org or mail a check to Tracy Menzie P.O. Box 644 Lebanon, NJ 08833. Please make check payable to SHWPA and indicate it is 4/9/1925 program. Registration for this program will close on September 12, 2025.

 NJPA CE Credits/ Administrative Fee for 4 CE credits is paid to NJPA online before the program period a link will be emailed after registration and prior to this program. NJPA administrative fees: NJPA Member $15; Non-NJPA Member $25. The NJPA Program Evaluation will be emailed to you after the program. Non-NJPA Members can create a non-member account on the NJPA website at no cost.

This workshop is co-sponsored by NJPA and SHWPA. NJPA is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. NJPA maintains responsibility for the program and its content.