Media Release

Mangaluru, Mar 2: The Psychology and Clinical Psychology department of St Agnes College PG Centre conducted a national seminar on 'Responding to Survivors of Trauma' at the St Agnes PG Auditorium on February 29. The aim of the seminar was to orient the students on the topic trauma and how to interact with such patients.

The seminar began with a soulful prayer song by Ann Tharakan and team. The MC for the event was Neha Tojan. Dr V Premanand, the head of the department of Psychology welcomed the chief guest, Dr P V Bhandhary, a Consultant Psychiatrist and director of Dr A V Baliga Memorial Hospital, Udupi. He also welcomed all the participants after which Sr Dr Jeswina AC, Principal of St Agnes college addressed the gathering by presenting a small talk on trauma.

The speakers for the day were Syam R Ravindran, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Hypnotherapist, certified EDMR Therapist and Consultant, Assistant Professor, department of Clinical Psychology, Kasturba Hospital, MCHP, MAHE, Manipal, Dr Bhasi Sukumaran, Professor and Head, Clinical Psychology, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Chennai, Aswini NV, founder director of Muktha Foundation. The staff and students from both the departments and other colleges also attended the seminar.

The chief guest, Dr P V Bhandhary gave the keynote address. As the keynote speaker, he gave an introduction on trauma and people affected by it. He also talked about the stress response system and impact of exposure to trauma. He mentioned the words 'What the mind does not know, the eye will not see' to express his point.

The vote of thanks for the inaugural session was delivered by Sahasra Sham Rao.

The first session was an Orientation to Trauma which was taken up by Shyam R Ravindran. The session began by introducing Syam to the audience. The introduction was carried out by Anupama of 1st year MSc Clinical Psychology. The session by Syam focused on orienting the participants to trauma, the brain functions and activities related to trauma. He spoke about PTSD and CPTSD that gave an insight on the psychological, physical and social aspects of trauma. The session concluded after a vote of thanks by Meghna Johnson of II Msc Clinical Psychology.

The second session which was on the topic of Psychological First Aid taken up by Dr Bhasi Sukumaran, began by introducing Dr Bhasi to the audience. The introduction was carried out by Christeena Anto of 1st year MSc, Clinical Psychology.

Dr Bhasi commenced the session by defining the topic, going through the aims of Psychological First Aid as well as the processes involved. He gave an idea about the five essential elements and the principles of trauma debriefing the most important one being Critical Incident Debriefing. The talk then progressed onto the eight core elements of psychological first aid and group-based Solution Focused Therapy for survivors of disaster. The session was very detailed and in depth. It was very informative and enhanced everyone's knowledge on providing first aid to survivors of trauma.

The session concluded with the narration of a few cases and vote of thanks was delivered by Alison Lobo of 1st year MSc, Clinical psychology.

The final session of the seminar was on the topic 'Child sexual abuse: Prevention and Psychological Intervention' by Ashwini N V. The welcome speech was delivered by Paige from I Clinical Psychology. Topics such as types of sexual abuse, levels of prevention, signs and myths related to child sexual abuse and intervention methods like Response based narrative practice were discussed.

The speaker was able to enlighten the participants on a lot of information regarding sexual abuse and how to deal with survivors of such trauma by giving real-life cases. The informative and interactive session concluded with Jeanne delivering the vote of thanks to the speaker which was followed by a Q/A session where the participants were given a chance to ask questions to all the three speakers regarding the topics discussed throughout the day.

Lastly, the vote of thanks was delivered by Mili Paul, the staff convener for the national seminar expressing her sincere gratitude to the resource speakers, staff, participants and the student convener Aleena George of II Msc Psychology.