By Norah Lewis, Co- President
My first introduction to NESTTD was through a colleague who told me of a training workshop on trauma and dissociation. As training in trauma, and in particular, dissociation was scarce, I was intrigued. I attend the workshop, hoping to get information I could use in my practice. But what I found was much more. I found a community of people who shared my desire to understand and treat trauma and dissociation, a community in which I could quickly enter into discussions with others who were curious about the very same questions. I was struck by the way this occurred, without competition over experience or achievements.
As I attended more workshops my sense of personal connection to the NESTTD community grew. I got involved in the membership committee and started helping out at meetings. The NESTTD community was also growing. At the beginning of my involvement, NESTTD still held meetings at McLean Hospital. Surprising numbers of people attended and what now seems like a tiny meeting room soon was overflowing! The organization expanded, moving to its current location at Bentley College. My role expanded as well, first to board member, and now to Co-President. I can look back at how much I have gotten from volunteering, both personally and professionally, and am struck by how much I had gained for the small number of hours I gave. Working to carry out NESTTD’s mission to provide training and education on trauma and dissociation was very rewarding. I hope my experience will inspire you to get involved. Participating on a Committee does not have to take up all of one’s time. In fact, even the smallest of contributions have great importance to NESTTD’s mission.
To whet your appetite, let me describe the exciting jobs and committees that await your participation!
Program Committee: is in charge of developing programs for NESTTD Quarterly Meetings and other training events. The duties of the Program Committee include: brainstorming and soliciting suggestions for future topics from both the Board and the NESTTD community; recruiting speakers who can offer new and timely information or fill current clinical training needs; arranging for travel and accommodations for the speaker; coordinating program logistics both before and on the day of the program (e.g., audio-visual needs, room set-up, handouts, special needs of the speaker, etc.). The Program Committee meets every six weeks to two months through most of the year.
Membership Committee: is a very visible committee but one that requires very little time between meetings. The committee is primarily responsible for registration, collecting fees, and new member enrollment at each Quarterly Meeting or other training events. Its members also make sure that there are food supplies for the coffee break and “greeters” to welcome new and returning attendees. Ideally, this Committee could expand to take an active role in exploring ways of developing a stronger membership recruitment program. Although our membership has grown, there are still many therapists who do not know about us.
Publicity Committee: At present, NESTTD does not have a publicity committee. We are looking for interested members to help organize a Publicity Committee to work together with the Program Committee and Board of Directors. NESTTD has grown dramatically since it began. The increase is due to the hard work of the NESTTD Program Committee, Board of Directors and entire membership community. Developing strategies for publicity, distributing information on upcoming conferences and working with professional publications and organizations have been responsibilities that have contributed to the growth of membership as well as to attendance at workshops and meetings. Because of the increase in membership and opportunities for continued growth, we are looking for interested members to help organize our much-needed publicity.
Community Education and Outreach: provides education and resources about trauma and dissociation to professionals in a variety of settings. This committee is in the final stages of developing an introductory presentation on trauma and dissociation. We plan to offer the presentation to interested agencies, hospitals, and training programs. If you know of any site that may be interested, please email either Susan Aeschbach or Kari Gleiser at: nesttd@comcast.net.
Nominating Committee: is in charge of the annual elections held at the end of each fiscal year. The Committee informs the Board of projected position vacancies, solicits candidates to fill those vacancies, assembles candidate statements from each, provides election information to the Administrative Assistant, and collects and tallies the ballots.
Inspired yet? If you are, email me at nesttd@comcast.net and we’ll get you connected to the committee you are interested in. You will not be sorry! Which reminds me of one other thing: in this organization, everyone is very forgiving. We know that all of us are too busy to take on even one more thing. So we share the load as best we can, drop a lot of balls here and there, and have only appreciation for anyone who lends a hand.
--Now are you inspired?