Dr. Charles (Chuck) Benincasa is committed to advancing the field of psychology through advocacy, education, and trauma-conscious practice. His work spans clinical, forensic, and consulting practice areas, as well as research and clinical training with an emphasis on complex trauma, dissociation, and dignity-based, anti-colonial, and culturally responsive practice. Chuck earned his Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in Counseling Psychology degree from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and completed his postdoctoral fellowship on the Trauma Disorders Unit at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland where he provided intensive psychotherapy to individuals with complex trauma histories and dissociative abilities. His specialty areas span traumatic stress, dissociation, interpersonal violence, institutional betrayal, coercive control, and identity-based harm. 

 He has held faculty appointments teaching and supervising graduate students, co-authored two chapters (with emphasis on complex posttraumatic and dissociative reactions as well as culturally responsive forensic evaluation) for the Handbook of Psychological Injury and Law, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, a consulting editor and section head on dissociation for the Journal of Psychological Injury and Law, and an editorial board member for Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy. 

Chuck has held various leadership roles in local and national organizations, including serving as the Convention Programming Chair and Awards Chair for APA Division 56 (Trauma Psychology), and he is currently an elected trustee for the board of the Washington State Psychological Association. His advocacy efforts focus on equitable treatment of psychologists in the healthcare industry, improving training opportunities, and expanding access to care. He is dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices and dismantling oppressive systems within the field of psychology.

Joanne H. Twombly, MSW, LICSW is a psychotherapist in private practice in Arlington, Massachusetts. She has over 30 years of experience working with Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders and provides trainings and consultation.

She has written chapters on EMDR and Dissociative Disorders, EMDR and Internal Family Systems, and on working with Perpetrator Introjects. Her book “Trauma and Dissociation Informed Internal Family Systems: How to Successfully Treat Complex PTSD, and Dissociative Disorders” (2023) is the first book to integrate Internal Family Systems with knowledge from the trauma and dissociation field.

Her commitment to providing clients with healing and has resulted in her becoming an EMDR Consultant and a Trauma and Recovery HAP Facilitator, Internal Family Systems Certified, and an American Society for Clinical Hypnosis Consultant.

She is a past president of the New England Society of Trauma and Dissociation, served on various ISSTD committees and on the board. She received ISSTD's Distinguished Achievement Award and is an ISSTD Fellow.

Eli Somer, Ph.D., is a full clinical professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Haifa School of Social Work. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and hypnotist and an Israel Ministry of Health certified supervisor of psychopathology and psychodiagnostics training. Prof. Somer has been treating survivors of trauma since the mid-1980's, himself a son of Holocaust survivors and a combat veteran of 2 major middle-east wars. Somer has also served as reservist mental health officer (captain) and commander of a front-line combat stress treatment unit of the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces.

As an academic, Somer has written over 150 scientific publications in the field. He has identified a phenomenon he termed Maladaptive Daydreaming and his current research focuses on this excessive and distressful form of fantasizing.

 Eli Somer was founder and scientific advisor of Trauma and Dissociation Israel (TDIL). He is co-founder and past president of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation (ESTD) and past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). Eli is currently involved in the establishment of the International Society for Maladaptive Daydreaming.

Somer is the ISSTD recipient of the Cornelia Wilbur Award (2000) for his outstanding clinical contributions to the treatment of dissociative disorders and the recipient of ISSTD's Fellow status (2001) for his excellent contributions to the field of dissociative disorders. Eli Somer also received the President's Award for outstanding leadership twice: from the ISSTD (2006) and from the ESTD (2012) and in 2014 the ISSTD awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been listed twice as one of the 10 best clinical psychologists in Israel.