This is the abstract that was submitted online with the paper: Despite the fact that many survivors of human trafficking have experienced complex trauma, there are no established interventions designed to specifically address these impacts. Leaders in the field of complex trauma have advocated for the need for somatic approaches to intervention. This paper presents STARS Experiential Group treatment, the first structured bodybased group intervention that has been designed to address complex trauma in survivors of human trafficking. Three pilot groups were run in residential settings with adolescent and adult survivors of sex trafficking. Two adaptations were utilized, with one focusing on application of expressive arts modalities and the other incorporating theater games. Qualitative results, using thematic analysis, identified several themes related to challenges and potential benefits of these groups. Potential benefits of the STARS groups were found in the areas of Interpersonal Relationships, Regulation, and Self/ Identity, with fourteen sub-themes further describing positive impacts. Challenges within these areas are explored, to inform the development of group interventions for trafficking survivors. The results of this paper suggest that experiential, somatically-oriented group treatment shows promise as an important element of holistic intervention with trafficking survivors.

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Participants were assigned to 1 of 4 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ally‐development conditions; then, they completed measures of prejudice and propensity for social justice behavior. A structural equation model uncovered that propensity for social justice behavior was negatively related to prejudice and positively related to the emotional impact of experiences with discrimination in other domains of identity. Women, people of color, and individuals of lower social classes had the highest propensity for social justice behavior and the lowest prejudice.

Despite a continuing need for clinicians to engage in socially-­‐just practice that addresses systemic factors impacting the mental health of clients through advocacy, there are often limited formalized opportunities for doctoral counseling psychology students to be exposed to and to engage in community or public arena advocacy. Two counseling psychology faculty members initiated and supervised a Participatory Action Research (PAR) team comprised of six advanced counseling psychology doctoral students and three early career counseling psychologists with experience conducting community and public arena advocacy. The nine PAR team members explored the doctoral students’ experiences conducting advocacy during their doctoral training and the resulting qualitative data was analyzed using a content analysis methodology. The study results highlight the challenges inherent in facilitating and conducting these types of advocacy training activities, discuss essential supports provided by their doctoral programs, and offer recommendations to counseling psychology faculty interested in preparing their students to engage in this work.

Counseling psychology doctoral programs across the country are working to develop new approaches to bring social justice to the curriculum. Boston College has done so, in part, through a course titled Counseling in Context. The three core emphases are (a) ongoing self-examination of power and privilege, (b) applying traditional counseling skills to community-level problems, and (c) building from a clear intellectual and values framework. Building on an ally development conceptual frame, we illustrate how these principles were used to develop an intervention to combat Islamophobia on campus in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. The Don’t Meet Hurt With Hate. Love Islam Campaign served to support Muslims and engage non-Muslims in ally behavior, engaging more than 400 students on campus and 10,000 people virtually. In demonstrating how students can act with and for oppressed communities, we hope to provide a template for similar actions on other campuses.