DONATEFind An ISSTD Therapist
Home › About ISSTD › IDEA Statement

IDEA Statement

Inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA*) are critical to ISSTD’s efforts to provide high-quality clinical education and training and accurate scientific understandings of complex trauma and dissociation. These efforts are in service of benefiting individuals, ISSTD as an organization, the field, and, we hope, the world.

What is ISSTD?

As an international organization at the forefront of the study and treatment of complex trauma and dissociation, ISSTD sits at the nexus of disparate and often conflicting social movements and ideologies. The Society represents in its members, and carries as an organization, wounds associated with combating the aggressive denial of the existence of complex trauma and dissociation, as well as the inconsistent access to resources that this denial continues to foster. As the oldest and largest organization in the world focused on the study and treatment of complex trauma and dissociation, ISSTD’s decades-long work is now situated within the context of emerging self-advocacy movements contributing to the discussion of the nature, meaning, and lived experience of dissociation. This seems to place ISSTD in multiple, co-occurring roles, operating both as a cultural microsystem–a professional membership organization–and at the same time, as an entity embedded in the macro level of society, with the perceived and actual influence–and responsibility–that accompanies this status. It is within this context that the leadership of ISSTD has felt duty-bound to focus the Society’s attention on realizing IDEA.

IDEA Efforts in ISSTD

From at least 2018, members of the Board, including Presidents, and likely other members, have voiced concerns about the lack of IDEA in ISSTD related to marginalized race, younger age, less economically-resourced regions around the world, and resultant reduced access to ISSTD and its resources. With these and other barriers to access in mind, the ISSTD Board of Directors began to intentionally, if not yet formally, integrate IDEA-informed actions into its 2021-2023 Strategic Plan. The IDEA Goal #7 was approved by the Board for the 2024-2026 Strategic Plan, with objectives supporting this goal elaborated on by a diverse working group comprised of Board Members prior to the Board’s final approval of the overall Strategic Plan.

The IDEA Board Working Group’s primary focus during 2024 was to develop definitions of IDEA that aligned with ISSTD’s Mission and Vision, were true to the objectives within the IDEA-focused goal itself, and could inform a public statement of commitment to the values and practices of IDEA as reflected in the overall Strategic Plan. Members of the working group closely reviewed and considered the existing scholarship, other organizations’ approaches, and our own diverse perspectives to create these definitions.

Definitions of IDEA

From these efforts arose our definitions of IDEA:

Inclusion: An Aspirational Goal

Inclusion has been achieved when a safe-enough, welcoming, healthy, and growth-fostering culture and climate is realized and maintained for those who have been historically excluded and marginalized. 

Inclusion does NOT mean that everyone will always feel comfortable. Further, inclusion does not mean that the status quo remains the same in order to differentially support–and guard the comfort of–people with the most societal and institutional power and privilege.

Diversity: The Landscape

Diversity is the appreciation for, recruitment of, and retention of people with differences across backgrounds, cultures, nations, professions, experience, and individual characteristics, including but not limited to: age; ancestry; skin color; disability; education; ethnicity; gender; gender identity or expression; genetic information; HIV/AIDS status; military status; mental and physical health status, ability, or diagnosis; national origin; nationality; neurotype; pregnancy; psychology; race; religion; sex; sexual orientation; or veteran status.

Diversity is NOT tokenism, with a limited number of members of underrepresented groups and the institutional power structure remaining relatively homogenous and privileged.

Equity: The Framework

Equity is an approach and outcome that recognizes the existence of historical and present systemic inequalities, and which identifies and understands the value of continuously, and consistently, assessing policies, procedures, and practices related to the distribution of resources, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility.  

Equity is NOT the same as equality. Equality as an approach and outcome ignores the varied needs of people who endure marginalization and, at the same time, often reifies the policies, practices, and procedures that have historically privileged some people while oppressing and excluding others.

Accessibility: The Action

As the action arm of equity, accessibility is the intentional practice of:

  • Reevaluating existing policies, practices, and procedures through the lens of inclusion, diversity, and equity;
  • Eliminating policies, practices, and procedures that pose barriers to inclusion across all axes of oppression;
  • Developing, implementing, and maintaining policies, practices, and procedures that promote inclusion, diversity, and equity; and,
  • Providing reasonable accommodations and modifications to better ensure equal access.

Thus, accessibility is the ongoing, iterative, intentional practice of furthering diversity, inclusion, and equity for the benefit of the individual, ISSTD as an organization, the field, and, we hope, the world.

Our goal is for these definitions to guide our shared understanding of and commitment to IDEA within ISSTD.

ISSTD Commitment to IDEA

ISSTD is committed to supporting the availability of high-quality clinical education and training, accurate scientific understandings, and increased awareness and destigmatization of complex trauma and dissociation for all. ISSTD will honor this commitment through clinical education, research, and awareness-raising practices that proactively incorporate diverse marginalized voices, resulting in us sharing what we know while continuing to learn what is unknown to us and what is yet to be discovered. We acknowledge that this is an ongoing, non-linear process. With this in mind, it is with equal parts curiosity, humility, and determination that we aim to inspire and further inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) for the dignity of the individual; for ISSTD as an organization and between/among its members, regardless of their professional standing; the mental health fields and those we serve; and, the evolving international community.

*As ISSTD is based in the United States of America (USA), its efforts, including those related to IDEA, are in accordance with USA federal civil rights law.