2025 Virtual Conference
Minding the Gaps: Listening for the Unspoken and Seeing the Unseen
September 27-28, 2025 | Online
Call For Proposals Open April 1 to April 30, 2025
ISSTD is thrilled to announce our 2025 Virtual Conference, Minding the Gaps: Listening for the Unspoken and Seeing the Unseen! This online only event will take place on September 27-28, 2025. The Call for Proposals for the 2025 Virtual Conference opens April 1, 2025 and will close April 30, 2025 at 11:59 PM US Eastern Time.
We are looking for 90 minute presentations that discuss complex trauma and dissociation related to the conference theme, “Minding the Gaps: Listening for the Unspoken and Seeing the Unseen.” We encourage solid scientific and clinically grounded presentations.
Please ensure you carefully read all Submission Guidelines as there have been updates to the submission requirements. The Call for Proposals will not be extended beyond April 30, 2025, so please make sure you get your submissions in early! If you do encounter any questions while preparing your submission, please email cfas@isst-d.org.
All presenters must submit the following information through the required online form. Please note that the online form cannot be saved so you will need to compile this information in advance in a document to copy and paste into the form. If there are multiple presenters involved in the presentation, you should designate one person as the primary presenter and this person should be tasked with submitting the information for the group during the submission process and will be assigned additional tasks to complete if the presentation is accepted (for conferences only). Please make sure the form you are filling out is the form for the 2025 Virtual Conferene Proposal Submission.
Please note that all materials included in your presentation, including any videos, must be able to be recorded. ISSTD Staff is unable to edit out any portion of the presentation following the live presentation before it is made available as a recording.
All presenters must submit the following information through the required online form:
Presentation Title and Abstract
- Please note that the title should clearly indicate what is being presented, and the abstract should concisely describe the clinical impact of the information being presented
- Only provide titles and descriptions that can be supported by evidence. Including hyperbolic or exaggerated claims is NOT considered good practice.
- Titles should me no more than 20 words and/or 80 characters.
- Abstracts are the primary information attendees use to determine which presentations they will attend. Abstracts should clearly convey the main information that will be presented. The abstract and learning objectives are the primary information used by proposal reviewers to determine whether to accept or reject the presentation.
- Abstracts must be written in third person.
- Abstracts should be no less than 300 and no more than 500 words.
Presenter Information for Each Presenter
- Name as you would like it to appear in marketing materials
- Details of highest degree (year of graduation, major, university, degree)
- Designation (i.e. PhD, LCSW, MFT, etc.)
- Email address & cell phone number (for staff contact only – internal)
- 200-300 word professional biography written in third person that includes the following information:
- Highest degree including type of degree, major, university and graduation year
- Professional work history
- Summary of publications (if applicable)
- Summary of training completed
- Involvement in ISSTD and other associations
- Awards and designations (if applicable)
- Click here to view an example of a biography written following these guidelines.
- Most recent CV
- Headshot (High Resolution, professional photo)
Learning Objectives
- At least three learning objectives that use acceptable verbs to complete the sentence, “Participants will be able to…”
- You may only use verbs that are in the list of acceptable verbs in the Guideline for Writing Behavioral Learning Objectives.
- Objectives must clearly state what participants will walk away being able to do/apply in their clinical practice or research.
Five Citations from Peer-Reviewed Journals
- Five citations from peer-reviewed journals from a variety of sources from the last 10 years in American Psychological Association style.
- Half of all references must be from the last five years from the date of your presentation. Books do not qualify as peer-reviewed sources and the citations cannot be authored by only the presenter.
- Click here for guidelines on APA style.
- Please pay close attention to this requirement, as this is the most frequent error received in submissions.
- Presenters may use additional citations in their final presentation that do not meet these requirements.
- These should be included in the presentation and referenced in a bibliography slide at the end of the presentation.
Learning Level and Potential to Distress
- Presentations must designate the knowledge/skill level required of the participant (i.e., Beginner/Introductory, Intermediate, or Advanced). Although these are only general guides, they are required in order to comply with continuing education regulations.
- Beginning/Introductory: Suitable for all professional participants (including students). Introduces learners to a content area; includes information about a condition, treatment method, or issue; and involves learning and comprehending content.
- Intermediate: Provides information that builds on knowledge practitioners with some experience already have. Focus on skill-building or adding knowledge, possibly following a brief overview of basic information, and involve using information in concrete situations and understanding the underlying structure of the material.
- Advanced: Provides content for participants who have been working in the content area and have a clear understanding of the issues. These cover and address the complexities involved in the work and involve synthesizing material to create new patterns or structures or evaluating material for a specific purpose.
- All submissions must declare whether the presentation has potential to cause audience distress. (Yes/No)
Please also note the following
- Case material and biographical information must be disguised so that the client’s identity is concealed.
- Presentations should be original contributions (i.e., they have not been published prior to the date that you submitted the abstract).
- Information not following these guidelines will require revision before publication of your conference presentation information and registration are posted.
- If you plan to use videos as part of your presentation, you must notify ISSTD staff at least three weeks prior to the event and must provide videos to us via Dropbox.
- If you have any questions about your submission, please email cfas@isst-d.org.
Further Questions?
International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
Email: cfas@isst-d.org
Phone: 844.994.7783