Dr. Jim Hopper will be in Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center on Friday, April 15, 2016 from 9:00am – 12:15pm.

 Jim Hopper, PhD, is an independent consultant and part-time instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry of Harvard Medical School. He has conducted research on the neurobiology of trauma, and trains investigators, prosecutors, judges, and higher-education professionals on its implications. As a researcher and therapist, he has studied and provided therapy to adults suffering from long-term effects of child abuse and sexual assault.

 

 Sexual Assault: Normal and Brain-based but Commonly Misunderstood Responses and Memories

Traumatic experiences have immediate and powerful effects on the human brain. This training explains how fear and trauma can impact brain functioning in ways that alter experience, attention, behavior and memory encoding during sexual assault. Participants will learn about the key brain circuitries impacted by fear and trauma, including the prefrontal cortex and the circuitries of fear and memory. They will come to understand brain-based experiences, behaviors and memory characteristics that are, unfortunately, still commonly misunderstood by many who work with victims of sexual assault. This training provides a critical foundation for learning and applying trauma-informed responses to victims of sexual assault.

 

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