Harvard Global Mental Health Trauma and Recovery 2025
The Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) and Harvard Medical School present an extraordinary 3-day online training program, Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery (GMH).
This program provides advanced training for health care practitioners, humanitarian relief workers, and policy planners who work with traumatized patients and communities. The curriculum is designed to be adaptable for diverse populations and applicable to global environments affected by violence, natural disasters, and climate change.
The Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Program is the first of its kind in the field of global mental health, trauma, and post-conflict or disaster recovery. It is built on over 40 years of clinical care, training, and research by Harvard faculty and international experts working with survivors of violence and natural disasters around the world.
In collaboration with Caritas Rome, the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program, and the World Bank, HPRT and the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) developed Project 1 Billion: International Congress of Ministers of Health for Mental Health and Post-Conflict Recovery. This landmark project united Ministers of Health from post-conflict nations to endorse a science-based, culturally effective, and sustainable Mental Health Action Plan and Book of Best Practices for post-conflict recovery.
Building on the legacy of Project 1 Billion, the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Program was developed to address the urgent need for education and capacity building among health care professionals, relief workers, and policy makers working in mental health and trauma recovery worldwide.
Who should takes the course
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Addiction Counselors
- Psychotherapists
- Therapists
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Physicians
- Other Helping Professionals
Learning Objectives:
More than one billion people have been affected by violence and disasters throughout the world. Our mission is to maximize a scientific and cultural approach and methodology to reduce suffering, minimize disabilities, and increase resiliency for survivors of violence worldwide. This Program offers a transformative training experience to create a network of global leaders in mental health recovery.
Upon completion of the certificate program, participants will be able to:
- Integrate science, culture, and evidence-based knowledge and practices in policy planning, clinical care, humanitarian, and human rights activities.
- Implement and use advances in the neurosciences and cultural knowledge of the clinical care of traumatized persons, their families, and communities.
- Define effective scientific approaches for the care of survivors of extreme violence and climate change.
- Analyze the important historical scientific and evaluation approaches to the care of survivors of trauma.
- Apply professional development and ethics in working with vulnerable populations.
- Understand the impact of trauma on the bio-psycho-social and spiritual state of survivors of trauma.
- Learn methods for self-care.
Learning Approach
Participants receive digital access to the textbook
Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery — A Companion Guide for Field and Clinical Care of Traumatized People Worldwide, along with the HPRT 11-Point Clinical Toolkit for Healing Wounds of Mass Violence and Disasters.
Lectures are presented by globally recognized leaders and structured around the eight dimensions of the Global Mental Health Action Plan, offering a comprehensive and integrative framework for trauma recovery.
Course Format
All lectures are available online and can be accessed on demand after purchase.
The program combines video lectures, case discussions, and applied frameworks designed to help professionals translate theory into real-world practice.
Topics
The program’s emphasis is on learning an integrated holistic approach to policy planning and clinical care using the HPRT Global Mental Health Action Plan.
Topics include:
- Phenomenological theory of trauma and recovery developed by HPRT and international colleagues over 40 years.
- Epidemiology and the neuroscience of trauma.
- The HPRT Global Mental Health Action Plan.
- Trauma-informed Care.
- Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Health and Medical Disorders.
- Scientific (Evidence-Based) and Culturally Valid Best Clinical Practices.
- The new H5 Model for field based psychosocial and clinical approach to recovery.
- Health and mental health impact of health disparities.
- Human Rights and Rebuilding Social Capital.
- Working in Interdisciplinary Medical Teams.
- Scientific and culture-based approach to leadership.
- Climate change and ecocide.
- The importance of Self-care.
Meet the Course Experts:
Richard F. Mollica, MD, MAR, is a psychiatrist and world-renowned pioneer of refugee mental health and medicine. Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Director, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT), and Director of the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Course (HMS). He is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at HMS 2022, and the winner of the Yale Divinity School (YDS) Lux et Veritas Award for excellence in caring for the world’s neediest communities with deep compassion and spirituality.
Sanjiv Chopra, MD, MBBS, MACP, is a Professor of Medicine and former Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chopra is a leading motivational speaker and best-selling author giving lectures and trainings on leadership and healthy lifestyles. His book Leadership by Example: The Ten Key Principles of All Great Leaders is highly praised and has been a basis of his world-wide lectures on leadership.
Massimo Ammaniti, MD, is a Child Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst; Honorary Professor of Developmental Psychopathology and Former Chairman of the Faculty of Infant and Adolescent Clinical Psychology at University of Rome La Sapienza. Dr. Ammaniti is an expert in the role of empathy in therapeutic relationships and the importance of mirror neurons. A leading figure in Italian social psychiatry associated with the Italian Psychiatric reform movement under Professor Franco Basaglia (Public Law No. 180).
Eugene F. Augusterfer, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Deputy Director and Director of Telemedicine for the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) at Massachusetts General Hospital; Co- Founder, World Bank Mental Health, and Psychosocial Working Group; Former Lecturer, Georgetown University Graduate School of Public Health, and the World Economic Forum’s Wellness Initiative. He is an internationally recognized expert in telemedicine and in the treatment of trauma in Forcibly Displaced Populations. He has published numerous peer reviewed papers on the use of telemedicine to reach underserved and marginalized global populations and he co-authored the book Telemental Health in Resource-Limited Global Settings, Oxford University Press, 2017. He is a peer reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Academic Psychiatry, Oxford University Press, and others. He has done on-site field work in numerous disaster settings, including Haiti, Lebanon, Japan, New Orleans, post Hurricane Katrina, and Washington, DC, post the 911 terrorists attacks. He currently supports a major program in Ukraine focused on internally displaced women and children. He also served as a U.S. Air Force Mental Health Officer where he helped in the development of an Air Force wide Integrated Care Program of primary medical care and mental health care.
Omar Bah, PsyD MPH, is a psychologist and Founder and Executive Director: The Refugee Dream Center, Inc., Rhode Island, Author of the book “Africa’s Hell on Earth: The Ordeal of an African Journalist.” Dr. Bah is an expert in refugee leadership.
Sondra Crosby, MD, is a Medical Doctor and Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Boston University Schools of Medicine specializing in the primary health care of refugees and survivors of torture. She is a pioneer in the medical field of human rights, most notably serving as the Director of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. She is a consultant on torture for Physicians for Human Rights. She was a contributor to the Istanbul Protocol, the International Standard for the Medical and Legal Documentation of Torture.
Sadie Elisseou, MD, is a practicing physician in the Veterans Administration healthcare system, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Elisseou is an internationally recognized expert in Trauma Informed Care and the trauma-informed medical examination.
Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, is a psychiatrist and Associate Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Director of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Fricchione is a renowned neuroscientist who is an expert on stress, resiliency, and trauma’s impact on the brain and behavior.
Maria Leister, JD, is the Chief Operations Officer at Pocket Project, and specializes in law, forced displacement, and human rights. A Fellow at the Harvard University Office of the President, Maria previously served as the Administrative Director of the Harvard Law School’s Harvard Defenders Program. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University and an MSc in Bioethics from Harvard Medical School. Maria’s career reflects her dedication to advancing justice and advocating for vulnerable populations.
Joe Mageary, PhD, LMHC, CCMHC, is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in Lesley University’s Department of Counseling and Psychology. His areas of scholarly interest include arts based, narrative therapy, and experiential approaches to processing trauma in individuals and communities. An HPRT GMH alum, his current projects include work with Voices: Arts and Healing to support aid workers who are caring for asylum seekers in Juarez, Mexico, as well as consultation with the Lesley Institute for Trauma Sensitivity on creative approaches for supporting Ukrainian educators and child psychologists, tending to the needs of children in a context of war.
Giovanni Muscettola, MD, is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry. University “Federico II” Napoli, Italia. Academic career since 1971 in the Universities of Bari, Napoli, Udine, Trieste and Napoli. Full Professor of Psychiatry from 1989, Chairman Department of Psychiatry, University of Napoli from 1996 to 2013. Research Assistant in Psychopharmacology, Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research, Milano, Italy from 1968 to 1970. Visiting Scientist at Psychiatry Branch and Psychobiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA from 1974 to 1977 and from 1986 to1987. Scientific and training programs with Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MASS, USA since 1989, Siem Reap Cambodia, Opatija Croatia, Sarajevo Bosnia Erzegovina, Orvieto, Italia. Fields of Interest: Preclinical and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Psychopathology of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia.
Giampaolo Nicolais, PhD, is a Professor of Child Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Director of the School of specialization in Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Head of the Clinical Psychology Unit, Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. President of AISMI – Italian Association for Infant Mental Health.
Susan Rees, PhD, MSoc.Pol, BCW, is a Professor in Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research focus is the mental health of conflict-affected populations, social justice, gender-based violence, and collaborating on mental health projects led by First Nations Aboriginal Communities. She is currently developing a You-Tube channel on bird migration, mental health, and ecocide with Dr. Richard Mollica.
Nisha Sajnani, PhD, RDT-BCT, is the Director of the Program in Drama Therapy, the Theater & Health Lab, and Chair of the Creative Arts Therapies Consortium at New York University. Dr. Sajnani’s body of work explores the unique ways in which aesthetic experience can inspire equity, care, and collective human flourishing across the lifespan. As Director of the Arts and Health Lab, Dr. Sajnani established a collaboration with the World Health Organization, and she leads a Lancet Global Series on the health benefits of the arts.
Taiwo Lateef Sheikh, MBBS, MSc, FWACP, is a Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Leading West-African Neuropsychiatrist engaged in suicide prevention and the integration of mental health into primary healthcare in Nigeria. He has served and lead many mental health policy working groups in Nigeria and West-Africa
Frederick (Jerry) Streets, MDiv, MSW, DSW, LICSW, is Professor of Divinity and Social Work at Yale University Divinity School and a licensed clinical social worker. He has been a long-time member of the HPRT faculty. He is the former Chaplain of Yale University and the first African American to serve in this role. He is a recipient of numerous awards including the Lux Veritas Award, the highest alumni honor given by Yale Divinity School. He has a distinguished career in Pastoral Theology and clinical social work. His book, Are You Being? on clergy well-being will be published later this year by Cascade Publishers.
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