UCF RESTORES to Host PTSD Seminar

UCF RESTORES and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Orlando will present a post-traumatic stress disorder awareness seminar on March 23 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This seminar will be held in Classroom Building II room 206 on UCF’s main campus.

UCF RESTORES is a clinical research center dedicated to the study of all facets of anxiety, trauma and PTSD including etiology, psychopathology, treatment, resilience and prevention. A unique feature of UCF RESTORES is the development and use of established and emerging technologies to enhance prevention, intervention, treatment and resiliency efforts.

NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families.

Beginning at 6 p.m. attendees will have an opportunity to experience exposure therapy, used to treat PTSD by recreating the sights, sounds and smells of the traumatic event using virtual reality equipment. 

At 6:30 p.m., UCF RESTORES Director and Pegasus Professor of psychology and medical education Deborah Beidel, Ph.D., will speak on the topic in her presentation “In the Aftermath of Trauma.”

At 6:50 p.m., UCF RESTORES Co-Director Sandra Neer, Ph.D., will speak about trauma management therapy for PTSD, followed at 7:10 p.m. by Dr. Robert Pollack, a board-certified psychiatrist, who will speak on treatment of depression in PTSD.

A brief question and answer session from 7:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. will conclude the seminar. Light refreshments will be provided.