Association for Trauma Outreach and
Prevention, 185 E 85 Street, New York, NY 10028
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 11-22
Follow-up mission to Armenia
June 28
All day training on "Non-Violence, Peace Building, Conflict
Transformation , Anger Management, Self-Empowerment, Assertiveness,
and Forgiveness". The training session will be held at Fordham
University (Lincoln Center Campus).
July 20-25
XXIX International Congress of Psychology held in Berlin,
Germany.
August 3
White water rafting on Delaware River at Kittattinny Canoes
August 14-17
American Psychological Association Convention in Boston,
Massachusetts,
September 3-5
61st Annual DPI/NGO Conference. Theme: "Reaffirming Human Rights for
All: The Universal Declaration at 60". United Nation’s Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization will host a three day event at
their headquarters in Paris, France. Dr. Kalayjian has organized and
will chair workshop on "Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Cases from
Africa, Caucuses, Europe and the Middle East".
September 18
International Day at Fordham University from 3pm-5pm. For additional
information, please contact [email protected]
September 19-21
Mind-Body-Spirit Connection for Health and Happiness at the Ararat
Center. Dr. Kalayjian is key note speaker and will present on "Empower
Yourself Through Movement, Laughter, Forgiveness, and
Love".
September 23-29
Training Session in Mexico City
October 20-24
UN Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns. The UN will
celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
October 24
ATOP’s newly formed group on Healing, Transformation and Spirituality
will host a workshop on "Seeds of Forgiveness" from 10am
to 12pm
November 25
UN’s Day on Prevention of Violence Against Women
November 30
UN’s Psychology Day
December 5
Healing Circle held at Fordham University
__________
PAST
EVENTS
April 1-2
UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on the Millennium Development
Goals
April15
"The Lark Farm" a film about genocide was shown at Two Boots Pioneer
Theater in New York. A discussion about genocide and the movie was
held directly after the film.
April 18
NEAA Teacher’s College Columbia. 45th Annual Isabel Maitland Stewart
Conference on Research in Nursing and Awards luncheon. The theme was
"Restructuring the Nursing Environment: Self Sufficiency, Innovation
and New Directions".
April 24
General Committee meeting of the UN NGO Committee on Spirituality,
Values, and Global Concerns. Dr. Kalayjian was the Keeper of the
Sacred.
May 29-31
WNGE Board of Directors Retreat at Fielding Graduate University held
in Santa Barbara, California.
MEANINGFUL WORLD
ATOP Forms Working Group at UN on
Healing, Transformation and Spirituality
The NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns has
just approved a new working group entitled ‘Healing, Transformation, &
Spirituality’.
The Committee aims to integrate spirituality and values into all
areas of the United Nations agenda and of public policy. We aspire to
support the spiritual principles, global ethics and universal values
such as respect, justice, peace, dignity, freedom, responsibility and
cooperation, that underlie the work of the United Nations as reflected
in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
In order to fulfill the promise of the United Nations to create a
more peaceful, just and sustainable world, we support the recognition
and acceptance that spirituality and adherence to universal values are
key factors in providing solutions to global concerns. We believe that
an increased awareness and application of the importance of a value,
spirit and soul conscious dimension at all levels of society
particularly at the United Nations will allow for the finest and the
highest levels of human potential to flourish for the benefit of all.
This working group is spearheaded by Dr. Kalayjian supported by
Georgina Galanis, The UN Representative of the Institute for
InterBalkan Relations, of Athens, Greece, and Dr. William Gellermann,
UN Representative of the Communication Coordination Committee for the
United Nations (CCC/UN). Invited Board of Advisers include: JP
Farrell, Executive Director of the Global Health Chaplaincy, NY, &
Dr. John Bolling of the Soul Centered Therapy in Harlem, NY.
For additional information on the NGO Committee on
Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns and Dr. Kalayjian’s newly
formed group within the Committee, kindly visit CSVGC-ny.org.
___________________
On April 4, 60 people attended the Symposium on -The Roots of Evil- at
Fordham University, where Rachel Dink from Istanbul accepted a
posthumous award to her murdered husband, Istanbul journalist Hrant
Dink (1952-2006).
Dr. Kalayjian introducing Ms. Rakel Dink and presenting her with The
2008 Outstanding Achievement Award Plaque.
Rakel Dink, wife of Hrant Dink, a humanitarian assassinated for his
views of non-violence and human rights in Turkey.
For more information about the event, please read The Mirror
Spectator’s "Dinner for Rakel Dink at Diocese":
__ _________________
Intern Spotlight: Katherine Czado
Katherine Czado joined the Meaningful World family as an intern after
completing Dr. Kalayjian’s Practicum in Psychology course at Fordham
University. Katherine has become the Meaningful World newsletter
coordinator and contributes to activities sponsored by the
organization.
Katherine will be beginning her senior year at Fordham University
where she is a Psychology major. Throughout her years at Fordham, she
has completed volunteer internships at The Rosedale Center located in
the Bronx, New York and Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York. At
Rosedale, she mentored and tutored girls within the Bronx
community. While interning at Belleview Hospital, Katherine worked
with Child Life and Development pre-hospitalization program and
volunteered in the pediatric clinic’s playroom.
This summer Katherine is living in Arizona and will do volunteer
work in the downtown area of Phoenix. Katherine is currently preparing
for application to graduate school and would like to complete her
doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
"Lunch with Thomas James,
Provost and Dean of the College"
The NEAA Courier’s spring edition spotlighted the March 4, 2008 event
held at Teacher’s College:
"Ani Kalayjian and Connie Vance joined other alums, faculty, and
staff at TC on March 4, 2008 to meet with the new Provost and Dean of
the College, Thomas James, and with professor Erica Walker who lead a
discussion of mathematics education policy. Provost James spoke of the
importance of faculty research and connecting this with the human
community. Human needs are enormous, and Dr. James said that learning
is key. He called on us to leverage human learning to growth and
healing, by integrating the old wisdom with the new technologies."
For the entire article and more information, please visit
tcneaa.org.
ATOP & SCORE Teach Value of Community Service
By: Amanda Fogle, ATOP program coordinator
On Friday June 6 ATOP partnered with SCORE in order to raise funds for
ATOP’s Community Enrichment program. SCORE! Educational Centers works
with children in grades pre-K through 10th grade to help them achieve
their goals and reach their academic potential in math, reading,
spelling, and writing.
ATOP began working with Fund for Armenian Relief (from here on
known as FAR) in December of 07 to create a partnership to raise funds
for the center. The goal of the partnership is to assist FAR with
funding to run many of its children and family programs, these
programs include supportive as well as preventive services.
ATOP and SCORE partnered to create a community service program in
which children learned about the important of community service
whether it be local or in this case international. The children set a
goal of $ 200.00 to raise for FAR and were able to reach the
goal. ATOP’s team rewarded the kids with a pizza party to celebrate
their efforts. The children’s’ faces lit up as they ate together and
shared stories about how they managed to raise the money. After
dinner, ATOP led the children in some exciting team-building
exercises. The kids laughed and played, all the while learning the
value of team-work, outreach and community building.
ATOP will seek to continue to build its relationship with SCORE in
the future by partnering on similar events. TO learn more about SCORE
educational centers please visit: , to learn more about
ATOP’s community enrichment program please contact Amanda Fogle or in
her absence Ani Kalayjian.
Continued Work with WNGE
The WGNE, Worldwide Network for Gender Empowerment, is an
international community of activists and scholars who are committed to
further knowledge and research of gender issues.
The WGNE participates in action research on many themes including
the impact of globalization, diversity, and prevention of violence and
is affiliated with Fielding Graduate University.
Dr. Kalayjian has worked with the group for many years and is
pleased to share that streaming video has been recently added to the
WNGE’s website. For more information on the group or work done with
Dr. Kalayjian, please visit fielding.edu/wnge/index.htm.
Kalayjian Featured in Azad Hye
Dr. Kalayjian recently was interviewed in Azad Hye, a Middle Eastern
Armenian newsletter. The following is the some of the March 10
interview transcript:
Q: You have been dealing with trauma therapy in Armenian and other
instances. How can an event like the Armenian Genocide that happened
almost a century ago affect the lives of modern day Armenians? At what
stage of the healing from the Genocide trauma we are situated as a
nation?
A: I was really tired of years of people denying and trying to
combat and react to revisionist Turkish historians, and Turkish
government propagandas. I thought the best way to affirm that the
Genocide has taken place was to reach out to the scholarly community,
show them that these are the reactions of the Genocide survivors. Once
you present what the survivors are feeling, there is less question of
whether it happened or not, because you are looking at the outcome,
almost like a fait accompli. That was the very first paper that was
published on the Genocide because it was a systematic research. Forty
survivors were interviewed using the same questionnaire and we
compiled and analyzed the findings and we had it published in the
Journal of Traumatic Stress. When we finished the paper, it was a
25-30 page paper. But the Journal’s Editorial Board (which comprised
of 75% Jewish scholars) objected to the historical view because of the
Turkish pressure. We handed it in 1991 an
d it
was published in 1995. It’s natural to wait 1-2 years to have the
article approved but we went back and forth through several
revisions. It wasn’t because of the merit of the research; it was only
the historical information that we had to revise. That shows the
political nature of the article and the subject.
For more information on Dr. Kalayjian and her work within the
Armenian culture, kindly visit meaningfulworld.com.
ATOP’s Mental Health Outreach Project to Armenia Second Team Press
Release June 2008
New York, NY: The Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention
(ATOP) has organized the second team of the Mental Health Outreach
Project (MHOP) in Armenia from June 12- 22. Dr. Ani Kalayjian and Ani
Jilozian, President and Public Relations Coordinator for ATOP,
respectively, will be delivering this mission to Armenia. They will be
conducting post-disaster humanitarian outreach training projects,
delivering lectures, working with refugees from Iraq, visiting
orphanages, and setting agendas for collaborative research and future
trainings. This MHOP team will be conducting training at the Stress
Center. In addition the MHOP team will visit the FAR Children’s Center
to train the personnel, social workers, and psychologists in
preventative and restoration methods for treating children with
trauma. They will utilize Dr. Kalayjian’s Biopsychosocial & Spiritual
Model to administer the program.
The team will also work with the Office of UN High Commissioner for
Refugees in Yerevan who are working with the Iraqi refugees migrated
to Armenia.
The team will visit various children’s centers (previously called
orphanages) as part of second phase of a 10-year follow-up mission to
observe progress and development. Donations of clothing and supplies
from several generous individuals will be given out at these centers.
The team has been invited to travel to Nagorno Karapagh to assess
the needs of war torn enclave, and develop training for their
mental-health professionals, to conduct research, and to help the
Children’s Centers. Currently ATOP has undertaken the Sponsor an
Armenian Child Project: By donating $250, you can help support a child
for one year, including food, clothing, and education. Please send
your tax-deductible donations to ATOP and make a difference in a
child’s life. You will receive a photo of the child and will be able
to communicate with him or her on regular basis. Mail your checks to
ATOP, subject: Sponsor Armenian Child, 139 Cedar Street, Cliffside
Park, NJ 07010-1003, or visit our website at
Holistic Interventions in International Psychology:
A Mind, Body, and Spirit Continuum
A workshop was held to explain and better educate on Mind-Body-Spirit
approaches – including medically proven techniques such as meditation,
yoga, guided imagery, breathing and forgiveness. The activity was
chaired by Dr. Kalayjian who also presented on the Mind-Body-Spirit
continuum. Other presenters were Dr. Rivka Bertisch Meir who spoke on
the power of the mind and Dr. Artemis Pipinelli on the obstacle of
obesity and how it challenges one’s mind, body, and spirit.
Up to 80% of all illnesses are related to chronic stress, and the
other 20% depends on our attitude. One in five women are on
antidepressant, and the men are not too far behind. – can make a
significant contribution when dealing with illnesses such as cancer,
heart disease, chronic pain, depression, post-traumatic stress
disorder, diabetes, asthma, back ache, gastrointestinal problems,
digestion, elimination and anxiety. This workshop focused on how to
transform roots of evil and anger into empowerment, assertiveness,
through the practice of forgiveness
This workshop provided the scientific basis for the
Mind-Body-Spirit model, and the most important research in the
field. The program included an added emphasis on the role of
forgiveness on the mind-body-spirit health. Dr. Kalayjian – who has
over twenty years of experience as a psychologists, psychotherapist,
logotherapist and international traumatologist – brought a
comprehensive overview of the mind-body-spirit, with hands-on
experiences from the field, personal stories, and prepared the
audience on how to integrate the Biopsychosocial and Spiritual model
into one’s everyday life, and coached on how to share this
transformative way of thinking and behaving in our work, our families,
and loved ones.
Dr. Pipinelli talked about obesity and using her own example she
illustrated how to make a life plan instead of diets. She gave a
comprehensive historic perspectives on weight gain, and meaning of
food.
Dr. Meir talked about fix beliefs and how they affect our attitudes
as well as our daily practices. Dr. O’Roark talked about the need for
evidence-based practice as it impacts international psychology.
Announcement for Internship Availability!!
Any creative contributions are welcomed and greatly appreciated. A
preceptor will guide you initially and as needed throughout your
term. Kindly send your resume and short statement of purpose and
length and kind of internship.
Deadlines for internship candidates are as follows:
July 1 – Summer , September 1 – Fall, November 1 – Winter
E-mail Contacts: [email protected], [email protected]
This message was sent by: Association for Trauma Outreach and
Prevention, 185 E 85 Street, New York, NY 10028