Trauma expert and author.
Anie Kalayjian is an internationally recognized expert on the psychological effects of trauma in disaster victims, and the author of the authoritative handbook: “Disaster and Mass Trauma: Global Perspectives in Post Disaster Mental Health Management”.
She has worked extensively with veterans of the Gulf and Vietnam wars and with survivors of the Holocaust and Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, and with survivors of earthquakes and hurricanes.
From 1988 to 1999 she went to Armenia, California, Cyprus, Florida, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Turkey to assist health professionals treating trauma cases after natural and human made disasters and to train psychiatrists, psychologists and general practitioners in post-trauma therapeutic interventions.
Anie has many leadership positions: founder and president of the Association for Disaster and Mass Trauma Studies, formerly known as the New York Chapter of The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (1992- 2002) and the New York State Psychological Association's Academic Division (2001-2002).
As Vice Chair of the United Nations Non Governmental Organization (NGO) Executive Committee, she coordinated a workshop during the annual I NGO conference at the UN here in New York City, on the theme “Rebuilding Societies Emerging from conflict.” Her workshop “Transforming Terror into Healing,” focused on ways to promote long term community recovery and healing after mass trauma. Effective practice was shared from dialogue between Jews and Germans, Palestinians and Israelis, and Armenians and Turks -this latter group facilitated by Anie herself who believes that the descendants of perpetrators are just as much Victims as the descendants of
the victims.
Kalayjian has been involved at the UN since 1990, as a Representative for the World Federation for Mental Health. As if all this weren't enough, Kalayjian also serves as a member of the UNICEF Committee on the Rights of the Child, and as a member of the UN NGO Mental Health Committee. She was an official delegate to the World Conference of Women in Beijing China. There, she presented several papers on the psychological impact of mass trauma.
