Mary-Anne Kate, PhD
Dr Mary-Anne Kate is an award-winning social scientist, academic, researcher, and educator specialising in dissociation, complex trauma, and mental health. She holds a PhD in psychology, with doctoral research examining the prevalence and aetiology of dissociation and dissociative disorders, including the role of childhood trauma and parent-child dynamics. She is Research Lead at Blue Knot Foundation: National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma, where she contributes to evidence synthesis and practice guidance for complex trauma treatment. She is also Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and was appointed an ISSTD Fellow in 2026.

Dr Kate is the creator of the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation, 60-item version, the MID-60, a widely used measure of dissociative symptoms and disorders in adults and adolescents. Her research examines the prevalence, aetiology, measurement, and recognition of dissociation, including its relationship with childhood trauma, parent-child dynamics, neurodiversity, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other mental health presentations.
Mary-Anne as published and presented on the prevalence and antecedents of dissociative disorders, barriers to identifying dissociative identity disorder, and the assessment of dissociative symptoms in clinical and community populations. She is a lead author of dissociative and somatic disorders content in Australian Wiley psychology textbooks and has trained mental health professionals nationally and internationally.

Kate McMaugh, BA (Hons - Psych), PG Dip Health Prom, Masters Health Sci, PG Cert Prof Psych
Kate is a clinical psychologist based in Sydney, Australia. Although she enjoys working in many areas of mental health treatment, the main focus of her clinical work is complex trauma and dissociative disorders. In her clinical practice she provides assessment and treatment to people with complex trauma, dissociative disorders, vicarious/workplace trauma and birth trauma. She also provides training, case consultation and clinical supervision to other health professionals working with complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Kate has published articles on the history of the false memory movement, trauma and disability, DID, incestuous abuse, and childbirth trauma. She has also recently completed research into therapists’ experiences of working with clients who have experienced incestuous abuse which has continued into adulthood and is currently undertaking doctoral research in this same area. 

She regularly presents on topics related to complex trauma, DID and organised abuse to Australian and International audiences. Kate is a Fellow of ISSTD and has served in a variety of leadership roles over the years including as Chair of the Communications and Marketing Committee, Chair of the Australia-New Zealand ROC and secretary to several SIGs. She was also Editor of ISSTD News from 2017 until January 2024. In addition to her clinical work, Kate has a background in public health, health promotion and program evaluation. She continues to be involved in several public health and health promotion projects through research, evaluation and report writing.