Presenter: Mary-Anne Kate, PhD
Dr Mary-Anne Kate is an award-winning researcher and lecturer specialising in trauma, dissociation, and mental health. She has held a faculty lecturer position in psychology at Southern Cross University and taught on the Master of Mental Health. She developed and led units on psychological assessment and diagnosis and supervised a dozen Honours students on dissociation-related projects between 2023 and 2025, including five projects focused on neurodiversity, trauma, and dissociation.

A social scientist by training, Dr Kate’s research examines the prevalence and aetiology of dissociation, lived-experience barriers to identification and protection, and intersections between dissociation, neurodiversity, and mental health conditions. She is lead author of the Dissociative and Somatic Disorders chapter in the Australasian Wiley textbooks Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology and created the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation – 60 item version (MID 60), a widely used measure of dissociative symptoms and disorders.

Dr Kate is Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), secretary of the ISSTD Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Special Interest Group and teaches in the ISSTD international training program. Her work has been recognised with the ISSTD Morton Prince and David Caul Awards and the University of New England Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Medal. Before academia, she worked in strategic policy roles, including a diplomatic posting in Cairo and a consultancy with a European think tank advising the European Commission on migration and social inclusion.

Presenter: Kate McMaugh, PG Dip Health Prom, Masters Health Sci, PG Cert Prof Psych
Kate McMaugh is a clinical psychologist with a focus on complex trauma, dissociative disorders, vicarious trauma and birth trauma. She provides assessment, diagnosis and treatment to clients with complex trauma and dissociative disorders, as well as training and case consultation to other health professionals. Kate writes and presents on treatment and associated issues relating to trauma and dissociation. She has published articles on the history of the false memory movement, trauma and disability, DID, and childbirth trauma. Kate has recently completed research into therapists’ experiences of working with clients who have experienced incestuous abuse which has continued into adulthood and has further research planned. She has been actively involved in ISSTD for some time, volunteering for many different committees and groups. She was also the Editor of ISSTD News from 2017 until January 2024. In addition to her clinical work, Kate has post graduate training and considerable experience in public health, health promotion and program evaluation. She has a consultancy business offering research, evaluation, report writing and editing services to a diverse range of health and welfare organisations. When not at work she enjoys running, weightlifting, swimming and spending time with her family.