Meet Our Presenters

Daniel Shaw, LCSW
Daniel Shaw LCSW is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City and in Nyack, New York. After many years of psychoanalytic training, he went on to study Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with Janina Fisher; and completed Fisher’s certification in Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatmment (TIST), which integrates Structural Dissociation Theory, Affect Regulation Theory and Internal Family Systems concepts.

He has extensive experience helping individuals with the negating impact of being in relationship to highly narcissistic significant others; and he has 30 years of experience helping cult survivors to heal from traumatic abuse in cults. He lectures and teaches to professional audiences internationally, and he provides individual clinical consultation and leads clinical consultation groups via teleconference.

Prior to entering the mental health profession, he trained as an actor at Northwestern University and with the renowned teacher Uta Hagen in New York City. He later worked for more than a decade as a missionary for an Indian guru. His eventual recognition of cultic aspects of this organization led him to become an outspoken activist in support of individuals and families traumatically abused in cults. Simultaneous with leaving this group in 1994, he began his training in the mental health profession, becoming a faculty member and supervisor at The National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York. His book, Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, was published in 2014 for the Relational Perspectives Series by Routledge and was a runner-up for the distinguished Gradiva Award. In 2018, he was honored by the International Cultic Studies Association with the Margaret Thaler Singer Award for advancing the understanding of coercive persuasion and undue influence. His second book, Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear, was published by Routledge in 2021.

Richard J. Loewenstein, MD
Richard J. Loewenstein MD is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. He is the founder of, and from 1987-2020 was the Medical Director of The Trauma Disorders Program at Sheppard Pratt, Baltimore, MD, a national referral center for severely traumatized patients. He has been rated by U.S. News and World Report as among America’s top 1 % of psychiatrists. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT in 1975. From 1975-79 he did a psychiatric residency/postdoctoral fellowship, also at Yale University. From 1980-82, he did a research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD. He is the author of over 100 papers and book chapters on dissociation, dissociative disorders, trauma disorders, dementia, delirium, somatic symptom disorders, and consultation-liaison psychiatry. He is the Section Editor, Dissociative Disorders, of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). He is co-editor of the 4th Revision (in preparation) of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) Guidelines for Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder in Adults. Since 2000, he has primarily been the lead author of the Dissociative Disorders chapter in Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (CTP), with the 11th edition chapter in press. Since 2001, he has authored/co-authored chapters on treatment of dissociative disorders in all editions of the APA’s Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders. He is a distinguished life fellow of the APA and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the ISSTD. He is co-investigator and senior advisor to the longitudinal Treatment of Patients with Dissociative Disorders (TOP DD) Study.

Jennifer M. Gómez, PhD
Jennifer M. Gómez, PhD earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon in 2017. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health at Boston University. Additionally, she serves on the Boards of the Center for Institutional Courage and End Rape On Campus. At ISSTD, she is a member of the Board, Scientific Committee, and Annual Conference Committee, and is a co-editor of the upcoming special issue of Journal of Trauma & Dissociation on intersectional oppression, dissociation, and healing in diverse marginalized people. Dr. Gómez’ research centers around cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT), which she created as a Black feminist theoretical framework for examining the impact of violence within the context of inequality on Black and other marginalized populations. Her research has been published in over 100 peer-reviewed journals, books, newsletters, regional and national media outlets, and the Open Science Framework. Her work has been funded by the Ford Foundation Fellowships Program, administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM), the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR)—National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. Her transdisciplinary book, “The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse”, published by the American Psychological Association, won the 2024 ISSTD Frank W. Putnam Outstanding Book Award. In her book, Dr. Gómez centers Black women and girls through incorporating basic research on racism, intersectional oppression, and cultural betrayal trauma theory, as well as application in the form of culturally competent trauma therapy, radical healing in the Black community, and institutional courage to promote systems-level change. https://jmgomez.org