Psychologist gives medical trauma talk on international stage

Glasgow Caledonian University psychology lecturer Dr Liza Morton, who was one of the world's youngest pacemaker babies, shared her research on mitigating medical trauma at an international event in Germany.

She was invited to present her research work at the two-day Polyvagal Theory and the Modern Family: Finding Safety and Connection conference last week in Potsdam, which focused on topics including child and adolescent mental health, family relationships, and transgenerational trauma and the many applications of Polyvagal Theory.

The Polyvagal Theory is revolutionising the understanding of trauma. It emphasises the role the autonomic nervous system - especially the vagus nerve - plays in regulating our health and behaviour.

Dr Morton was among 12 presenters who are the best and brightest experts from around the globe, including Professor Stephen Porges, Gabor Mate, Deb Dana and Arielle Schwartz. They shared their work, research, and perspective on the topic of the modern family, specifically through a polyvagal lens.

Dr Morton, who was born with congenital heart disease, did a presentation on ‘Mitigating Medical Trauma: Supporting people with long-term health conditions using polyvagal informed, family-focused healthcare practices’.

The audience was made up of 365 people with another 2,000 watching on a live stream to six countries including the US, Germany, Poland, France, Italy and Spain.

Dr Morton, a Lecturer in Applied Psychology in the School of Health and Life Sciences (SHLS) Department of Psychology, said: “It was an honour to be invited to speak at this international conference about my work on medical trauma and promoting a psychologically-informed approach to healthcare.

“I was able to share my work, including research challenging disempowering aspects of healthcare and my involvement with ISupport - an international collaboration that promotes children’s rights during medical procedures.

“It was also a chance to highlight my advocacy efforts which led to the development of the first national healthcare standards for congenital heart conditions in Scotland - published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland last year which included a standard on psychological wellbeing, the development of a new measure of psychological safety, grounded in The Polyvagal Theory, and my recently co-authored book Healing Hearts and Minds.

“The conference also provided an opportunity to share my personal journey of living with a serious heart condition from infancy and associated medical trauma, and how we can better promote psychologically-informed healthcare for the growing number of people living with long-term health conditions.”

Dr Morton, a Community Engagement Champion in the SHLS Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) Child and Adolescent Health Research Group, caught up with internationally-esteemed Professor Stephen Porges, creator of The Polyvagal Theory, who she worked with previously in her measure of psychological safety research.

She added: “I learned from today’s leading minds on trauma, to complement my teaching on this across the professional applied psychology doctoral framework at the University. I look forward to presenting a similar talk at the forthcoming Counselling Psychology Conference held on campus in July.”

Find out more about our psychology course - https://www.gcu.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate-applied-psychology-glasgow