When deciding what field to pursue in college, Emma Grace, Ph.D., Program Chair of The Chicago School’s Ph.D. International Psychology Program, landed on psychology to create a positive impact in the world.
“I wanted to better understand human behavior and mental processes,” Dr. Grace says. “I believed it would help to find solutions to the problems that people and societies experience.”
With her focus on global mental health and trauma, Dr. Grace is set on accomplishing her mission.
“I had traveled a lot around the world when working with international humanitarian organizations, and I witnessed severe human suffering,” Dr. Grace said. I saw the need for mental health services, the shortage of mental health professionals in many countries, and the stigma of mental illness globally that requires the attention of professionals, particularly, in the field of international psychology.”
Throughout her 10 years at The Chicago School, Dr. Grace has emphasized real-world global impact with her students.
Dr. Grace also tries to teach faculty about these real-world global issues, giving talks on campus about mass trauma, including how it affects communities and may lead to aggression in the perpetrators of mass violence.
Outside of The Chicago School, Dr. Grace exemplifies The Chicago School’s scholar-practitioner faculty model through her work with the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress, an international network of traumatic stress experts who volunteer their time to conduct research, develop and cross-culturally adapt assessment and treatment approaches to help survivors of life-threating events.
Through this work, Dr. Grace said she hopes that more people will understand the trauma terrorism and war leave on communities.
“The trauma of terrorism shatters the core belief in humaneness, leaving its victims with a demoralizing sense of humiliation. Sometimes it may be intertwined with the trauma of war,” Dr. Grace said.
Through this combination of work inside and outside the classroom, Dr. Grace trains future international psychologists to help communities and push the field of psychology forward.
“Psychology professionals need to do more in terms of mass trauma preparedness through public mental health campaigns and psychoeducation,” Dr. Grace said. “It is difficult to respond to ongoing trauma of terrorism and war because people often have a sense of invincibility thinking that something like terrorism or war will never happen to them. They’re usually unprepared to deal with trauma of terrorism and war before or during such events. Through my work at The Chicago School, I hope to create that change.”