Harvard Club of Southern California

What We Carry: Understanding Trauma and Finding Paths to Healing

As the holidays approach, a season that can be joyful can also bring difficult emotions, memories, and experiences for children, teens, and adults. What We Carry was created to help us better understand how trauma can affect people of all ages and, most importantly, what we can do to help children and adults cope, heal, and move forward.

Friday, November 20, 2026 @ 2:00-3:30PM
Virtual Event via Zoom (details sent after registration)

Register: Please RSVP below
Cost: No charge
Contact: Kimia Grigoriev, kimiagrigoriev@gmail.com

Hosted by Kimia Grigoriev, a Clinical Psychology doctoral student, psychiatric nurse, clinical intern at Children’s Institute, Inc., research fellow at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School, and Secretary and Board Member of the Harvard Club of Southern California, this event brings together five experts to explore childhood and adult trauma, domestic violence, Internal Family Systems (IFS), mindfulness, and the evolutionary roots of our responses to trauma.

Together, they will share research, clinical perspectives, and practical approaches to understanding what we carry and what may help us heal.

Who You'll Hear From:

• Diane Joss, Ph.D. Trauma in Women: Mindfulness and Trauma-Sensitive Approaches to Healing
• Dilara Ally, Ph.D., LCSW Adult Trauma: Using Internal Family Systems (IFS), Research, and Approaches to Healing
• Mai Breech, Psy.D. Trauma in Children: Understanding the Impact and What Can Help
• Guy Balice, Ph.D. Domestic Violence: Trauma, Its Impact, and What Can Help
• Max Krasnow, Ph.D. The Evolutionary Side of Trauma: Why We React the Way We Do

About the Speakers:

Diane Joss, Ph.D.
Dr. Diane Joss is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of Trauma Research, and Co-Director of the Neuroimaging Core at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance. Her research focuses on the impact of psychological trauma on symptoms and treatment responses across psychiatric disorders and the development of trauma-sensitive behavioral interventions. Her work includes research on childhood trauma, mindfulness and compassion, contemplative practices, self-critical rumination, post-traumatic stress, and the neural mechanisms associated with therapeutic change.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/dianejoss/publications

Dilara Ally, Ph.D., LCSW
Dr. Dilara Ally integrates clinical expertise with machine learning and artificial intelligence in her mental health research at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. Specializing in trauma, depression, and anxiety, her research examines how Internal Family Systems (IFS) influences attachment, compassion, and perspective-taking in trauma recovery. Her research and therapeutic approach are also informed by two decades of Buddhist meditation practice and an emphasis on acceptance, compassion, and amplifying patient voices.

Mai Breech, Psy.D.
Dr. Mai Breech is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in California who works with children, adolescents, and adults carrying unresolved childhood wounds that continue to affect their relationships and well-being. She has extensive experience working with orphans and foster youth and completed her pre- and postdoctoral training at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles as a Reiss-Davis Fellow, working with children from a psychodynamic perspective. She is also the founder of Children's Art Village, a nonprofit that has brought art and music to children in Ghana, India, and Nepal.
Website: https://drmaibreech.com/

Guy Balice, Ph.D.
Dr. Guy Balice is a licensed psychologist who earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from UCLA, with minors in Statistics and Clinical Psychology, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the UCLA School of Medicine. With more than 22 years of teaching experience in clinical, counseling, and educational psychology, he currently leads a research group studying domestic violence, stress, trauma, and anxiety disorders. His clinical experience includes working with children, adolescents, and adults, and he currently focuses on teaching, mentoring, and clinical supervision.

Max Krasnow, Ph.D.
Dr. Max Krasnow is a preceptor in the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and subsequently joined the Harvard University Psychology faculty as an Assistant Professor. His research spans numerous areas of human behavior and evolutionary psychology and has been published in leading scientific journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, and Evolution and Human Behavior.

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