You Are Not Alone in This

Trust in expertise is eroding everywhere. For the people doing this work, the strongest answer has always been each other.

The work is hard enough on its own terms. Then add the environment you are doing it in.

Trust in professional expertise is eroding. The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer found institutional trust falling into what researchers call the "distrust zone" across multiple sectors. Science is politicized. Evidence is contested. Practitioners in fields that touch public controversy find their clinical judgments dismissed before they are heard.

ATSA members know this firsthand. You work with people the public fears. You apply a research base the public largely does not know exists. And you do it inside systems that were often built on assumptions the evidence has since overturned. That is an exhausting professional position, and it is one most colleagues outside this field will never fully understand.

Which is exactly why the colleagues inside it matter so much.

ATSA's board recently discussed Restoring Trust in Expertise, a whitepaper on trust and professional membership published by Association Transformation. One argument in it landed with particular force. In a time of epistemic pollution, the widespread contamination of public discourse with misinformation and low-quality knowledge, professional communities are not just a benefit. They are a bulwark.

In a time of epistemic pollution, a professional community is not just a benefit. It is a bulwark.

That is what this association is in the most practical sense: a community of people who have read the same research, wrestled with the same clinical dilemmas, and chosen to keep doing this work because it matters.

What that looks like in practice

It looks like a colleague who can help you think through a difficult risk assessment, because they have done hundreds of them. It looks like a conference session where someone names a problem you thought was yours alone. It looks like knowing that when you cite an ATSA practice guideline in a treatment report, or reference a position statement in a court proceeding, you are drawing on work your peers built and vetted together.

The field's evidence base did not arrive fully formed. It was produced by ATSA members, debated at ATSA conferences, published in Sexual Abuse, and refined over decades of collective practice. The whitepaper makes a point our field should take personally: peer-reviewed publication is one of the most powerful trust-building tools a profession has. A journal is not just a repository of knowledge. It is an instrument of accountability. When the science gets attacked, that community and that record are what make it possible to defend.

The ask is simple

Stay connected. Engage with the research when it comes through. Show up at the conference. Answer when a colleague asks a question in a workgroup. Mentor someone earlier in their career who is learning, right now, what it costs to do this work with integrity.

The erosion of trust in expertise is real, and it is not going away quickly. What holds against it is not any single practitioner's credentials or confidence. It is a community that keeps producing rigorous work, supporting one another, and refusing to lower the standard.

That is what ATSA membership is for.

References

Edelman. (2024). 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman. https://www.edelman.com/trust/trust-barometer

Pratt, E., & Chamberlain, A. (2025, July). Restoring trust in expertise: The seminal role of membership organizations in an age of skepticism [Whitepaper]. Association Transformation.

As My ATSA Presidency Ends: Reflecting on Two Years of Purpose

By Dr. Ainslie Heasman, President of the ATSA Board of Directors

As I enter my final month as President of ATSA, I’ve been reflecting deeply on the past two years - what we’ve accomplished together and the important work still ahead. Serving this organization has been one of the greatest professional honors of my career, and it is with pride, gratitude, and optimism that I share this update with you.

When my term began, we were welcoming a new Executive Director after a thoughtful and strategic assessment of our organization’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities. That transition marked the beginning of a period of meaningful evolution for ATSA. Over these two years, we have sharpened our focus, strengthened our foundations, and positioned ourselves to lead - confidently and visibly - in a global landscape that urgently needs evidence-informed voices.

ATSA has always existed to represent and support our members. Today, that mission is more vital than ever. Our field faces rapid shifts in local, national, and international policy. We are navigating an era where the role of science is being questioned and where prevention efforts are too often misunderstood or overshadowed. Yet we are also a community of nearly 3,000 people - students, researchers, clinicians, supervisors, policymakers, advocates, and law enforcement professionals - who carry an extraordinary amount of expertise and influence.

And I have long believed: ATSA must take up more space.
We do not simply participate in conversations about preventing sexual violence. We have the knowledge, the experience, and the responsibility to shape those conversations. Over the past two years, we have moved decisively toward that role.

At every decision point, the Board has asked itself a simple but powerful question:
“Does this align with our mission?”
That values-based approach has ensured that our actions reflect not only who we are, but who we aspire to be. It has made us more intentional, more strategic, and more unified as we position ATSA for the future.

I want to highlight just a few of the major developments that reflect this collective effort:

A Strategic Plan with Clarity and Purpose

We developed a streamlined strategic plan that sharpens ATSA’s priorities and provides a clearer path forward. This plan centers our mission, strengthens our organizational structure, and guides us toward meaningful impact.

Chapter Realignment - A Renewed Commitment to Local Leadership

Local representation is essential to ATSA’s reach and relevance. They are our eyes, ears, and leadership on the ground. We know we have not always supported Chapters as well as we should have. Over the past few months, we launched a full chapter realignment process - including surveys, listening sessions, and consultation with an external partner - to better understand what Chapters need to thrive.

In 2026, we will renew, rebuild, and reinvigorate our chapter system so that ATSA and its Chapters can work in true partnership, amplifying local and national voices and strengthening our collective influence.

A Strategic Research Agenda - A Bold New Direction

ATSA has always been home to exceptional researchers and to practice leaders who translate that research into real-world change. Now, for the first time, we are developing a formal Strategic Research Agenda.
Through this work, ATSA will:

• champion increased global research funding,
• identify gaps and emerging needs,
• foster stronger connections between science and practice, and
• build new partnerships that elevate the prevention of sexual violence worldwide.

The first meeting of this initiative will take place next month in Toronto - a milestone that reflects both our ambition and our commitment to shaping the future of the field.

On a personal note, I cannot close this message without reflecting on what ATSA has meant in my own journey. I still remember attending my first ATSA conference as a student in the early 2000s, watching from afar the people whose work shaped the field - and who would later become my colleagues and collaborators. From that very first conference, I knew this was a community I wanted to belong to. A community of people committed to safety, to science, to compassion, and to prevention.

ATSA influenced not just my professional development, but the direction of my career. It was through ATSA - through conversations at conferences, through colleagues who pushed the field forward - that I came to believe in the importance of reaching people before harm occurs. That belief ultimately led to my current work with Talking for Change in Canada, where we support individuals who are at risk of causing sexual harm. That work exists because ATSA created the space for innovation, for curiosity, and for courage.

And I know that today, there are students and early-career professionals attending ATSA events who will, years from now, write their own reflections on how this organization shaped their path. That is the legacy we carry - and the legacy we continue to build.

I am proud of where we are. I am even more excited about where we are going.

On January 1, 2026, I will pass the presidency baton to Professor Simon Hackett, whose leadership, expertise, and vision will continue to strengthen and grow our organization. I look forward to serving ATSA for one final year on the Board as Immediate Past President and supporting this ongoing work.

Preventing sexual violence takes a village. It takes collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and countries. It takes people who believe in science, in evidence, in accountability, and in the possibility of change.

For over two decades, I have been honoured to be part of the ATSA village. Thank you for your trust, your partnership, and your unwavering commitment to making our communities safer.

Our work is far from finished - but we are stronger, more prepared, and more united than ever.

And I cannot wait to see what we will achieve together.

 

Reflecting on the ATSA 2025 Conference

By Arliss Kurtz MSW, RSW, RYT 

“United we stand. Divided we fall.” Winston Churchill 

Defined by Oxford Languages, Unity is the state of being united or joined as a whole. Equanimity is the ability to maintain mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation. These are foundations of social work and yoga practice, and values that led me to travel from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Orlando, Florida to speak at the ATSA 2025 Conference, “Year of the Changemaker.” 

I reflected on unity and equanimity often over the last year leading up to the conference. From deciding to submit a proposal, to feeling conflicted on whether I would travel to Florida after it was accepted, to listening to the opinions of others who were making their own personal decisions of whether to attend. For many, storms of unrest swirled around politics, ethical dilemmas, global unrest, and safety concerns that swelled anger, fear, disgust. 

I also felt this way. I was angry that political chaos could interfere with my ability to gather and learn with my ATSA colleagues and friends. I feared the possibilities of interrogation when crossing the border and Florida hurricanes. Disgusting news cast images of violence and humanitarian crises deepened feelings of fear and anger. 

My anger turned to determination to not allow events outside my control to interfere with my professional development or separate me from my international network. Unity. I still felt fear crossing the Canadian–US border, my jelly-like limbs and pounding heart attested to that. To not spiral in anxiety, I practiced what I preach, in therapy and yoga. Face the fear. Breathe. Relax the body to ease the mind. Visualize a positive outcome. Be carefully truthful. Be mindful of the stressors of others. Smile. Show kindness. Equanimity. In the end, I crossed the border without issue, was treated very well in Florida, witnessed only polite and friendly interactions, and was grateful for occasional rainfall that relieved the hot, sunny days. 

At the venue, I discovered I had not been alone in my pre-conference angst. As attendees reunited or met for the first time, there were hugs, smiles, and laughter as there always are, yet also apologies for the state of current political affairs that led to our collective concerns. The conference delivered as expected with cutting edge learning opportunities, fantastic culinary experiences, and warm social gatherings. The hybrid format provided opportunity for people who chose not to travel to be able to attend from the safety of their home countries. They were missed and respected for their decisions not to travel. 

Now, more than ever, it is important that those of us who do the work of assessing, treating, and preventing sexual harm, remain united and equanimous. As we anticipate the ATSA 2026 conference in Detroit, Michigan, whether we attend in-person or virtually, may we remain calm, cool, and connected through this era of the political hurricane against which we all brace, face, and manage with grace. 

Inspired by the words of Mahatma Gandhi. “be the ‘changemaker’ you wish to see in the world.”