Professor Soraya Seedat - Scars Across Development – Childhood Trauma, Biology, and Mental Health; Perspectives from the Global South and Beyond
Thursday, 18 June 2026 at 12:30
Our guest speaker is Professor Soraya Seedat from Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Event details
Childhood trauma and maltreatment are among the strongest predictors of later psychopathology, contributing not only to elevated risk for PTSD, but also to more severe symptom presentations, psychiatric comorbidity, and complex clinical trajectories. These effects are particularly pronounced in settings marked by chronic adversity, interpersonal violence, and structural inequality. However, much of the current evidence base on early life trauma is derived from high-income countries, with comparatively limited attention to the cultural, contextual, and structural factors that shape trauma exposure, expression, and outcomes in low- and middle-income settings. This presentation synthesises empirical and conceptual work on childhood trauma, with a particular emphasis on research conducted in the global south.
Drawing on findings across diverse populations, the talk will examine how different forms of maltreatment – individually and cumulatively – influence vulnerability, resilience, and mental health outcomes across the lifespan. It will also critically consider challenges and emerging advances in the cross-cultural assessment and conceptualisation of childhood trauma. Finally, the presentation will integrate evidence on the biological embedding of adversity, including alterations in inflammatory and stress-response systems. These perspectives may help explain the heterogeneity in symptom profiles, comorbidity, and treatment response, while highlighting implications for prevention and intervention in resource-constrained settings.
Bio
Soraya Seedat is Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. She is also Director of the South African Medical Research Unit on the Genomics of Brain Disorders. Her contributions to the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, and neuro-HIV reflect a commitment to applying multidisciplinary, multilevel, mechanistic approaches, centred on the investigation of risk and resilience, in adolescent and adult populations, and to improving the mental health and overall well-being of people affected by trauma and adversity, especially in low resource contexts. She has led and been extensively involved in mental health capacity building, leadership development, and mentorship of mental health
researchers and neuroscientists on the African continent and in other low- and middle- income countries. She has contributed over 600 original, peer-reviewed articles, co-authored 30 book chapters, and co-edited 6 books, with a Scopus h-index of 95 and > 100,000 citations. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Colleges of Medicine South Africa, and Associate Editor for Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience and the European Journal of Psychotraumatology. Soraya is the Immediate Past President of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and President-Elect of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP).
We ask everyone attending not to make any recordings or stills (photographs) of any part of the seminar and protect one another’s privacy.
Participation in the online seminar will be taken to indicate acceptance of these terms.
Zoom Meeting ID & Password
Meeting ID: 979 8314 5098
Password: 745823
Organiser
Mood Disorders Centre
Location
Sir Henry Wellcome Building for Mood Disorders Research, Streatham Campus (Hybrid)