Elisabeth Kaiser is a Public Mental Health Professional specialised in the field of Psychotraumatology, Women & Children’s Health and Violence & Human Rights. She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus on trauma treatment in crisis regions, an M.A. in Education and a MPH with a focus on International Health.
Furthermore she has completed trainings in Advanced Mediation Skills, holds a post-graduate degree in Adult Education and is a certifiied Client-Centered Counselor, Gestalttrainer and Gender Trainer. Her professional focus on Global Health, led her towards the implementation of projects for adults and children in resource poor countries, mostly in Southern and Eastern Africa, as well as South Asia, combining issues of human-, women- and children’s rights with public health interventions and rights-based policy formulation. She worked for organisations such as UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO and UNAIDS, mainly in African, Eastern European, Central- and South Asian countries. Since 2001 Elisabeth has taken over the coordination of vivo <www.vivo.org>, an international NGO that aims at research, prevention and therapy of the consequences of traumatic stress on violence and conflict-affected individuals and communities. She is experienced in the conceptualisation of community-based mental health structures after conflict and disasters, including the implementation of evidence-based trauma treatment approaches as well as the coordination, training, supervision of international as well as local staff teams. Elisabeth is also a member and clinical consultant of the vivo Psychological Outpatient Clinic for Refugees’ working group at the Department of Clinical- and Neuro Psychology, University of Konstanz at the Center for Psychiatry, Germany, as well as a lecturer, supervisor and member of the Executive Committee of the Academy for Scientific&Advanced Studies at the University of Konstanz. Elisabeth is a Co-Founder of vivo international as well as co-originator of Narrative Exposure Therapy – NET.