Na’ama Yehuda, MSC, SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and audiologist with over 30 years’ experience. A clinician in private practice in New York City, she specializes in pediatric populations, and has special interest and expertise in the connections between communication, language, attachment, and the effects of early childhood adversity and trauma on development, co-morbidity, clinical presentation, and therapeutic processes. She consulted for the New York City Department of Education, often with highly vulnerable populations. She regularly provides professional development and consultations on communication, language, trauma, and development, to colleagues, parents, and educators, as well to health and mental-health personnel; internationally.
Na’ama is often asked to consult on and teach about selective mutism, medical trauma, prenatal exposures, international adoptions, and other complex clinical presentations. Na’ama is fluent in Hebrew and English and is a bilingually trained clinician. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees (Cum laude) from Tel-Aviv University, and was the recipient of the Rubinshtein Award for Excellence. She is a licensed Speech Language Pathologist in New York State since 1999 and maintains her Communication Disorders Clinician license (in Speech Language Pathology & Audiology) in Israel, which she had since 1989.
Na’ama had been elected to and served on the boards of directors of the Israeli Speech Hearing Language Association (ISHLA) and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). She is a member of her State’s professional organization (NYSSLHA) and remains a contributing member of ISHLA. She chaired and volunteers on taskforces and committees, and currently co-chairs the Child and Adolescent Committee of ISSTD, formerly chaired the Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group, and leads the ISSTDNYC component group.
Na’ama received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the ISSTD in 2011 and was made an ISSTD Fellow in 2012. She is a recipient of the ISSTD President's Award (2014). Na’ama writes and publishes in her various areas of expertise and is regularly contacted by publishers to review book proposals and manuscripts. In 2005, the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation published her landmark article: “The Language of Dissociation.” A few years later she was among a group of internationally recognized child trauma experts who contributed to “Dissociation in Traumatized Children and Adolescents: Theory and clinical interventions” (Wieland, S. editor, Routledge Psychological Stress Series).
Her own book, "Communicating Trauma: Clinical presentations and interventions with traumatized children," received the ISSTD's Written Media Award for 2016. Her writings have been translated into several languages and have become required and recommended reading in various courses in childhood trauma. Na’ama also writes and publishes fiction. Among colleagues in the Communication Disorders and Mental Health fields, Na’ama is considered a pioneer in bridging gaps of information and collaboration between disciplines, and an advocate on behalf of children everywhere.
