9/11 was a day of shock and tragedy for so many in the U.S. and abroad. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania: after the initial shock of the attacks, life for some has never been the same. Those who were lost will remain in our hearts forever. And those still suffering trauma symptoms from these devastating events face a long and grueling process of finding the so-called ‘right’ treatment in order to create a sense of normalcy once again in their lives.
In her recent article, New York Times columnist Anemona Hartocollis chronicles the pain, suffering, nightmares, sleeplessness, and host of other post-traumatic stress symptoms still left in the wake of 9/11. “They have trouble concentrating,” writes Hartocollis. “They are jittery and overreact to alarms or loud noises. They feel helpless, hopeless, guilty and cut off from the people who are close to them.”
Sandy Novak, a psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, worked with 9/11 victims for the Red Cross in New Jersey and at Ground Zero after the attacks. “The level of shock in most of the victims, even after two months, was debilitating,” says Novak. “Even though they were in talk therapy, many were walking around like zombies. And they had been trained, in therapy, to tell the story— all the details— over and over again.”
Novak says that her training as an SEP helped her work with the 9/11 victims and make sense of the devastating symptoms they suffered. It was an intense time of helping people to seek emergency aid, get through the daunting tasks they faced, and— for many— revisit Ground Zero.
The SETI staff found Hartocollis’ article to be very provocative. It re-awakened us to the magnitude of the need for more effective PTSD treatments, such as SE®, to support healing in our local communities and throughout our global community. We wanted to share the article with you; you can read it by visiting this link:
All of us at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute™ send our compassion to those who are still suffering. And we offer our gratitude to the SEPs who continue to provide much-needed care and healing in the wake of 9/11.
Photo by The_th