The small city of Charlottesville, Virginia, was left reeling after a large-scale White nationalist rally resulted in deadly violence in 2017, but a community of counselors quickly coalesced to offer help and hope — and to better plan for future crises.
Tag: Trauma and Disaster
Trauma and Disaster
Counselors have a role to play not only in helping clients cope with the mental health effects of climate change but also in fostering climate resilience in communities.
Counselors can take steps to lower some of the barriers that prevent those who respond in emergency situations from prioritizing their mental health.
Rather than feeling lucky to be alive, those left behind after large-scale traumatic events or the unexpected death of a loved one are often burdened with questions about what they could have done differently or why they survived while others perished.
With the rising number of catastrophic events, counselors should prepare now to ensure they are ready to help survivors move forward even in the face of resistance.
“When these people had awoken that fateful morning, they had no warning of the impending doom, no way to prepare and just barely enough time to get out of harm’s way. The fragileness of humanity struck me as I tried my best to help those in dire need.”
“Thou shalt not be a perpetrator, thou shalt not be a victim, and thou shalt never, but never be a bystander.” ― Yehuda Bauer The sun warmed my body. Blissfully fatigued following several laps around the pool, I stretched out on the chaise lounge chair. I sipped my cool
Superstorm Sandy. Newtown. The Pulse nightclub. Counselors were there to help people through all of those disasters, plus countless others, both natural and human-caused, through the past decade. Disaster mental health counseling has grown and become more standardized in the process. With each disaster, practitioners learn the subtleties of what
The stories of the aftereffects of human-made disaster have become all too familiar: a refugee forced to make a dangerous journey to find a new home; the soldier deployed thousands of miles from home for months at a time; the person who finds his or her world turned upside down
Residents of the Caribbean and the southern United States are still grappling with the aftereffects of two immensely powerful and destructive hurricanes — Harvey and Irma — both of which caused widespread damage and left millions of people displaced. Rebuilding what the hurricanes destroyed will be a long and painful