61st Annual Conference

Session P 213

Clinician Support in the Wake of Disaster: Creating Connection, Community, and Continuity

Chair:              

Madelyn Miller, CSW, CGP, Chair, Disaster Trauma Working Group, NASW, New York, New York

This presentation focuses on collective contexts of support for clinicians in the immediate and long-term aftermath of disaster. Responding to the direct and vicarious trauma of disaster work, and countering characteristic disruptions of disaster trauma, settings providing connection, relationship, continuity, and community contribute to creating  meaning and hope for clinicians.

Course References:

1. Kaniasty, K. & Norris, F. (1999). The experience of disaster: Individuals and communities

   sharing trauma. In R. Gist and B. Lubin (Eds.), Response to disaster: Psychosocial,

   community, and ecological approaches, 25-61. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel.

2. Miller, M. (2003). Working in the midst of unfolding trauma and traumatic loss: Training as a     

    collective process of support. Psychoanalytic Social Work: Special Issue on September 11, 2001,

    10, 7-25.

3. Saakvitne, K. (2002). Shared trauma: The therapist’s increased vulnerability. Psychoanalytic

    Dialogues, 12, 443-449.