My Trauma Work with Palestinians

For the past 14 years I have worked as a psychologist volunteering with the University of Missouri's International Center for Psychosocial Trauma (ICPT) facilitating workshops abroad for mental health professionals, physicians and teachers. The teams are led by Dr. Arshad Husain, University of Missouri-Columbia professor of child psychiatry. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the dilemma facing the opposing forces have been of particular interest. Conversing with Palestinians formally and informally has been an important part of my work. On these trips I interview survivors of trauma, many of whom are not participants in our training. In addition I also use participants in our groups to demonstrate different therapy techniques and in so doing get their stories. Our leader, Dr. Arshad Husain, recognized that in most trauma zones around the world there are not enough trained personnel to treat people trying to cope with a tremendously increased number of symptoms of post-traumatic stress. He put forth the idea, new at the time, that non-physicians can be trained to use both individual and group techniques to help alleviate the symptoms and lower the number of individuals, especially children, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I was offered the opportunity to join the group just as I was retiring after 32 years as a professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. As I was looking for something I could contribute to significantly, I felt this was an ideal opportunity to continue to use skills and materials that I had spent 40 years developing. This material is intended to give background on why we especially emphasize working with teachers and mental health workers who can work with groups of traumatized children.