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Reminiscences of Nina K. Thomas : oral history, 2002.

Creator: Thomas, Nina Kaufman, 1945-
Project: September 11, 2001 response and recovery oral history project.
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :transcript 52 pages sound recordings 2 audiocassettes (124 min.)
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

Mental Health Worker.

Scope and Contents

Born and raised in New York; education: bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1962, Columbia University Ph.D., postdoctoral psychoanalytic training at New York University; early life; reminiscence of the civil rights movement, voter registrations, member of SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]; career: speech writer for World Airlines, job at NBC [National Broadcasting Company], work in film and television, gender discrimination on job, graduate work, truth commission work, involvement in War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague; September 11th: television coverage, confusion, problems with telephone communication; Red Cross: volunteering, triage, counseling, crisis intervention, challenges to work, staff; post-9/11: ground zero, Brooklyn Navy Yard deployment center, acrid smell of air, burning eyes and throat; American Group Psychotherapy Association: grant from New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund, direct services to victims of 9/11, challenges and successes in transforming professional to outreach organization, needs assessment and consultations, staff support to service agencies, challenging inhibitions to accessing mental health services; trauma: therapy, effect on therapist, training, acute symptom treatment, area/sense of safety, breathing techniques, patient agency, role of prior traumatic experience, defining post-traumatic stress disorder, on-going stressors, symptomatology, nightmares, importance of sustaining communities, New York University postdoctoral pilot project with the fire department, patient authority; counseling: Western psychology in non-Western context, Western bias toward pathologizing patients, treatment of firefighting community with symptoms including--substance abuse, marital discord, guilt, and anger, challenges of working in male enclave.

Subjects

Access Conditions

Copyright by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2006. Permission required to cite, quote, and reproduce. Contact repository for information.

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