Boca Raton/Delray Beach News - Saturday, January 5, 2002

Psychologist: Don’t forget 9/11

Residents complain of return to rudeness, say the day's lessons already lost on Floridians

BY SUSANNA LAURENTI, STAFF WRITER

Almost tour months after Sept. 11, stories related to the tragedy still lead most national newscasts, and the horrific events of that day never seem far from anyone's mind.

But a group of residents who gathered this week at the Center for Group Counseling west of Boca Raton said that many locals have already moved past the terrorist attacks, or have failed to grasp their true lesson.

"I think we have not learned or changed our way of life," said Judy kaufer, who was in the audience when Boca Raton clinical therapist and "traumatologist" Dr. Sherrie Raz spoke to about 50 people about her experiences counsel­ing people in New York the week after Sept. 11.

")oil cannot imagine how many tens of thousands of lives were disrupted just in the vicinity of Ground Zero," said Raz. who led a team of 12 therapists trained to deal with emotional trauma to Lower Manhattan.

The group comprised mem­bers of the Green Cross Projects, a humanitarian orga­nization based at the University of South Florida that sends teams of certified traumatologists across the globe into areas where disasters have occurred. At the time of the terrorist attacks, Raz was the organization's president.

During a seven-day period in New York, Raz and her col­leagues counseled thousands of near-hysterical people, from victims' family members to rescue workers. Now, she fears their many stories of grief and loss will be forgotten, and the patriotic spirit that dominated after the attacks will turn into feelings of anger.

"In Boca Raton, I see it in the roads, in the supermarkets, at the movie theaters and in my office," said Raz, who lives in Boca Raton and maintains 'a private psychology practice here.

"We don't have denial any more. And where is that energy going? It's going into anger."

Some audience members agreed.

"To live in this community is to be rude and hostile. It's important we don't return to this, because our lives are for­ever changed," said Gayle Weissberg of Boca Raton.

Others talked of a community wide return to apathy.

"People who were not effect­ed personally have really forgot. They think they haven't, but they have," said Mildred Harris, a Coconut Creek resident whose son worked on the 101st floor of one of the World Trade Center towers and died when the buildings collapsed. . "They are too far removed from the tragedy."

But another man pointed out that Americans have been told repeatedly to "get back to normal."

Raz said normality is possible, but urged her listeners not to stop talking and thinking about Sept. 11.

"We should have more public forums where people can come out and honestly talk and think about what happened and what it meant," she said, adding that it would also be beneficial to have more people trained in traumatology.

Weissberg, who was in New York at the time of the terrorist attacks and helped her hus­band turn his Manhattan hotel into a command center for police and rescue workers, said she found Raz's talk helpful.

"As a country we have to come up with a better way of dealing with tragedy. We should start by having more people specially trained to deal with trauma," she said.

"We can't forget. We've sort of gotten complacent," said Lois Weisman, secretary of the board of trustees for the non­profit Center for Group Counseling.

"We've gone back to the way we were before, and now we need a reminder."

As part of a humanitarian organization that sends trauma counselors into disaster areas, Boca Raton therapist Dr. Sherrie Raz spent a week following Sept. 11 in Manhattan counseling near-hysterical people, from victims' family members to rescue workers.