Healing the Trauma of 9/11

Since 1998, the Center for Mind-Body Medicine had been helping victims of trauma and terror around the world. After September 11th, it became obvious that our expertise and knowledge gained from this experience were needed right here at home.

Unfortunately, firefighters were suffering. Feelings of anger, irritability, frustration, and fear — along with symptoms of PTSD: intrusive thoughts, difficulty concentrating and flashbacks of 9/11 — were pervasive. Many firefighters and their families felt a terrible pull toward isolation from family, friends and society.

We knew that our model of self-care and group support would be a model that they could embrace. Firefighter families — both in the “house” and in their homes — are inherently intimate environments, so our group model would be familiar to them. Additionally, because the CMBM program is educational in nature, rather than therapeutic, it could avoid the stigmatization of “therapy”.

In June of 2002, we held a weekend family retreat for sixty-three firefighters, wives, widows, children and counselors free of charge. In small groups, they had the opportunity to speak openly of their own stress, sadness, anger and grief and learn techniques - relaxation, meditation, imagery, drawings, biofeedback, movement, and yoga — which they could then use to help themselves.

According to research that we collected before and after this retreat, there was significant improvement among the majority of participants. Measurements showed firefighters, wives, widows, and children were significantly less angry, confused and anxious after the retreat. Their mood improved significantly, as did their level of energy. In addition, they were less likely to be withdrawn and irritable and felt better able to focus and concentrate, and be emotionally open with one another.

This program ended in late 2002 after an exhaustive search for funding yielded inadequate results. We thank Christy and John Mack for their financial support of the retreat and their efforts to help New York City’s firefighters and their families.

This is the first time since 9/11 that my wife and I are actually listening to each other.

— A firefighter's analysis after the first weekend retreat




I wish I had a magic stick that would bring all my firefighter brothers to the next workshop

— FDNY firefighter