Journal

Healing loss, ambiguity, and trauma: A community-based intervention with families of union workers missing after the 9/11 attack in New York City

Author
Pauline Boss, Lorraine Beaulieu, Elizabeth Wieling, William Turner, Shulaika LaCruz
Publication Year
2003
Location
New York ; ;
Thematic Area
Families
Topic
Psychosocial Support / Mental Health / Family Needs
Access
Open access

A team of therapists from Minnesota and New York worked with labor union families of workers gone missing on September 11, 2001, after the attack on the World Trade Center, where they were employed. The clinical team shares what they did, what was learned, the questions raised, and preliminary evaluations about the multiple family meetings that were the major intervention. Because of the vast diversity, training of therapists and interventions for families aimed for cultural competence. The community-based approach, preferred by union families, plus family therapy using the lens of ambiguous loss are proposed as necessary additions to disaster work.