Trauma Class

     Today, after meeting my new psych resident, a blue-eyed young woman with long hair and a floor length skirt who turned the usual first appointment on its head by asking what I thought she should know about me. It’s an interesting approach, which makes the appointment less about robotically filling in answers on the computer and puts the direction of the conversation in the hands of the patient.  Unfortunately she could not answer when I asked if she would be specializing in adult or child psych, which matters to me bc if she decides on child, I will only have her for a year vs two if she stays in the adult track. She is my third psychiatrist at this clinic, a rate of turnover which is not ideal for any healthcare setting but esp psychiatry.  But in our fucked up system, where the majority of psychiatrists demand cash and a lot of it, I’m lucky to have anybody competent.

    Later on, I made my way to Downtown Brooklyn, to City Tech, where talking to Ben’s trauma class is becoming an annual tradition.  Like most CUNY classes, Ben’s has a wide range of people from various places including an older black woman who has her own nonprofit to a couple of women in full burqas, only their eyes showing, who said very little . Like any class, there were people who participated eagerly, asking a lot of thoughtful questions and people who seemed to be following quietly and a few who seemed checked out. 

    The conversation was wide ranging and it pulled on all the versions of me, from more academic discussions of the problems with the DSM, to conversations about street activism and how it connects to my work with clients, to the nitty gritty of the actual work, how trauma shows up and how I handle it. I enjoy these young people, mostly women, who are actively thinking about the their possible careers helping people and the role trauma, their own and others’ will play.