In the days immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center, it is estimated that 9,000 therapists—three times the number of victims—provided counseling services to New Yorkers affected by the event. However, an analysis published in the journal Lancet, shows that certain types of counseling performed directly after a traumatic event may have actually impeded psychological recovery.
Arnold van Emmerik and colleagues at the University of the Netherlands have found that critical incident stress debriefing (CISD), a group-therapy technique performed for several hours within a week of a catastrophic event, does not improve natural recovery from trauma and stress-related disorders.
While the results from this analysis do not support the use of CISD, experts believe that many other forms of grief counseling are advisable. One-on-one counseling, for example, is a standard clinical approach and was used to help many witnesses and survivors of the World Trade Center attack. Shelley Neiderbach, certified trauma specialist and executive director of the Crime Victims Counseling Service, agrees that individuals who were debriefed immediately following the incident are more likely to have difficulty with this day than those who sought long-term counseling.
