Article archive / November 1, 2009
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 3. Source pages: 1, 5.
Outside of New Orleans, little is known of the FAR Fund Project, an ongoing effort addressing the traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina on mental health providers and their clinical work. This project arose from a generous grant from the FAR Fund, a private donor group, awarded to the New Orleans Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center (NOBPC) in 2008. The FAR Fund Project was developed and is coordinated by New Orleans psychologist, Kathryn Nathan, PhD and the FAR Fund Project steering committee of the NOBPC.
In its first phase, the FAR Fund Project engaged Ghislaine Boulanger, PhD, psychologist and psychoanalyst, and author of Wounded by Reality: Understanding and Treating Adult Onset Trauma (Analytic Press, 2002). Boulanger devoted three decades of research to studying survivors of adult onset trauma. Through the Project, she is helping to understand and support post-Katrina New Orleans clinicians. Dr. Boulanger’s in-depth clinician interviews and related research formed the basis of her recent NOLA lecture, “I Don’t Want This Knowledge: Understanding the Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Therapists and Therapy in New Orleans.” Her lecture can be found in full on the project website, www.farfundprojectnola.co m.
The FAR Fund Project has illuminated clinicians’ desire to better conceptualize, diagnose, and treat psychological sequelae of catastrophic trauma, from a psychodynamic perspective. As a result of this awareness, the project is offering a four-session discussion group for mental health providers and interested parties, titled, “Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Adult- Onset Trauma.” The first group series (a pilot) will be conducted by the New Orleans Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center, in November and December 2009. Due to wide interest in the group, there will be a second section in the spring of 2010, using the same material and format.
The discussions, co- facilitated by Drs. Randolph Harper and Kathryn Nathan, will explore recent findings in the neurobiology of stress, developmental psychology and theoretical formulations from relational psychoanalysis. Class discussions will be based around Dr. Boulanger’s book and lectures.
As noted, enrollment for the fall study group is closed, but a spring session will be offered. For more details, or to join a waitlist for the spring series, please contact Laura Manning, assistant grant coordinator, at farfundproject@gmail.com or Kathryn Nathan at info@ffpnola.com.
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