As co-chair of the Trauma working group in the NGO on Mental Health in Consultative Relationship to the United Nations, I have planned the annual Trauma group program scheduled for the February 2019 meeting of the NGO. The meeting will take place on Thursday February 14/2019, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. The meeting promises a particularly interesting and timely discussion regarding some of the most urgent topics of our times, presented by two experts who have shown remarkable leadership in their respective fields, in the identification of current inhumane and discriminatory issues in today’s America, and in their actual involvement in social justice efforts.
Dr. Cindy Veldhuis from Columbia University will be one of the speakers. Dr. Veldhuis participates in a cross-university collaboration that launched a national online survey aimed at understanding the impact of marriage equality and the 2016 elections on gender and sexual minority people’s health and well-being. Her findings show that the election, and the emboldened expression of hate and discrimination that accompanied it, evoked strong reactions for many people in the United States, and that individuals who identify as non-sexually conforming, bisexual, or queer, and individuals who identify as transgender or gender queer, expressed feeling at increased risk of experiencing discrimination and minority stress after the election.
The second speaker at the February meeting will be Dr. Spyros Orfanos, who is the Clinical Director of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis., and founder of the Immigration and Human Rights Work Group at NYU. Dr. Orfanos will discuss immigration and displacement and the interface of psychoanalysis and human rights. A short clip from the film “4.1 Miles” will be shown, a documentary created by Daphne Matziaraki which followed the action of a small Coast Guard boat during rescue-at-sea operations with refugees.
The meeting is open to people outside the UN and interested visitors are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be held in the Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission Auditorium, at 221 East 52nd Street, New York City from 2 – 4 PM on Thursday February 14. Pre-registration is not required.
I hope to see you there; it should be a very interesting program!
Irit Felsen
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