Perhaps it was not I who chose the Trauma Field, but Trauma itself that chose me. When my sister's husband died of a heart attack in DisneyWorld in the presence of their 6 and 12- year- old children, I stopped at The University of Phoenix on my way to the airport, and enrolled in the Child and Marriage and Family Therapy Masters Program. How does one help a family in DisneyWorld who must stay three days for a mandatory autopsy of their father in the "happiest place on earth?" DisneyWorld at that time did not know what to do for my sister’s family except to completely “comp” their stay. Only three of the four family members would return home. My sister and her children flew home to Connecticut on one plane, and I flew home on another, with the body of her husband.

Trauma has many faces, and is delivered in many ways, all with unspeakable horror. One is helpless to stop it, and must face a terrible loss of innocence and safety. One is forever changed in one moment in time. The road back from survivor to thriver is a long journey and needs the delivery of compassionate, empirically delivered trauma services.

Trauma has a way of etching itself indelibly in one's mind and body. Helping people such as my sister and our family and family friends who have lost their children to car accidents and murder, would take more than a Master's Degree. I went on to enroll in a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology, and have studied at The International Institute of Traumatology in South Florida, Harvard Medical School, and currently at Fielding Graduate University. I have certified in Accelerated Field Traumatology, Traumatology Treatments, Systemic and Contextual Traumatology, and Compassion Fatigue. I have been blessed in my trauma studies to be taught by incident commanders of the New York 9/11 Disaster, and many of our finest founding scholars and research scientists of the trauma field: Bessel van der Kolk, Charles Figley, Jim Norman, Eric Gentry, Donald Meichenbaum, Rachel Yehuda, Tiffany Field, Debra Bendell, Ed Tronick, and T. Berry Brazelton.

The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress has board certified me as an Expert in Traumatic Stress, Illness Trauma, and School Crisis Response. I have worked with children and families for twenty-five years. Currently, I co-direct a Cancer Counseling Program at one of our hospitals for children facing the loss of their parents from cancer. My research focus includes continuing to uncover the underlying biological mechanisms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), building resiliency skills in children and continuing to find methods and interventions to deliver current empirical PTSD treatments that work, facilitating the path from survivor to thriver. It also remains my passion to champion the importance of Compassion Fatigue: Who shall care for those who care for others? It is my honor to become a member of The Speakers Bureau. I will speak not only from an empirical base, but also, more importantly, from the footprints of trauma, and from the heart.