CISM Chihuahuas

[Guest guest]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Behind windows overlooking the World Trade Center site, a

new office decorated in serene colors is offering free alternative therapy

for those with lingering September 11 trauma, including acupuncture for

stress and a Chihuahua for comfort.

The alternative therapies are provided in addition to traditional one-on-one

counseling sessions at the new office opened by St. 's Catholic

Medical Center.

The staff hopes that being away from the hospital environment will help

people feel more comfortable with the idea of therapy. The center -- so new

it has a paper sign taped to the door and no phones yet -- is located on the

12th floor of a downtown office building.

Trace Rosel, a social worker with the center, said most patients have

welcomed the idea of going to counseling in an office with a view of the

disaster site.

" For some people, it raises the anxiety, but once they got here they felt

this was safe and a way to heal, " Rosel said.

The center also employs another unusual icebreaker: the unusually calm

Chihuahua named El Duque, who agreeably comes when strangers call him and

doesn't mind being handed from lap to lap.

" Things work differently for people -- not everyone's into one-on-one

counseling, " Rosel said.

Dr. Spencer Eth, director of the center, said therapies that are nonverbal,

like spending time with the dog and coming for an acupuncture session, help

ease patients into the idea of therapy.

The center will cost about $1 million a year to operate, and is funded by

government grants and private donations. Eth said workers hope the flow of

funding will continue, allowing services to remain free.

Hospital counselors had been seeing such a continuous stream of patients

from the ground zero area that they decided lower Manhattan needed a therapy

center separate from the medical center, which is about 2 miles north of the

trade center site.

" Even though it's been 20 months since the disaster, there continues to be a

large, unmet need among New Yorkers who are experiencing symptoms, " said

Eth. " We'll be able to see people who work in the area, live in the area,

schoolteachers, public safety workers when they're off-duty. "

The office is staffed by several therapists from St. 's, which

estimates 15,000 people have sought counseling through the hospital for

September 11-related trauma. Now, the staff works with a few hundred regular

patients, Eth said.

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress include sleeplessness, anxiety,

irritability, nightmares and substance abuse. One study shortly after the

attacks estimated 1.5 million New Yorkers would need some type of therapy

for terror-induced psychological problems.

Mr. Bledson