For Wall Street’s Needy, No Separation of Church and Sanity
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Trinity Church was founded in 1697. The current church, at Broadway and Wall Street, dates to 1846. (Photo: Bess Greenberg for The New York Times)
Trinity Church, which became an emotional refuge amid the fallout at ground zero, is offering services to its neighbors during a time of crisis: free spiritual and psychological counseling for workers who have been affected by the current Wall Street financial turmoil.
Note: Sessions are free, in contrast to the $600-an-hour therapists trying to help some of the masters of the universe who helped create this mess.
The church is offering the service of two therapists from its affiliated Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute of New York City, whose Web site is, notably, the very holistic mindspirit.org.
Dr. Mary Ragan, who has done work after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, welcomes “people to come share their experiences, questions and anxieties in a compassionate and helpful space.” Dr. Michael Bednarski, a consulting psychologist, will offer career counseling.
Therapy for money-related stress counseling has been on an uptick since the 1980s, when a wave of mergers and acquisitions created a flood of white-collar layoffs. Then came the recession of the early 1990s, coupled with war.
The loss of a paycheck can rattle a marriage and put a strain on families who need two incomes to make ends meet.
There have been financial crises before: the crash of 1987, the dot-com bust and the aftermath of 9/11. But therapists have said the current economic downturn — with its cascade of layoffs and the steady beat of grim financial news — has exacted an especially daunting psychic price. They have described a “psychological terror” that has haunted the corridors of troubled financial institutions since last summer.
Psychotherapists have said that Wall Street employees — who are often drawn to the intensity and volatility of their profession — are more prone to anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other mental stresses than the general population. And because they are typically measured by the size of their paychecks — bonuses, in particular — their self-worth is deeply threatened when the money evaporates.
As this may be the worst financial meltdown since the Depression, what we are witnessing may mark the end of the second Gilded Age. (The first one ended also with a financial crisis, the Panic of 1893 that led to serious depression lasting until 1897).
The current crisis may not be as visually devastating as Hurricane Katrina, but the repercussions throughout New York City and the country — economic and otherwise — may be even more so.
All the following sessions will be held at 74 Trinity Place in the second floor parlor.
Coping With Stress in Uncertain Times with Dr. Mary Ragan
Mondays, Sept. 22 and 29, 12:45 to 1:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Navigating Career Transitions with Dr. Michael Bednarski
Monday, Sept. 29, at 4 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m.
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Trinity Church was founded in 1697. The current church, at Broadway and Wall Street, dates to 1846. (Photo: Bess Greenberg for The New York Times)
Trinity Church, which became an emotional refuge amid the fallout at ground zero, is offering services to its neighbors during a time of crisis: free spiritual and psychological counseling for workers who have been affected by the current Wall Street financial turmoil.
Note: Sessions are free, in contrast to the $600-an-hour therapists trying to help some of the masters of the universe who helped create this mess.
The church is offering the service of two therapists from its affiliated Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute of New York City, whose Web site is, notably, the very holistic mindspirit.org.
Dr. Mary Ragan, who has done work after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, welcomes “people to come share their experiences, questions and anxieties in a compassionate and helpful space.” Dr. Michael Bednarski, a consulting psychologist, will offer career counseling.
Therapy for money-related stress counseling has been on an uptick since the 1980s, when a wave of mergers and acquisitions created a flood of white-collar layoffs. Then came the recession of the early 1990s, coupled with war.
The loss of a paycheck can rattle a marriage and put a strain on families who need two incomes to make ends meet.
There have been financial crises before: the crash of 1987, the dot-com bust and the aftermath of 9/11. But therapists have said the current economic downturn — with its cascade of layoffs and the steady beat of grim financial news — has exacted an especially daunting psychic price. They have described a “psychological terror” that has haunted the corridors of troubled financial institutions since last summer.
Psychotherapists have said that Wall Street employees — who are often drawn to the intensity and volatility of their profession — are more prone to anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other mental stresses than the general population. And because they are typically measured by the size of their paychecks — bonuses, in particular — their self-worth is deeply threatened when the money evaporates.
As this may be the worst financial meltdown since the Depression, what we are witnessing may mark the end of the second Gilded Age. (The first one ended also with a financial crisis, the Panic of 1893 that led to serious depression lasting until 1897).
The current crisis may not be as visually devastating as Hurricane Katrina, but the repercussions throughout New York City and the country — economic and otherwise — may be even more so.
All the following sessions will be held at 74 Trinity Place in the second floor parlor.
Coping With Stress in Uncertain Times with Dr. Mary Ragan
Mondays, Sept. 22 and 29, 12:45 to 1:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Navigating Career Transitions with Dr. Michael Bednarski
Monday, Sept. 29, at 4 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m.
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