P’ville Therapist Offers Free Group Counseling to Help Cope With Train Tragedy
When Maggie O’Connor was stuck in White Plains following last week’s Metro-North train crash, her immediate thoughts were about how she could help those affected by the tragedy.
O’Connor, a therapist at Breakthrough Marriage and Family Therapy, typically takes the train from her Scarsdale office to White Plains, where she transfers to the train that brings her home to Pleasantville. She left the White Plains station learning that train service had been halted and she would be forced to take a shuttle bus for the second leg of her journey.
It wasn’t until she was on the bus that O’Connor began to learn of the severity of the accident in Valhalla, when people began reading the news stories on their phones. Strangers who would typically have ignored each other began talking. O’Connor said she felt a strong sense of community and was compelled to help those affected by the crash by offering free support groups.
The group therapy sessions, which begin this Saturday at her Scarsdale office, aim to help more than those who lost loved ones in the crash or those who were on the train that day.
“I wasn’t on that train but I could just have easily been on that train, and it’s on the line where my office is, so [it was about] just really feeling connected to the community around this line and, for me, just trying to really figure out what I can do to help and this seemed like a natural way to do it,” O’Connor said.
Since O’Connor specializes in marriage and family therapy, her first thoughts were about the families who were sitting down to dinner when the accident occurred and wondering why their spouses were late.
Feeling lucky that she was able to text her husband and let him know she was fine, O’Connor felt sympathy for the victims and their families.
In the week following the accident, O’Connor has heard from people who weren’t directly impacted but who feel a loss of safety and security.
“You think of the train as a way to get to work every day that’s going to be safe, you don’t really think that something like this could happen,” she said. “So my feeling was even people who weren’t on that train, who weren’t even on that line but are suddenly thinking that could just as easily happen here.”
Immediately following most traumatic events, people can be in a state of shock and want to stay close to home. As time moves on, they must return to their daily routines but some may feel stuck, O’Connor explained. Her goal is to let people know that their feelings are normal and help them resume their lives by offering a forum to talk about their emotions with people who are going through the same struggles.
O’Connor’s office is located at 14 Harwood Court in Scarsdale. Although the sessions are free, participants are required to register in advance by calling 914-355-0517 or by e-mailing Info@BreakthroughMFT.com.
There will be two sessions, one at 8 a.m. and the other at 9:30 a.m., with groups of 10 to 15 people each. O’Connor said the groups will meet for six Saturdays. Colleagues of hers are prepared to handle other sessions in the event there is more demand.
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