Helping photojournalists who have witnessed horror Written for News Photographer Magazine following the NPPA National Convention in June 2001 This year in Memphis, I learned how to listen. At previous NPPA national conventions, I took ample advantage of the portfolio critiques, where photo editors taught me how to open my eyes and see. I attended them while a student at Michigan State University. With my degree from Michigan State only a few weeks old, I returned to the classroom with several experienced photojournalists to learn how trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affect photographers and how to help those affected. The first thing I wrote in my notebook is that as a peer counselor or "buddy", I am "the they that will help them deal with it." "It" being a school shooting, fatal car crash, or other disaster. "It" being unable to sleep. Or relax. Being haunted by unwanted memories. A sense of numbness. Avoidance. When symptoms persist beyond one month, they are considered PTSD. During the course, I stepped intro role-playing exercises to help fellow photojournalists over the phone and in person. I practiced techniques to allow a colleague to open up without fear of being judged. Trauma experts Frema Engel, Elana Newman and Frank Ochberg gave feedback and led discussion. They are founders in Newscoverage Unlimited and came to Memphis through NPPA sponsorship. Newscoverage Unlimited was started by Robert Frank in November 2000 as a means for journalists to help journalists who have covered grisly stories and suffer as a consequence. Frank is currently a freelance reporter for the New York Times. As a press officer in the Canadian Air Force Reserve, Frank was dispatched to a Swiss Air crash near Halifax, Nova Scotia. He observed that journalists covering the crash were the only responders deprived of debriefing their experiences. Deeply concerned, he sought out to assemble a solution within the journalism community. The Dart Foundation funded his early efforts, and helped him link up with trauma experts and journalists who were approaching trauma in an enlightened way, around the world. This included NPPA Past-President David Handschuh, who witnessed the horror of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and was injured during the collapse. Including myself and others, Frank is building a world-wide network of journalists and photojournalists from print and broadcast media who will be trained and available to help their colleagues. The NPPA has officially adopted this plan. Unrelated to the training course, Washington Post photographer Carol Guzy recounted at the convention her photo career, "It's a privilege for journalists to bear witness to history - both the major news events and the small moments of humanity that provide a record of our time. However, there's an emotional toll from witnessing man's inhumanity… I've seen the eyes of evil, the hands of injustice and the face of repression… How many times can your own heart break?"