BREAKING NEWS
Fall 2008
Dr. Cynthia’s Mae Tao Clinic Counseling Center now boasts full time, BBP Director of Counseling Training.
Since 1999, BBP-funded psychologists and psychiatrists made over 20 separate trips to the Thai-Burma border, ranging in length from two weeks to two months, in an effort to train local medics and community leaders to identify psychological trauma and to treat it in culturally appropriate ways.
By 2006, it was becoming increasingly clear that a full time training presence was needed to provide appropriate and sustained follow-up to all the individual trainings that had taken place. At Dr. Cynthia’s request, the BBP helped construct the new MTC Counseling Center in order to confidentially address the broad psychosocial needs of both MTC staff and patients, as well as to house all future psychosocial trainings.
About the MTC Counseling Center
Nearly half of the patients seen at the Counseling Center are diagnosed with psychological stress and nearly half present with either family problems or loss. The needs of the Counseling Center patients are broad, ranging from financial stress to severe PTSD following Cyclone Nargis, and the challenges of the Counseling Center staff are great, ranging from severely limited resources to vicarious trauma. Because safety and security are constant concerns for both the patients and the counselors, enhancing safety and managing the impact of hyper-vigilance are prioritized at the Counseling Center. With knowledge gained from foreign mental health specialists, skills learned on the job, and hope that they can make a difference in the lives of their patients, the MTC Counseling Center counselors are providing critical support to Burmese individuals and families severely impacted by landmine accidents, domestic violence, substance abuse, gender-based violence, and daily struggles for mere survival inside Burma and along the border.
Description of Work
Currently, BBP’s Director of Counseling Training, Nancy Spencer, is working closely with and providing psychological and supervisory support to the Mae Tao Clinic Counseling Center staff. She also collaborates with Dr. Cynthia Maung, founder of Mae Tao Clinic, collaborates with MTC staff and other volunteers in culturally relevant ways, and collaborates with other agencies and programs doing mental health work along the Thai-Burma border in order to enhance mental health services both at MTC and in the community. She also conducts needs assessments, program evaluations and program development in ways that respond to the current needs of the staff and community.
About Nancy Spencer
Nancy Spencer received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University in New York City, with a concentration in international social welfare and program development and evaluation. She conducted post-graduate clinical and programmatic work at Safe Horizon, a well-established New York City based crime victims assistance agency, where she also received clinical training in psychological trauma. At both the Safe Horizon Anti-Trafficking program and Safe Horizon Counseling Center, Ms. Spencer provided therapy to survivors of trauma, torture and human trafficking as well as developed and evaluated program initiatives. Prior to becoming a licensed social worker, Ms. Spencer lived in Malawi, Africa, for three years teaching mathematics and leading gender-based initiatives in rural communities. Ms. Spencer currently lives on the Thai-Burma border in Mae Sot, Thailand.
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