I was sent to New York City on an errand of mercy to give emotional help to people whose lives had been torn apart by the events of Sept. 11, and I never felt more helpless in my entire life. I had been trained to help accelerate the recovery of normal people, having normal reactions to abnormal events; but this was almost too much.

It was only a few hours after the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) that I got the call asking if I could go. After arranging things with my family and work, I got on one of the first available flights.

A command center had been set up in our hotel, and we received our assignments each day. We were sent all over New York, New Jersey and Long Island. Eighteen-hour days were common, often including three or four hours of commuting. I had never been to New York and was required to find my way, alone, each day to an address I held in my hand. I have never felt more alone than when I entered Penn Station for the first time, even though I was surrounded by thousands of people.

We were sent to some of the best-known Fortune 500 companies, whose employees were terrified even to be on the island. We also worked with New York state and federal employees from various agencies. They all felt like they were walking around with bulls-eyes on their backs. Then there were the police and firefighters whose comrades were missing. During my debriefing sessions with various groups, people were openly crying and trembling as they spoke. At one of those sessions I cried too. Their stories were heartbreaking. As the National Guard was deployed, we began to set up sessions with the Guardsmen as they returned from Ground Zero and various posts around the city.

There are just slightly under 5,000 people missing, many of them children. And, they say, 7,000 children have lost at least one parent. Six years after the Oklahoma City bombing, our team is still going back to assist the families of the first responders to that tragedy. We believe that we