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Therapist offers free counseling to Great Mills Community after shooting

Licensed family therapist Esther Vanderwal cleared her calendar at Serenity Place on Washington Street in Leonardtown to offer free appointments to students and parents who want to talk about the shooting Great Mills High School.

Licensed family therapist Esther Vanderwal cleared her calendar at Serenity Place on Washington Street in Leonardtown, Md. to offer free appointments to students and parents who want to talk about the shooting Great Mills High School.

“Every time we retell a traumatic story we’re processing something new,” said Vanderwal.

Since opening her doors, she’s seen two students and a parent plus talked to dozens of people on her Facebook page.

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“We all are so connected. We know what’s going on. We know the kids. We know both the shooter and the victims so we’ve been talking about both,” she explained. “Some of the things they’re saying is ‘we’re the one of the news now. We’re the ones on the national news and it’s surreal to look at that.’ Some of these kids are going to be afraid to go to school. They’re going to have even more anxiety to contend with and we don’t have enough mental health professionals in the schools. If we’re going to have our kids experience this kind of trauma we have to have more, more support for them.”

What's her advice to students and parents as they support each other in the days, weeks and months ahead?

“Sometimes when people feel anxious they feel like their body is floating away from them, they’re detaching from self; so what I do is hold the persons hands, make sure to make eye contact, and tell them they’re safe and they’re going to OK. If they continue to feel anxious focus on the here and now: what do they see around them, what do they hear around them," she said.

Vanderwal offered free sessions Wednesday as well. She hopes students will attend this Saturday’s March for Life and become advocates because as she says “it’s easier to be a survivor than it is to be a victim.”

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