Helping the Helpers: Helping the Witnesses of Trauma Move Into Empowered Awareness Through the Witness to Witness (W2W) Program

In this episode, Kaethe discusses the history of developing her conceptualization of four witness positions, and how witnessing effects people differently depending on their sense of empowerment/disempowerment and awareness. She discusses how she submitted her book, Common Shock: Witnessing Violence Every Day, two days before 9-11 and editors had difficulty understanding the ideas. By September 13, they deeply understood the experience of witnessing. She discusses the development of her Witness-To-Witness (W2W) Program, and how it has supported professionals working with adults and children in various stages of the immigration process who suffered as a result of many policies. Her social justice and larger systemic work helps lawyers, clinicians, childcare workers, and a multitude of other service providers working with people made vulnerable by national, state and local policies. Her work creates Reasonable Hope. Kaethe Weingarten, Ph.D., is the director of the Witness to Witness (W2W) Program for Migrant Clinicians Network. Dr. Weingarten’s work focuses on the development and dissemination of a witnessing model. One prong of the work is about the effects of witnessing violence and trauma in the context of domestic, inter-ethnic, racial, political and other forms of conflict. She has published numerous articles, chapters, essays, and books, including her book, Common Shock: Witnessing Violence Every Day, and serves on the editorial boards of five professional journals. She has taught and spoken in numerous contexts in the United States and internationally, as well as founded and directed the Program in Families, Trauma and Resilience at the Family Institute of Cambridge.