NYAM Fellow Spotlight: Dr. Ani Kalayjian

For more than two decades, NYAM Fellow Dr. Ani Kalayjian has been on a journey of healing through forgiveness and meaning. She has devoted her life to studying the impact of trauma, and helping others heal so that they can reach a state of wholeness. "The terror from the sights and sounds of bombs, the loss of homes, possessions, routines, and stability; the experience of seeing their parents crying, fearful, and in anguish—all these will likely last a lifetime for the Iraqi children," During an interview on CNN regarding the current war, Dr. Kalayjian said, “The effects of this war will continue for many generations."

Dr. Kalayjian presented her book Forgiveness and Reconcilation at a NYAM Author Night event in December 2011

Dr. Kalayjian's parents were survivors of the 1915 Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, which wiped out two-thirds of the Armenian people. Dr. Kalayjian grew up experiencing the effects of trauma through her parents' suffering, and that trauma became hers. As a child she didn't know what was wrong or how to process it. Ultimately, she processed it through her work. She became a Psychiatric nurse and teacher, then psychologist and international researcher, devoting her life to studying the impact of trauma and bringing healing to those who have survived the devastation of disaster, whether man-made or natural. Dr. Kalayjian holds a Masters and Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Dr. Kalayjian is now an internationally recognized expert on the psychological effects of trauma in disaster victims, and the author of the authoritative handbook, Disaster & Mass Trauma: Global Perspectives in Post Disaster Mental Health Management. She has worked extensively with veterans of the Gulf and Vietnam wars, with survivors of the Holocaust and Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, and with survivors of earthquakes and hurricanes.

She is the founder and president of the Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention (ATOP), formerly known as the Association for Disaster and Mass Trauma Studies. Through ATOP, Dr. Kalayjian travels around the world lecturing on sociopolitical violence and the psychosocial and spiritual effects of trauma, as well as on avoiding such trauma through conflict transformation, peace education, mind-body-eco-spirit health. The MeaningfulWorld Humanitarian Outreach Program developed by Dr. Kalayjian utilizes the 7-Step Integrative Healing Model, through which various aspects of dispute, conflict, or disagreement are assessed, identified, explored, processed, worked through, and reintegrated with the lessons learned from the process.

Dr. Kalayjian recently applied this model of healing on a peace keeping mission to Israel, where Israelis and Palestinians gathered together and shared their pain and traumatic experiences. She said the bridge to conversation finally emerged between Palestinians and Israelis.

“Of course it was very difficult at first and some were judgmental and unable to empathize, but in a few hours there was a shift,” Dr. Kalayjian wrote in her reflections on the trip. “An Israeli man and a Palestinian woman shared their sorrow: feelings of guilt and betrayal on the part of the Jewish person who was in the Israeli army participating in the humiliation, and the pain and sadness of the Palestinian woman was empathized with by both sides. Tears and hugging followed as the closure of the healing group involved the clearing of energy centers (chakras) that had been blocked by both generational trauma and individual ongoing trauma. There was a renewed commitment to peace – starting within oneself – and mindfulness about the importance of healing the open wounds and a commitment to not making new ones.”

Most recently, the ATOP team completed a humanitarian mission to Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). These regions face multiple levels of issues that are not at the forefront of our consciousness in the U.S., Dr. Kalayjian said, including a genocide that has claimed more than 5 million lives and displaced nearly half a million others, widespread poverty, lack of free education, and no paved roads or access to water or sterile medical supplies. Dr. Kalayjian and her team partnered with a wide range of local organizations, churches, universities, and hospitals to work with people of all ages on healing through the 7-step model, leadership training, life skills, stress reduction, and more. A full-day training seminar was given to a diverse group of 85 professionals and students, building on a previous ATOP training presented last year. 

“It has been tremendous in terms of how they feel,” Dr. Kalayjian said of the seminar participants. “They were saying they benefited so much last year that they were eager to take the second level of trainings. People that came in were complaining from different problems and said their problems were relieved.  We received direct response from survivors, saying they were benefiting from the work. They gave examples of how they were able to use the skills and different methods they learned.”

The ATOP missions are also a transformative experience for the volunteers, mostly professionals and graduate or doctoral students who finance their trips through personal fundraising in their communities.

“The volunteers talk about how it has transformed their lives each time,” Dr. Kalayjian said. “It’s an amazing experience—an opportunity they cannot get in any kind of university or structured program.”

Dr. Kalayjian is currently engaged in applying for grants to sustain the ATOP missions so that volunteers can participate without having to pay or raise their own funds. She said that the DR Congo mission cost close to $4,000 for each volunteer.

She also works closely with the UN, as ATOP Meaningfulworld is affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, and is preparing for the UN International Day of Peace Gala at the Bronx Museum of Art on September 21, which will highlight international human rights, peace programs and display youth artwork related to peacemaking.

More information about Dr. Kalayjian and her many inspiring and world-changing projects can be found at the www.Meaningfulworld.com.  

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Posted on August 17, 2012

Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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New York, New York 10029
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amartin@nyam.org

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