College to host panel on post-traumatic stress disorder

The Central Lakes College Psychology Club on Nov. 3 will host a panel of clinical specialists for a free program on post-traumatic stress disorder.

A social worker from Veterans Affairs and two psychotherapists will discuss definitions symptoms, and treatments in a program that starts at noon in the Chalberg Theatre on the Brainerd campus.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that threatened or caused great physical harm.

The affliction is characterized by a terrifying physical or emotional event (trauma) causing the person who survived the event to have persistent, frightening thoughts and memories, or flashbacks, of the ordeal. Persons with PTSD often feel chronically, emotionally numb.

The scheduled panelists are Connie Seldon, M.S.W., a licensed clinical social worker at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center; and psychotherapists J.P. Whalen, Ph.D., and Morgan Juel, M.A., with Nystrom & Associates.