Jessica McDonald, a local and independently contracted therapist, along with other Bloomington therapists, are offering free trauma therapy to protesters who IU Police Department and Indiana State Police arrested Thursday and Saturday at the pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow. She also plans to offer the services to anyone arrested at the encampment and protests going forward.
Jessica’s husband, David McDonald, is an IU professor and chair of the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and was arrested at the encampment Thursday.
The Dunn Meadow encampment began Thursday and is now on their fifth day. The night before the protests began, the “Ad Hoc Committee" instated a rule against temporary or permanent structures on campus without advanced approval, altering a previous, decades-long policy. Indiana University called Indiana State Police, who were outfitted with riot gear, to push protestors with shields and batons until they were outside of the encampment. IUPD and ISP arrested 33 protesters Thursday and 23 on Saturday.
Jessica said she plans to provide emotional first aid for protesters at the encampment Monday night.
The number of sessions available depends on individual therapists, but Jessica said she will offer six free sessions for each client. She said she’ll reevaluate if more are needed.
Jessica said she works in trauma therapy, specifically eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. Trauma therapy is a form of counseling used to help someone cope with an emotionally difficult event.
“It's one of the gold standards for trauma care,” she said. “It just helps them reprocess these memories, these experiences, in a way that's more adaptive, so that their functioning isn’t impaired.”
