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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Wendy Healy: 203-744-6367, wendy@LDRNY.org
Tom Taylor, nb650c@aol.com

DEPUTY COORDINATOR OF LUTHERAN DISASTER RESPONSE OF NEW YORK TO GO TO CONFERENCE OF NATIONAL VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVE IN DISASTER

NORTH BELLMORE, N.Y. - Dec. 1 -- The Rev. Tom Taylor, deputy coordinator of Lutheran Disaster Response of New York for Long Island, will attend the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster national meeting of its Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee in Washington, D.C. The January meeting will be held at the national headquarters of the American Red Cross.

The Rev. Taylor represents LDRNY and LDR on the NVOAD Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee, which helps foster early psychological intervention to those affected by disaster. The Committee is chaired by LDR's Johanna Olson. The Rev. Taylor is also a consultant to the Lutheran Disaster Response Pastoral Committee.

As a chaplain for the North Bellmore Fire Department, the Rev. Taylor provided comfort and care during recovery efforts at Ground Zero. He has become regionally known as an advocate for interventional counseling and a pastoral facilitator in a type of psychological therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming (EMDR). EMDR is often used to help victims of the most horrendous disasters overcome emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress. Simply put, the specialized therapy uses both the left and right sides of the brain to process traumatic events that sometimes get frozen in a person's mind.

The Rev. Taylor has worked with David Grand, Ph.D., an internationally known pioneer therapist of EMDR, and author of Emotional Healing at Warp Speed: The Power of EMDR . In the Lutheran church and in the disaster community, Rev. Taylor has become known as a resource for psychological counseling in relation to trauma and disaster.

The pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in North Bellmore, the Rev. Taylor lives with his wife and family in North Bellmore. He is also a coordinator for the Nassau County Fire Commission Critical Incident Stress Management Team.