Mount Kisco resident Susan Weissbach Friedman has been a practicing psychotherapist for more than 25 years. Many of her patients suffered from trauma and a few have been Holocaust survivors or descendants of survivors. While the Holocaust did not directly impact her family, the concept of intergenerational trauma and a lifelong love of writing inspired her to write her debut novel Klara’s Truth.
The fictional novel took Friedman a decade to write and focuses on the protagonist, Dr. Klara Lieberman, an archaeology professor, who receives a letter from her estranged mother, Bessie, telling her that her absentee father since childhood is dead. Klara has always wondered about her father’s past during World War II in Poland which is now giving out financial reparations for land it stole from Jewish citizens during the war and her mother want to claim the money. Klara is not interested in the money – but she does want answers about her father and so she flies to Warsaw, determined to learn more. The book has received praise from Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews and the Jewish Book Council.
Friedman has always been interested in archaeology and believes that psychotherapy often excavates memories. “Although I am not a Freudian, he did believe that psychotherapists were like the archaeologists of the mind by digging deep and Freud was very interested in artifacts much like Klara.”
During therapy, Friedman has observed firsthand how trauma affects people’s emotional development. “How big a life can people build or will they be more insular and afraid to take risks? There can be a level of fear about how much risk they will take and it can impact jobs, relationships and so many things. Plus, internally some people prefer to just become numb and when we start exploring it and digging deeper in therapy, it can hurt more initially,” she explains.
“Although I didn’t set out with the idea of writing a novel about trauma and healing on multiple levels – individual, family, societal, and geopolitical, I would say that Klara’s Truth touches on all of these areas as it focuses on healing past hurts and wrongs on many levels. The Holocaust resonates as a very palpable large-scale horrific trauma affecting millions, and in this way, it became an overshadowing backdrop for this largely present-day story,” explained Friedman.
Along with her husband, Friedman visited Poland in 2014, the same year in which her novel begins, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Friedman found the trip intense and informative, as she visited many desecrated Jewish cemeteries.
Writing her first novel was a labor of love while maintaining a full-time psychotherapy practice. The story was written in parts and needed a cohesive narrative so Friedman honed her craft at writing workshops at Sarah Lawrence’s Writing Institute and GrubStreet. At Sarah Lawrence, Friedman met a classmate Dr. Stephanie Newman, author of Barbarians at the PTA who encouraged her to work with a developmental editor to help piece together the disparate sections.
Friedman decided to close her practice last year to focus on her writing. “There was a lot of push and pull with that decision but I ultimately think it was the right decision,” she adds. She already has a prequel in development to Klara’s Truth and has been busy promoting her current book through podcasts, readings and book signings throughout the Hudson Valley and Boston.
In light of October 7th and an unprecedented surge in antisemitism she hopes the book will serve as a springboard for discussion about these important topics. “I think my book, from its 2014 perspective, is quite relevant to the discussion of how easily antisemitism can rise and manifest itself in huge and horribly destructive ways,” she concludes.
How to Find a Specialist for Trauma Therapy
Friedman offers these tips to those in need of therapy for traumatic experiences:
- Look for a therapist trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and/or Somatic Experiencing. Research a therapist on Psychology Today’s website with these qualifications or go to EMDRIA, EMDR International Association Home, and then look for ‘Find a Therapist’. EMDR helps people to bring up buried and fragmented traumas more easily in a safe and contained way.
- They can also go to Somatic Experiencing and then look for ‘Find a Therapist’. Both of these methods help people to resolve trauma and other stress responses. Somatic Experiencing is body centered, and helps people to connect more with what they feel in their bodies particularly around trauma.
- Ask the practitioner about their training in these modalities, as some people are certified and have completed a long course of training and others haven’t.
As a young girl growing up in Manhattan, Amy Shaw was exposed to all types of art on frequent family trips to museums. In addition, her great aunt was an artist who studied under abstract painter Arshile Gorky. Attending the Dalton School, Shaw was exposed to the “city as a classroom” learning model with access to figure drawing, sculpture, pottery and jewelry making.
Shaw continued to work in graphic design after moving to the suburbs to start a family. For 22 years, she was the Senior Art Director in promotion at Reader’s Digest. Raising her two young children and working full-time, Shaw did not have as much time to devote to painting as she would like but as her son and daughter grew up, Shaw soon found herself back at the canvas, primarily working on oil paintings.
Her paintings have been shown at Mimi’s Coffee House in Mount Kisco, Black Cow Coffee House, Pleasantville, Carriage Barn, New Canaan, Pelham Art Center, Ridgefield Artists Guild, the Katonah Library and Carmel’s Arbor Gallery and the RPAC Gallery in Ridgefield which recently closed.
Fast forward a few years and Shaw set out to create an after-school art program that would serve Westchester and Connecticut students. In 2015, Shaw opened the Westchester Art Studio along with Connecticut-based artist Alan Reingold. Shaw met Reingold while her daughter (who is now a freelance fashion designer) and several of her friends were students at Horace Greeley High School and working on their portfolios for college. They would spend their afternoons with Reingold who is an accomplished artist having visited the White House to draw presidential portraits and illustrating several covers of TIME magazine. Reingold taught previously at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Parsons and focused on teaching teens and adults while Shaw focused on younger students up to age 10. The duo proved a winning combination and the studio flourished. Next year will be their tenth year in business with classes held at St. John Episcopal Church in Pleasantville.
