“We’re in this historic moment where a world pandemic; racial tensions and a momentum for racial equity and justice, action, and change; and the polarized political situation coalesce into a perfect storm of human stress,” said Joseph G. Ponterotto, Ph.D., a professor of counseling psychology at Fordham.

Ponterotto and his colleagues in the Graduate School of Education described in phone interviews the struggles that students and school counselors across New York City have experienced throughout the pandemic and how they can be better prepared when schools reopen this fall. 

Losing a ‘Safe Haven’

School was once a “safe haven”—a place where some students could escape their unstable family lives, said school counselors. But when schools closed across New York City in March, students faced their struggles all the time. Some lost loved ones to COVID-19. And school counselors said that if students confided in them by phone or Zoom, it was difficult to offer comfort.

“You can’t offer that hug. You can’t give them that in a virtual platform,” said Michelle Santana, FCRH ’10, GSE ’17, assistant director of the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) for middle and high schoolers at the Rose Hill campus and a school counselor by training. “That was definitely challenging—finding ways to help with those little things that mean so much.”

But there are creative ways to come together, said Santana. This past spring, she hosted a virtual lounge where students could stop by—the same way they used to in her office at Rose Hill—to maintain a sense of community. 

In a school south of the Bronx, middle school students struggled with similar issues, said another school counselor. Some experienced isolation, especially those who didn’t have many close friends before the pandemic. Others slipped into unhealthy habits—sleeping into the afternoon and staying up late at night. When COVID-19 cases steadily decreased, students who were trapped in their apartments for months were allowed more freedom. But many chose to stay inside. 

“Something new that we’ve seen are kids who don’t know how to re-enter [society],” said Seth Kritzman, GSE ’12, a school counselor at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School and an adjunct instructor at Fordham. “Parents say they just don’t want to. Students are kind of in this shell.” 

Virtual counseling sessions can be tough, too, because of a lack of privacy. After a video chat, some students type messages to Kritzman that their families can’t hear. Kritzman said he’s trying to support his students by listening and offering coping mechanisms. But he says he’s worried about how to meet the needs of all students—and their families. 

“The whole family could be in crisis. Middle school stuff can be traumatic, but this is a whole other realm and not necessarily something we’re trained for as school counselors,” said Kritzman. “Because of the pandemic, everything that’s happening can be tied to school. Where do you draw the line? What is the role of school counselor versus when do you get outside help?” 

Juggling Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and Racism

The pandemic is one layer of stress for students. The other, counselors and faculty said, is the death of George Floyd and the ensuing national protests against police brutality and racial injustice over the past few months. 

“Students of color, particularly Black and Latinx … are also having to cope with how to process what they see on their screens and things that they themselves have experienced,” said Kip Thompson, Ph.D., clinical coordinator and assistant professor of counseling psychology. 

To draw strength, Black adolescents and young adults should get in touch with “their higher power,” nurture family relationships, and pursue what brings them joy, said Thompson, whose research interests include Black American college student mental health.  

“It’s really important that in these challenging, uncertain times, the young Black person really taps into what brings them power, joy, and inspiration,” Thompson said. 

Meanwhile, school counselors should reflect on their own identities to better serve their students, said Ponterotto. 

“[We need to] understand stages of racial identity, of what power and privilege is, and how to develop a nonracist identity as a white teacher or counselor,” said Ponterotto. “It’s white men in power, the heterosexual population, and the Christian population taking responsibility for their own history of oppressing others that we all have been guilty of, given the environment we were raised in, and deconstructing our own identity to help us be effective teachers and counselors for others.”

Advice on Remote Counseling from GSE Faculty

After reflecting on personal experiences with clients throughout the pandemic, GSE faculty shared tips on how to improve remote counseling and support for students of all ages. 

Play therapy is possible if you think outside the box. Elementary school students and counselors can play a game of charades during each counseling session. On Zoom, they can use the whiteboard feature to play pictionary or hangman. They can even play a game of Battleship or bingo, as long as they both have the hard materials in front of them. Or they can conduct a scavenger hunt around a student’s room to help the student practice emotional self-expression and self-awareness, said Alea Holman, Ph.D., assistant professor of school psychology. 

Privacy is key. It’s important to utilize HIPAA-compliant platforms in a quiet, safe space to help ensure confidentiality with a client. If a student is living in a home where they can’t speak comfortably about certain topics—an LGBTQ student living in a non-affirmative environment, for example—they can communicate via email or chat, said Eric C. Chen, Ph.D., professor of counseling psychology. 

Counseling on an online platform can be surprisingly effective. “Some people told me that they feel more comfortable expressing themselves with a remote format because it removes a layer of self-consciousness and exposure in the interaction,” said Holman. A phone call can also strip away a layer of self-consciousness from students who don’t want to see their faces on screen, she said. 

Parents can play a crucial role. “One thing I suggest to my school counselors is to have Zoom meetings with parents to demonstrate to them … how the school counselor talks to the kids about uncertainty, confusion, and giving voice to feelings,” said Ponterotto. “We have to be able to process kids’ fears.” 

Self-care is critical for counselors. It seems like a selfish thought, said Margo A. Jackson, Ph.D., professor of counseling psychology. But consider this analogy: If you’re on a plane and the oxygen masks drop, you have to put yours on before you can help your child or whoever is next to you, she said. “When [counselors]are stretched to the limit … then we cannot be of help to others,” Jackson explained. “In fact, we could do harm.”

Be compassionate to yourself and others. Resilience is a “muscle” that requires daily exercise. “Count your blessings. Reward yourself with simple daily pleasures, such as reading a poem, having a bike ride, watching clouds float by, that you enjoy in life. Recognize your strengths and think about a few individuals who have made a difference in your life over the years or those who have nurtured and supported you in the past,” said Chen. “And imagine what your future will be like a year from now—picture how you will remember that you have survived and thrived during those moments of darkness and anguish.” 

Over the past year, Stewart, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and an adjunct lecturer in Hunter College’s psychology department, interviewed 16 women who said they had experienced sexual assault during their college years. Stewart wanted to see how the current climate affects the way they’ve processed their own assaults and how they might feel about reporting them. 

“Jen’s work is very timely and poignant,” said her mentor, Fordham professor, and psychologist Joseph G. Ponterotto, Ph.D. “This is an intense, qualitative long-interview study, and the results are riveting.”

The 16 women are anonymous college students across the U.S. who spoke with Stewart through Skype, FaceTime, and, if possible, face-to-face. Their conversations, typically an hour long, are currently being transcribed and analyzed, but conclusions are starting to take shape, said Stewart. 

The work has formed the basis for her dissertation. Before conducting research for the project, she also completed a pilot study, for which she interviewed eight sexual assault survivors about their recovery process.

Last year, she was invited to present her pilot study at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention. In a recent interview, Fordham News spoke with Stewart about what she’s learned so far. 

How is your research different than what’s already out there? 

There’s a lot of research on how sexual assault can psychologically and physically affect victims, but there isn’t much research on what’s happening with sexual assault victims right now. We’re in a time period in American history that’s quite different. We’re talking about sexual assault in a nationwide conversation. It’s in the news, it’s on social media, it’s in the political world. So it’s everywhere you turn, and I was really curious to see how that’s affecting survivors.

Tell me about your research. 

I do qualitative research, which is interview-based. You interview people until you have what’s called a saturation, where the same themes are coming up over and over again. Like, this is coming up so much that we can assume it’s an experience a lot of people are having. When they start to come up in three-quarters of the interviews, you’ve hit saturation. 

You spoke with 16 different women. How did you find them? 

Facebook, actually. I recruited through Facebook college groups. I joined a lot of groups, posted, and people reached out to me. 

What did your interviews focus on? 

How #MeToo has affected how they understood [their assault]  and how their assault has affected how they view #MeToo in general. 

What were the biggest themes from those interviews? 

It seems like sexual assault survivors are in support of #MeToo and feel more comfortable talking to friends and on campus about their experience because there’s this open dialogue that’s been happening. 

But they are significantly less likely to report to authorities in the context of #MeToo after seeing all the people who stood up and reported, but nothing happened. Many of the women I spoke to were like, why would I talk? What’s the point? I’m going to go through all this legal hassle, I’m going to get put in the spotlight and questioned on whether or not what happened was real, and nothing’s going to come of it. So what’s the point of reporting anything, legally?

This April, you’ll be defending your dissertation. Outside of Fordham, what do you hope to do with it? 

Using this to inform policy would be great. I don’t know what that will look like yet. But there’s always an implications section in a dissertation. Now I have this research—cool. What does it mean? Let’s use this to help make a change somewhere.

What are some key takeaway points from your research? Something that could help a loved one dealing with sexual assault?  

Reporting [to authorities]  is really triggering for a lot of people. It can be helpful to recount stories for healing, but usually not immediately after. Imagine going through a car crash and barely surviving and then someone saying, “Can you tell me all about the details of the car crash?” 

Social support is really, really important in terms of how somebody will react after a trauma. A lot of research has shown that positive social support is better [than no social support or negative support]  in terms of reducing PTSD symptoms. [Many pilot-study participants] said the best reactions they had gotten were someone saying, I’m so sorry this happened. I’m here for you if you need me. If you want me to go with you to report, to get some health tests done—whatever you need, I’m here. I think that often times, we hear about sexual assault a lot, but don’t really know what to do when someone tells us it happens. You can’t change that it happened. You can’t fix it. But you can support people, whatever that looks like for every person. That’s something I’d love for more people to know. 

I think we need less victim-blaming and more listening to people when they speak out about things like this. The number of people who falsely report is so small, but those are always the cases that get publicity. Then people are like, oh, well, look at all of these women trying to ruin men’s lives. We need to be more open to hearing what survivors have to say and believing them.

Two years ago, you earned an M.S.Ed. from Fordham, and by 2021, you’ll also have your Ph.D. What’s one of the biggest things that the Graduate School of Education taught you? 

There’s a big focus on multiculturalism and social justice in my program, which I love—and that’s what I chose Fordham for. It’s taught me to be curious about other people’s experiences, to never make assumptions. Even though I’ve worked with a lot of sexual assault trauma, everyone’s experience is different. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A recent career workshop at the Lincoln Center campus aimed to answer that question for Graduate School of Education (GSE) students in the mental health counseling program.

“A lot of our classmates were curious around what different career paths they may have after graduation,” said Raya Abat-Robinson, GSE ’20. “This [workshop]helps us understand the different pathways that are possible.” 

On Nov. 21, a group of graduate students gathered in a Lowenstein classroom and listened to two people who once stood in their shoes: Fordham career counselors Bizu Solomon, GSE ’15, who studied counseling at Fordham, and Jorimel Zaldivar, who obtained his master’s in counseling in mental health and wellness from New York University and, as a graduate student, interned with Fordham career services. The event, which coincides with National Career Development Month, was spearheaded by Fordham’s Student Association for Mental Health Counseling (SAM). 

The mental health counseling program has been one of the school’s most popular programs for many years, said Joseph Ponterotto, Ph.D., a GSE professor who coordinates the master’s degree program, at the beginning of the event. About 140 people apply each year for 30 to 35 spots. 

“For 13 years, we’ve been a thriving, robust, program,” he said. “It’s still, though, a pretty new field, relative to social work and psychology … That’s why a presentation like this, in terms of careers and the way to go and what you can do with the cognitive skills and the license that you’ll have, is so important.” 

Fordham graduates have gone on to work at a variety of places, from LGBT support and counseling centers to Google to Mt. Sinai Medical School, Ponterotto said. 

In a PowerPoint presentation, Solomon and Zaldivar showed attendees some of their career options. They could become crisis intervention therapists who work with victims and survivors in emergency rooms or disaster relief centers. They could conduct mediation with couples who are close to the end of their relationships. They could also work as health educators in corporate wellness programs, which are gaining popularity, said Solomon. 

“So, for clarity, mental health counselors could, in theory, be financial aid counselors?” asked a student sitting in the audience. 

“You can apply those same skill sets. If you think about it, the students that they meet with are under a lot of stress and anxiety. Those types of skills that you’re bringing in would be invaluable,” Zaldivar replied. 

The November presentation was among career workshops that are given to other programs not only at GSE but also at the whole University. It was helpful for many students, including Jamez Anderson, a first-year mental health counseling student who wants to work with adolescents after she graduates in May 2021. 

“I want to work one-on-one and be a therapist,” Anderson said. “So it was really eye-opening to see that there are so many other jobs and positions that you can have with just this degree.”

In his new book, “A Psychobiography of John F. Kennedy, Jr.: Understanding His Inner Life, Achievements, Struggles, and Courage,” Fordham professor and clinician Joseph G. Ponterotto, Ph.D., uses psychology to unravel who Kennedy was—and who he could have become, had he not died 20 years ago in a fatal plane crash at age 38.

Unlike a biography, a psychobiography tries to explain a person’s psychological makeup, personality, and life, using psychological research and theories, explained Ponterotto, who teaches in the Graduate School of Education.

Ponterotto illustrated the difference between the two genres with a photo of an iceberg. A small block of ice bobs above the waves. The rest—a huge, monolithic hunk of ice—is hidden beneath the surface.  

“What’s above the water is usually what a biographer studies. That’s what people see—a person’s status and achievements,” he explained. “The psychobiographer is more interested in what led to that: the person’s inner drives, feelings, and experiences.”

At first, Ponterotto’s friends and family were puzzled by his decision to profile the junior Kennedy. “Some said, ‘You mean the president?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘No, no. There’s a lot written about the president, but we don’t know [as much]about his son.”

Ponterotto begins the book with the public’s perception of Kennedy Jr. He had surveyed 75 adults in the New York City area on what they knew about Kennedy Jr. and what they wondered about him.

“What were his private and public views on major issues of today: immigration, police brutality, globalization, discrimination, LGBTQ rights?” one survey participant asked. “Was he able to do what he most wanted in life?” inquired another.

The 212-page book also includes a comparison of Kennedy Jr.’s personality profile to U.S. presidents like Ronald Reagan; a psychological analysis related to the early loss of his father and relationship with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; and a chapter that explores a question harbored by many: Would Kennedy Jr. have followed in his famous family’s footsteps and pursued a career in politics?

“Could he have run in 2016 against Donald Trump, rather than Hillary Clinton?” Ponterotto asked. “How would the country be different if he were alive?”

Ponterotto based his psychobiography on nearly 100 sources: letters, speeches, poems, and recorded radio and television interviews by Kennedy Jr.; memoirs, diaries, and autobiographies penned by people who had been close to him; in-person, phone, and email interviews with Kennedy Jr.’s colleagues and experts; and additional third-person documents.

An included excerpt from a book by Kennedy Jr.’s good friend Robbie Littell touched on what the young Kennedy was like while attending Brown. Despite attending functions on weekends with leading politicians and businessmen, Littell wrote, Kennedy Jr. never talked about them when he returned to campus, likely because he didn’t want to be seen as a public figure. “It was as though he deliberately split himself in two.”

What Ponterotto found most surprising about Kennedy Jr., he said, was his social and emotional intelligence. He had failed the New York bar exam on his first two tries. But he was a man who could read people well—a person who could put people at ease, despite his wealth and fame.

“He was able to bring people together—very different folks. He had his college buddies, rugby friends, pilot friends, [etc.]. He was able to bring them together to reach common goals in terms of working on [George] magazine, the foundations that he started, reaching up to help folks who work with disabled individuals, helping them with training and education,” Ponterotto said.

The psychobiography also delves into Kennedy’s thoughts during his final moments—his mental well-being and the fatal choices that would lead to not only his death, but also those of his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette in a 1999 plane crash. To get a better sense of what had happened, Ponterotto interviewed two experienced small aircraft pilots who had flown above the area where Kennedy crashed his single-engine plane. He also obtained the official accident report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Ponterotto acknowledges that the book’s content could be emotionally sensitive to Kennedy Jr.’s family and friends. While he was writing it, he considered how the Kennedy family—his sister, cousins, and godchildren—might react. In the last chapter, he says that given how much has been written about JFK Jr., coupled with the family’s requests for privacy, he did not feel comfortable seeking their consent for the project. But he did obtain consent from all sources he interviewed, and he double-checked the accuracy of his reporting.

“Psychologists are going deeper than historians or journalists,” Ponterotto explained. “They’re dealing with a deeper level of emotionality, a higher bar of ethical protection.”

This is Ponterotto’s 14th published book and his second psychobiography. In 2012, he profiled Bobby Fischer, the youngest chess grandmaster in the world, in a psychobiography that brought his name to the big screen. Ponterotto was also the historical consultant for the 2014 major motion picture Pawn Sacrifice, a biographical drama about Fischer that starred Tobey Maguire and Peter Sarsgaard.

The psychobiography was published last November by Charles C. Thomas, Publisher LTD. But Ponterotto explained that the book’s copyright date is 2019, in honor of the 20th anniversary of JFK Jr.’s death.

If he could meet the man he studied for four years, said Ponterotto, he’d like to have a beer or soda with him, or perhaps play a game of touch football in Central Park. They could speak as members of the same generation. Their families both immigrated to the U.S. during the same period—the Kennedy family is from Ireland, the Ponterotto family is from Italy—and the two men share a two-year age difference.

“I’d want to get to know him as a friend,” Ponterotto said. “Not as a Kennedy.”

“She died before I was born, and seeing the impact on my family made me think about being involved in a profession that helps people coping with loss,” said Fingerhut, who is graduating with a doctorate in counseling psychology from the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

“I wanted to be the person who helped in that moment.”

Born and raised in Forest Hills, Queens, Fingerhut earned a bachelor’s in psychology at the University of Maryland, and began her graduate studies at Fordham in 2009. Under the guidance of Joseph Ponterotto, PhD, professor of counseling psychology, she completed her dissertation, “Consistency of Self-Reported Symptoms and Etiological Events of Afghan/Iraq War Veterans.”

Working at the Veterans Administration in Manhattan, she examined the screening tools the VA uses to assess whether veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She found that self-reporting measures like yes/no questions are unreliable because they fail to distinguish between traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and PTSD, which often has similar symptoms.

“You might have headaches and, because you hear about TBI in football, think [they’re caused] by that,” she said. “But it really was PTSD—because it was terrifying to lose consciousness in the middle of a war zone in Iraq.”

“We need people to know what TBI is and what PTSD is in the veterans’ community, so they can more accurately report their symptoms.”

Self-reporting, however, can be problematic because when people experience a trauma, they may disassociate and be unable to remember all the details. Doctors should expect the same of soldiers who are injured on the battlefield, she said.

“These are the tools that are being used right now, but how can we think about improving them in the future? If we look at medical records in the theater of war, that would be much more accurate because that’s what happened in the moment,” she said.

During her time working on the degree, Fingerhut found herself drawn to people dealing with all sorts of trauma, from child abuse and eating disorders to sexual assault. She credits GSE adjunct professor Christina Doherty, PhD, for helping her set limits for herself and leave her work at the office when, in her first year, she worked at Fordham’s student counseling center.

Working with veterans is particularly rewarding, she said, because while part of trauma recovery is helping the person attach a sense of meaning to the event, veterans often have to wrestle with moral injury as well.

“Someone is telling them to do something, so it’s part of their duty as a soldier. But then they come back here, and that goes against how they think of themselves. They see themselves as good persons, but they know they had to kill people in Iraq,” she said.

“How do you still care about yourself and have compassion for yourself even if you’ve done things that you regret or feel bad about?”

Fingerhut is hoping to continue her work with veterans after graduation during her post-doctoral fellowship.  She plans to work with trauma survivors and start a support group for veterans.

It does today, however, for Graduate School of Education psychologist Joseph G. Ponterotto, PhD.

A professor of counseling psychology, Ponterotto is the historical consultant on a new major motion picture, Pawn Sacrifice, a drama about enigmatic world chess champion Bobby Fischer and his struggles to walk the fine line between genius and madness.

The film, which stars Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, and Liev Schreiber and is co-produced by Maguire and Gail Katz (The Perfect Storm and Air Force One), opens today in New York and Los Angeles, and then nationally on Sept. 25.

Ponterotto, whose 2012 book A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer is the definitive psychological profile of the late chess prodigy, worked closely with Katz to review the script for historical accuracy and to write dialogue that captures Fischer’s personality. He also advised on Fischer’s behavior and interactions at chess matches—diehard chess fans will know when the film is being true to Bobby’s chess genius and when it is taking creative license, Ponterotto said.

Often, Ponterotto was on call during filming for any questions that arose.

“I would get a call or an email from Gail Katz, saying, ‘We’re in the middle of a scene, Joan is talking to Bobby’s attorney and reading some of Bobby’s letters. What would Joan say in this scenario?’” Ponterotto said. “It was exciting to apply my psychology skills outside of my teaching and psychotherapy roles.”

He also drafted psychological profiles of each of the main characters—Bobby Fischer, his mother Regina, and his sister Joan—to help the actors gain a better understanding of their characters.

Tobey Maguire was particularly attentive to the nuances of Fischer’s behavior, Ponterotto said.

“He did his due diligence. He did a lot of reading about Bobby and he talked to people who knew Bobby well, including Bobby’s brother-in-law Russell Targ and Bobby’s longtime biographer Frank Brady.”

Bobby Fischer was 15 years old when he became the youngest chess grandmaster in the world. His 1972 capture of the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky is still considered to be the most widely watched chess match in history.

“We were riveted to this event,” said Ponterotto, who is also an avid chess player. “This was an American kid challenging a world-class Russian player during the Cold War era. The whole world stopped to watch the match.”

Fischer’s genius had a dark side, however. Over time, the lonely little boy who found solace in chess became an eccentric and paranoid recluse. His vitriolic anti-Semitism and his endorsement of the 9/11 attacks sank him into infamy.

His bizarre behavior, Ponterotto argues in his psychological autopsy of Fischer, is the result of an unfortunate combination of a traumatic childhood, mishandled genius, and inherited vulnerability to mental illness.

“Bobby had a genetic predisposition to paranoid tendencies from both his mom and his biological father, but he also lived with the stress of poverty and he had very little stability in his life,” Ponterotto said. “How do you develop a coherent ego, self-esteem, a sense of self, and an optimism toward life without any sense of security as a child? His early environment was too frenetic and unstable.”

Ultimately, Fischer died in exile in Iceland in 2008.

“The implications from Bobby’s story is genius gone awry—a child with special needs and gifts during a difficult historical period,” Ponterotto said.

“If we could’ve identified his struggles and implemented services both for him and his family, Bobby’s life story might’ve been written very differently.”

Watch a trailer of Pawn Sacrifice on the Bleecker Street Media website.