The Welcome to Las Vegas sign is surrounded by flowers and items, left after the Oct. 1 mass shooting, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.
Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017 | 2 a.m.
Shiva Ghaed was among the thousands listening to music at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from a nearby hotel suite, killing 58 and injuring more than 500.
She remembers hearing gunshots she initially thought were fireworks and crouching near the side of the stage. Later, when there was a break in the shooting, she ran with others across an open field.
She doesn't remember the bodies she knows she maneuvered around. She does remember thinking she was going to die.
After the Oct. 1 shooting, Ghaed, 46, flew home to San Diego where she works as a clinical psychologist. She specializes in trauma and anxiety disorders and has counseled active-duty military and veterans.
She realized there were probably hundreds of San Diegans who went through the traumatic event and she worried many of them could develop post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression or chronic anxiety if they didn't get help.
So she decided to lead group counseling sessions as a way to give back to her community.
Starting a week after the incident, she began meeting with survivors and relatives of those who attended the concert.
The group meets at 6:30 p.m. Mondays at In Cahoots, a country restaurant and bar in Mission Valley. The sessions are open to anyone who needs help coping with the aftermath of the deadly shooting.
Since the first session, 40 to 50 people have shown up each week, with about 200 cycling through so far, Ghaed said. More than 100 people have also joined a closed Facebook group on the topic.
"I'm trying to get the word out as much as possible," she said. "Every week I'm hearing from friends of friends and people who have run into people who didn't know about it."
Some of those who have attended the sessions were people injured in the shooting or hurt while fleeing. Some weren't at the concert, but had children or spouses who attended the show.
Ghaed is hoping to get the word out to anyone who might need help — and plans to run the meetings until there isn't a need for them. At some point, when people don't need support, she expects it will turn into a social group.
"I've got a task here. My mission is to educate as many people as possible to prevent the development of PTSD," Ghaed said. "Mental illness is so stigmatized still. I'm sort of like in this crusade against the stigma."
Ghaed said she wants to give survivors tools to better cope in the aftermath of the shooting. She urges survivors not to avoid thinking about the massacre but to talk about what happened and to "feel the feelings."
She said PTSD develops because of "unhealthy thoughts, unhelpful thoughts and avoidance behaviors," and it is preventable.
"I have a strong belief that you start with education," she said. "People are smart and people are resilient. If you give them tools, they feel like they can recover."
