Expatriate Chang Zhihua still has trouble sleeping three weeks after a huge earthquake jolted the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami and nuclear crisis.

"I've had reoccurring nightmares about the awful scenes from the quake and sometimes even the roar of a passing truck scares me," said the 40-year-old Chinese woman, who lived in Fukushima for the past ten years.

"When the quake struck, I was playing with my six-year-old daughter inside the house. All of a sudden, the house started shaking terribly, so I took my little girl and rushed outside the house in my slippers. I was greeted with more panic-stricken neighbors on the street," Chang recalled.

Chang said that although the tsunami didn't reach her home, she and her family members have been tormented psychologically by the leak of radioactive material from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

"We panicked. All day long we had to live in fear, worrying that the environment and food might be polluted or whether we still had a chance to leave Japan safely," said Chang.

With the help of Chinese diplomats in Japan, Chang and other members of her family were evacuated on March 16 and returned to Chang's hometown in Fangzheng County, located in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Chang said she felt relieved after a counselor in Fangzheng County found her and gave her a chance to talk about her ordeal.

"Living through the nightmarish earthquake, tsunami and then the escalating radiation crisis can have dreadful mental and emotional repercussions for the survivors. These troubles are, in some cases, even more serious than physical injuries," said Zhu Guangyu, deputy chief of the Heilongjiang Provincial Association of Psychological Counselors.

"Survivors can be left with severe post-traumatic stress disorder if not treated promptly," Zhu said.

According to Li Baoyuan, deputy head of the office for affairs concerning foreign nationals and overseas Chinese of the Fangzheng County Government, more than 300 people returned to the county after the Japan quake, including Chinese expatriates and foreign nationals.

Zhu said eight counselors from his association have been assigned to provide counseling to the 300 or so Japan quake survivors in Fangzheng.

"Through encouraging the survivors to talk about their memories of the incident, they can exorcise their grief. However, it takes more time for them to become fully healed," said Wang Juan, one of the eight counselors working in Fangzheng County.