NEW YORK, March 19 (UPI) -- Investment bank Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) has hired professional counselors to help its Wall Street employees weather the storm of the bank's collapse.

The bank's 14,000 employees saw their fortunes fall last week as a run on the bank led to its fire-sale last weekend.

Many of the employees will be left without jobs and the average $200,000 retirement nest egg for a bank employee is now worth $2,000, ABC News reported.

Employees, who include young financiers who just moved New York, secretaries with families and middle-aged, mid-level managers, might experience depression, raised anxiety levels and other symptoms of trauma.

"Hearing that you've lost everything and may be out of a job on the news would be a blow to anybody," said John Maynard, chief executive officer of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association.

The bank didn't comment on how many counselors it had hired.