When a teenager or child has been sexually assaulted and experiences complex trauma, therapy is essential to process the trauma, reduce distress and return to functioning in the various circles of life depending on age.

The in-depth therapeutic process takes place over an extended period of time and includes treatment/guidance for parents. Young patients receive treatment in talks, as well as art and play therapy, but sometimes even these are not enough because the trauma is expressed not only in the mind but also in the body.

We sometimes see that these young children and teenaged victims are jumpy, excessively volatile, and restless – all indications of emotional flooding and an inability to regulate feelings.  Sexual trauma is also characterized by states of emotional and physical disconnection, so treatment needs to include references to the body.

To answer the need, the therapeutic staff at Bayit Cham’s Belibeinu Centers recently completed training on SI – Somatic Intervention, which provided them with yet another important skill for their professional toolbox to maximize therapeutic effectiveness. The training course took place over a time span of two years, facilitated by the amazing clinical social worker, Ricky Bernstein, an expert in her field.

SI is a tool that allows the patient space and control over his/her body and ways to regulate emotions by mindfulness, observation, and body awareness (without physical contact, of course).

During the course, the therapists experimented on themselves to experience first-person how the intervention works and how it affects and significantly promotes treatment.

They will soon receive certificates and have already begun to apply SI in treatment.

Good luck! We are proud of you for your vital professional work, carried out with utmost sensitivity 🙏❤️

Belibeinu is a treatment center for children and teenaged victims of sexual trauma (ages 4-18) in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim. You are welcome to contact us: 073-2800-587 belibenu.t@bch.org.il

Dr. Rivka Cohen, our amazing psychiatrist at the Modi’in Illit Clinic, together with Dr. Angela Drannikov, director of the mental health clinic of Clalit HMO in Ashdod and an active participant in various mental health forums, met together with other psychiatrists for an important evening to promote optimal treatment for depression.

There was brainstorming, reading of recent articles, knowledge sharing and in-depth discussions. At a further stage, we may be able to report about the conclusions, but there is no doubt that the great professional and personal knowledge of them both is being channeled not only to benefit their patients on a daily basis but also to the advance development in the field.

Thank you for all the important work you do at micro and macro levels. We’re so proud ❤️

“Whenever my late mother introduced me to new people, in her second sentence she would proudly say, “She’s a social worker!” I carry this pride with me to this very day and no matter how far I’ve moved ahead in directing and developing systems, I will always remember to point out that I am first and foremost a social worker.

Being a social worker is not prestigious; it is often associated with negativity and prejudice. But for me, it is personal fulfillment and, in my eyes, it is the most noble profession.

In most of the years of my career, the main part of which has been assisting people with disabilities to integrate at mainstream jobs, every day I meet up with the value and meaning of seeing people’s abilities, peeling away their insecurities, the prejudices that others attached to them or that they themselves embraced, and view them as equals among equals, entitled to an equal opportunity.

I chose social work because I wanted to reach populations that really need help and be there for them. I also offer services privately, but the people who need it most will not go there.

I am proud and grateful for the privilege of being a person who sees others’ abilities and I find that the values of social work serve me all the way as a director and program developer.

In my work, I try to identify not only the challenges but also the opportunities and the strengths in the organization, in the directors and in each staff member. Giving them the opportunity to express their abilities empowers them immeasurably and empowers us as an organization.

Last October, along with the upheaval that hit Israel, I joined Bayit Cham and I am happy, especially these days, to be part of an organization that sees and applies the values of social work in practice – an organization that promotes good and gives equal opportunity to every person regardless of who they are, with the adaptations that they need to succeed.

My dream is to establish a training system that will promote people with disabilities to key, influential positions.”

Hadas Galili Shainski, proud social worker, married and the mother of an adorable two-year-old, has extensive experience in the field of mental health and disabilities, and directs Bayit Cham’s Jerusalem district programs for people with disabilities. Although from October to now is not a long time, it is during an especially traumatic period for our entire nation, and Hadas got deeply involved in matters, moving from zero to one hundred. She was, and still is, a significant anchor for the staff, for service recipients, and for the entire organization, in providing sensitive, professional, organized, and inclusive services – the implementation of social work in practice.

We thank Hadas for her excellent work and all the other social workers at Bayit Cham, who, like Hadas, do amazing, meaningful work for thousands of people – staff, service recipients and patients.

Like Hadas, we long for the day when we don’t have to celebrate Social Workers Day. Unfortunately, there will always be people who need assistance. Let it be clear to the general public and the decision makers how very important and significant this profession is.

At the same time, we can understand that after the sigh of relief, the warm hugs and the good meals, the adjustment is not smooth. You may feel that he looks at you but doesn’t really see you, he hears but doesn’t always listen, he’s here but he’s not here.

It is true that you also went through a very difficult period with great courage (practically and emotionally) and at the same time, you should take a moment to breathe and understand that he fought, for himself, for you, for the children, for the abductees, for all of us and it is a complex experience physically and emotionally. For some reservists, it has not yet ended.

If we try to break it down, the experience contains peak vigilance – a state in which the body and mind must maintain lots of concentration, alertness, attention and internal mental resources. Beyond the enormous energies invested in the national mission, he may have seen difficult sights, lost friends or fighters he knew and is in mourning for these losses. He may have faced difficult life and death dilemmas and internally, he may be grappling with emotions – perhaps guilt, perhaps self-criticism, perhaps longing and more. Beyond that, despite the disconnect from mobile phones, external criticism also reached his ears and the watchful eyes of the entire world, literally.

So now that he’s back, it’s not easy for him to switch phases. Everyone has his own rhythm and a different response. It may be that he still needs to process what he experienced and slowly allow himself to come out of the vigilance, maybe feel painful emotions and in general, understand what he went through. Therefore, a little more mutual patience is required to overcome the hurdle.

  In the meantime, here are some recommendations that will help both of you adapt to a new routine and maybe even come out stronger together:

🔶️ To know that he may be physically here, but emotionally, he may still be there.

🔶️ Give him time and space – even if he is “just” sitting on the sofa, even if the dishes are waiting to be washed, even if it is very urgent for you to tell him… It is possible to coordinate expectations for the near future, what is a must, what is the division of roles and what are the desires and abilities of both of you at the moment and arrive at mutual agreement.

🔶️ Allow him to share or not share what happened and how he feels – it’s true that you really want to know, want to be a partner and maybe you also think that talking about it can help, but you should respect if it’s not in his ability/desire at the moment. You will be an even better partner, if he sees that you see him and allow him to just be.

🔶️ Understand that we all changed during the war, both he and you, and you should be open to these changes and not look for who he was before, or who you were before. It is from this point in the here and now that life moves on.

*Of course, the recommendations are also valid the other way around when the reservist woman returns home! Good luck and good news to everyone💙

Yair Berko, clinical social worker and director of Bayit Cham’s mental health clinic in Beit Shemesh, returned from the IDF reserves after 85 days!

Of course, we missed him and worried about his well-being, but we are also proud of and grateful to this precious, value-driven man. We thank him for his service over the past few months and thanks as well for his professional work at our clinic over these years. Bayit Cham’s CEO, Rabbi Arie Munk, came in person to relay this message❤️