Treatment of Ambiguous Loss Situations: Tools and Clinical Demonstrations
A dedicated course for rehabilitation workers in the National Insurance Institute's Returnees and Families Care Unit

Course Description:

The course deals with the trauma of ambiguous loss in the reality of ongoing trauma, uncertainty, and systemic disruption, as shaped by the events of October 7 and the subsequent war. The course seeks to deepen the understanding of the multiple manifestations of ambiguous loss – physical and psychological – and its implications for the individual, the family, the community, and the professionals working in this space.

The course will distinguish between physical vague loss, primarily kidnapping, enforced absence, and prolonged situations of non-return, and psychological vague loss, as manifested in situations of severe injury, neurological and mental change, post-trauma, prolonged reserve, and interruption of life continuity - when the person is physically present but profoundly changed.

The course will then present vague loss as a multi-circuit trauma, operating simultaneously in several circles: the person themselves, family members, the immediate community, and the public sphere. The course will examine how situations such as kidnapping, living in a continuous struggle for return, repeated exposure to triggers and information, eviction from home, and the lack of a clear horizon of return – undermine boundaries of time, identity, roles, belonging, and meaning.

Through a current conceptual and clinical framework, discussion of examples from the field, clinical demonstrations, and processing of professional dilemmas in working with families, the course will offer tools for understanding ambiguous loss in collective extreme situations, and emphasize principles for intervention in a reality in which even the professionals themselves operate within a shared trauma.

Special emphasis will be given to the encounter between emotional support, role boundaries, exercise of rights, professional presence, and ethical holding over time.

Course objectives:

1. To provide a conceptual and clinical understanding of physical and psychological loss, in its various manifestations among populations affected by the events of October 7 and the subsequent war.

2. Develop a deep understanding of professional guidance in situations of vague loss in a reality of ongoing uncertainty, through analyzing clinical examples and processing dilemmas from the field.

Lecturer's speech:

Dr. Einat Yahana , clinical neuropsychologist and rehabilitation psychologist-instructor. Faculty member at the School of Behavioral Sciences at Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic. Lecturer and instructor at the Mifrasim Institute for Research and Teaching of Psychotherapy and director of "Namal Mivtachim" - a training center for the treatment and rehabilitation of victims of kidnapping and ambiguous loss. Since October 7, she has accompanied families of abductees and survivors of captivity and served as head of the rehabilitation department in the health system of the Abductees' Families Headquarters. She has over two decades of clinical experience in the public and private sectors working with adults, children and families in situations of trauma, bereavement, loss and change (Lewinstein Hospital, Sheba-Tel Hashomer, and NYUMC). She treats all victims of October 7 in a private clinic and is also engaged in training treatment personnel, counseling and continuing education for various organizations. Her research and scientific publications deal with the psychological mechanisms that influence perception and adaptation to loss following life events.

Target audience:

Rehabilitation workers who accompany families and visitors.