This session, the first in a series, will focus on a question that we may all be trying to deal with all the time: What is trauma, and what are the ways to deal with it? And how do we apply these ways in the post-October 7th world?

In the chapters they wrote in the book, Dr. Levy, Prof. Mendelowitz, and Dr. Flint address this question in different ways:

Prof. Mendelovich, who co-wrote with Prof. Yuval Neriah the chapter " Exposure to Trauma and What Follows: Psychological Assistance After the Events of October 7 and the Iron Sword War, " distinguishes between three circles of exposure, according to their degree of proximity to the traumatic events. Shlomo then describes three stages of trauma treatment: the empowerment stage, the mediation stage, and the treatment stage, and describes the methods of action, both at the level of individual treatment and in terms of the working patterns of mental health systems, derived from this conceptualization.

The chapter written by Dr. Thuli Flint , "Through the Resource Window: Integrating Theories to Understand Response to and Recovery from Traumatic Events, " focuses on the integration of various theories - resource conservation theory, window of endurance theory, adaptive information processing theory, structural dissociation, and recovery capital theory - in order to expand understanding of the psychological damage following trauma, and especially of recovery and possible ways to assist it. Thuli's perspective is to look at the resources available to a person, the way in which trauma damages these resources, and the various ways to restore them.

Dr. Danny Levy 's perspective in the chapter " Thoughts on Cracks in the Dam" focuses primarily on the way in which the current catastrophic event encounters the structures and imprints existing in the mind that were created in earlier stages of life. The traumatic situation, Danny argues, creates a fusion between the present and the past, between the current catastrophe and early mental experiences, which were severed from the mind due to unbearable pain and created inaccessible particles of the mind. In his view, therapeutic work, which always involves the field of trauma shared by the patient and the therapist, must deal with the challenge of finding ways to encounter not only the terrible present that the patient is facing, but also the hidden and unarticulated particles of the past.

Dr. Danny Levy - Psychiatrist, teacher and instructor in the Psychotherapy Program, Tel Aviv University School of Medicine. Head of the Trauma Track in the Psychotherapy Program, Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Shlomo Mendelovich - psychiatrist, director of the Shalvata Mental Health Center, one of the initiators of "Homiya" and founders of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy program "Alomot: Knowledge, Creation, Leadership."

Dr. Thuli Flint (Ph.D.), specialist in focused treatment for victims of trauma and extreme events. EMDR Trainer, social worker, couple and family therapist, Somatic Experiencing group therapist, narrative therapy and focused treatment with additional methods. Teaches, lectures and facilitates in Israel and internationally in the field of focused treatment for trauma and extreme situations. Researches and teaches the field of spirituality in recovery from PTSD.