Care for families of missing persons, abductees, returnees from captivity and their families

8 Sundays, between 10:00-12:30 on the following dates: 03.11.24, 10.11.24, 17.11.24
, 24.11.24, 01.12.24, 08.12.24, 15.12.24, 22.12.24

The events of October 7 and the "Iron Swords" War created a complex reality of dealing with a unique trauma that has not been studied in Israel until now. Therapeutic experience in this field is limited.

Since the events of October 7, many families have been dealing with a vague trauma related to their missing or kidnapped family members, with defining the role of the family in a situation of absence and captivity, and with helplessness and uncertainty regarding the fate of their loved ones who were kidnapped to Gaza.

The course:

1. The various stages of blunt trauma will be discussed, while adapting the therapeutic intervention to families and different social circles.

2. Will focus on tools for working with families of kidnapped and missing persons and on therapeutic work with hostages returning from captivity.

3. It will be a safe space for therapists to bring themselves forward, as those who are dealing with collective trauma themselves while simultaneously treating the various cycles of trauma.

4. The process will be accompanied by theoretical learning, providing practical tools and work models from the instructors' professional experience, through a direct connection to the knowledge accumulated in the world.

Course objectives:

1. Providing knowledge and professional language in the field of blunt trauma and frozen grief.

2. Creating a safe space for trauma therapists and dealing with secondary traumatization.

3. Training therapists in existing practices and models around the world while adapting them to their work in Israel.

About the lecturers:

Galit Itzhaki Dreizin - Jungian psychotherapist, MSW, criminal profiler. Has been working in the field of absences for over a decade both in Israel and in the therapeutic research arena worldwide.

Professor Keren Shalev - Director of the Center for Missing Persons Research at the University of Portsmouth, England. Editor-in-Chief of the book "Missing Persons: A Handbook of Research " and researcher in the areas of risk assessment of missing adults, repeated absences, use of social media in missing persons and dementia cases, etc. Co-editor of the International Journal of Missing Persons

Target audience:

Psychologists of all specialties, social workers, expressive and creative therapists, who work with families of missing and abducted people and with returnees and their families.

Course cost:

• Therapists in the private sector: 900 NIS

• Those who work in the public sector, even if partially: 400 NIS.