In response to the 10/7 catastrophe,
The Art of Loving is recruiting
Holistic–multidisciplinary–free Treatment for the Casualties of the October 7th Catastrophe and the War
The horrendous attack by Hammas on 10/7 and the war that was started in response had changed the social agenda completely and immediately.
Since the Holocaust, we had never experienced such a sudden heavy burden of danger and lack of control, bereavement, loss, mourning, trauma, mental distress and physical injuries. Darkness covered all. This has not changed our belief in love, and its ability to heal. In other words, as Erich Fromm defined it: "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."
The belief in love requires action. According to our approach, and in line with Fromm's theory, loving is choosing to be active, for the sake of the other, the object of our love.
The action done out of love is directed by four principles: respect for the other, caring for the other, responsibility, and knowing the other.
Hence, the Art of Loving Association has undertaken to treat casualties of all types. We have made a decision to accompany help-seekers with a holistic, multidisciplinary response, which includes psychological counseling, psychiatric accompaniment, responding with complementary medicine treatments by touch and hydrotherapy, and consulting on and accompaniment in the process of applying for recognition by the Ministry of Defense, including legal accompaniment - all these free of charge to the help-seekers. Right from the beginning of our activity in treating casualties we set up a therapeutic branch for treatment with touch, body-mind therapy that is acting in close and fruitful cooperation with the psychological treatment.
The activity is conducted in the format of an emergency treatment station ("Ta'agad" in Hebrew): the help-seekers are quickly received, without committees and bureaucracy, even while being in active service in all forms of recruitment.
Anyone who feels a need is invited to contact Giora Keller, the Association Chairman,
We thank the good people, full of love and giving, who provide financial coverage for our activity and have chosen to stay anonymous.
Head of the Project and Director of the Therapeutic Field
Giora Keller, Chairman of the Association, Expert in Clinical Psychology
While being an officer in Golani [IDF front line warriors unit] and a disabled IDF veteran myself, one of the issues I focused on in my Psychology studies was the possibility of alleviating the suffering of individuals affected by post-trauma. Ever since I have completed my studies - thirty-five years already - I have been leading and developing a clinical therapeutic laboratory guided by love as a therapeutic tool.
Over the years I have gained wide experience in using it in treating post-trauma in soldiers, candidates for military service, Ministry of Defense employees, and civilians. With the 10/7 catastrophe and the war that followed we all went through shock at an intensity we had not previously experienced. Right from the first week of the war soldiers and civilians who had been hurt arrived at the clinic in an increasingly intensifying stream, a hero brought his / her friends from the IDF team, company, from the community, from the Nova Party… some of them came regularly and some irregularly, due to their obligations to their role in the security forces. While attempting to provide all help-seekers with the appropriate treatment , I developed the working model of ("Ta'agad" in Hebrew) an emergency-time psychotherapy treatment station - receiving the casualties as quickly as possible, with no bureaucracy, with maximum fit to their availability, and free of charge.
The therapeutic response is given with an emergency call-up order (like an emergency army call for duty "Tzav 8"), meaning, without delay and without restricting conditions, according to the Art of Loving principles, as befits those who have been willing to place the public good before their personal interests and have enlisted to protect all of us, or have paid a personal price for the aggression directed at us as a state. This is how The Art of Loving is recruiting project was born, through the financial donations by generous individuals and the donations of work time by the therapeutic team.
Touch Body-Mind Therapy
Directed by Ruthi Hofesh, a certified therapist in Drama Therapy, the Avi Grinberg Method and Family Constellation.
"Somewhere inside the heart a flower is blooming"
We go through many events from the moment we are born, some are pleasant, exciting, giving us a sense of basic safety and thereby constituting an infrastructure for our strengths. They expand our hearts and minds and enable us to grow and bloom. Some of our life events are challenging and require special efforts to develop and become stronger. There are also situations where we encounter complex difficulties. To survive we detach from Self parts and adopt various emotional and behavioral emergency patterns, which initially protect us, but eventually cause us suffering. All of the symptoms caused by those emergency patterns are kept and remembered by the body.
In my therapeutic method, supported by many years of experience, I accompany the clients professionally and attentively, with good hands and a loving heart, from the painful, constricted toward relief, using reconnecting the client's own power of recovery and flourishing. Situations such as anxiety and traumas, losses and physical pains, unresolved conflicts, life crises, confusion, lack of energy etc. When it seems that nothing can be done about it anymore, we can be surprised: The body is an amazingly beautiful portal to healing and relief.
Many of the clients share at the end of the session that they feel they have returned home, and the truth is that I feel so as well. With my touch, and my and the client's attention, I accompany clients safely back to the safe harbor, to the resources and gifts located in their body - their internal home. During the process each one has the lessons their body and mind are requesting to learn. One can also develop and stabilize from experiences of grief, pain and loss, as well as from great despair.
During the sessions, there is a conversation part and a part that involves working with touch, which is done on a therapy bed, in comfortable clothing. Over the years I have acquired a rich toolbox, and I combine various techniques and methods from the field of touch therapy, working with mindfulness, breathwork, Drama Therapy, Family Constellation, and energetic work taken from various ancient healing traditions. The process is personally and holistically tailored to the client's needs, with love and out of heart-to-heart connection.
On October 7th the sky fell and the ground slipped underneath our feet. and a complex situation of collective trauma was created. For me this was a turning point professionally. Consequent to my intensive work with the Nova survivors, traumatized soldiers, and police officers who had been exposed to the horrors while on duty, I chose, after 20 years of working mostly in drama therapy and parent training, to return to focusing on holistic therapy through the body. I grew up with parents who were Holocaust survivors, and from them I learned that one can conduct a full and rich life even after severe traumas. I am thankful for the privilege and blessing of the ability to assist in such painful situations. You are gladly invited with love.
Ruthi: +972-52-2314267
Watsu (water shiatsu hydrotherapy)
Avigal Maor
I had discovered water as a therapeutic space long before I chose to study hydrotherapy. For years I used to go for a morning swim, not only for fitness purposes. Later on, I decided to combine my love of water and my passion for providing therapy. Among the tools of hydrotherapy, I particularly liked Watsu.
The treatment is conducted in a quiet and warm water space (34° C/ 93.2° F) in a therapeutic pool. It includes soft pressing, gentle stretching, and enveloping cradling within a determined softness, enabling relaxation, release, peace of mind, and a deep connection to the here and now.
For a decade now, I have been deepening the connection of Watsu to the other therapeutic tools I use. With great love, I am glad to offer the healing effect of the quiet and soft embrace of Watsu.
The treatment is done in 45-minute sessions.
Body-Mind Therapy with Ice Baths
Netanel Atiya
Clinical Social Worker (M.A.), married +4, Body-Mind Therapist Accompanying growth and development processes in people dealing with post-trauma from combat events and leads resilience programs for combat units.
Founder of the Hormesis Method. Hormesis is a biological phenomenon which actually shows that being exposed to stress in a controlled way creates an adaptation of the physical and mental system, without trauma.
The main tools in working with the method – physical movement, breathing practice, and cold exposure.
In my military service I am an officer in the Egoz [elite commando force]. On 10/7th, I responded to the emergency call-up for combat and served in reserve duty for over 5 months.
The therapeutic tools in the Hormesis Method have assisted me and many others in making it through the challenges that the war exposes us to.
The work plans are:
-Individual sessions
-Group sessions (Foundations Workshop)
-Group sessions (process-oriented workshop)
My moto –
To be present, breathe, and heal from within the pain.
Community and foreign contacts branch
Directed by Moran-Pur-Tzvieli
I have done my army service as I.D.F officer in various command positions.
I have been working at La-Metayel [a company dealing with travelers' equipment] for over 20 years, nowadays in procurement position.
I am a photographer, and I find a lot of passion and love in my hurt for people, nature and traveling.
Thanks to my encouraging and supportive family I have had the privilege of visiting and traveling in over 40 countries.
I love challenges and I break through limits, and up until these days I have withstood quite a few challenging situations.
My three children know that "Mom always knows how to get everything to work out."
My specialty is to be the bridge between the Art of Loving Association and the community. In times of routine, people have in most cases a robust infrastructure for dealing with their problems. In times of crisis, though, people tend to avoid turning to others that can promote a solution for the complexities that they are facing.
I am here with great love to help you solve crises using all my personal experience in solving complexities in creative ways, as well as with the Milu'imnikim network - a repository of ties among good people, spread out around Israel and providing us with a support network in various fields.
I am here to aid, to mediate between who needs help and parties that can assist in coping with the difficulties. I will make an effort to be the one who fights for you when you feel your energy has been depleted. I am thankful for the privilege given to me to help.
Discharging by Writing
Intuitive writing workshops for the casualties of the war / October 7th
Led by Elinoar Keller, a writer, specialized in leading creative writing groups.
Writing is an immediate, simple way to express internal contents (not only for those who can write a dairy). Intuitive – creative writing can be an easy way to discharge distressing experiences within a mental safe distance, in a combination of reality and imagination. Traumatic disturbing contents can be expressed and discharged, clearing inner space for fresh, positive contants to be received or to emerge.
The healing effects of intuitive-free writing on those who have uneasy feelings from negative experiences have been studied and documented (Pennebaker, Lieberman, and more). The research studies indicate a decrease in anxiety levels and an increase of emotional balance among the participants. Writing created a channel for releasing difficult emotional baggage and enabling a perspective, a renewed attitude toward memories, a sense of meaning, and legitimation. Miracles happen easily with the tool of creative writing. The post traumatic distress can be a story with a much happier ending!
After witnessing (I got away with scratches only, both physically and mentally) the bus no. 5 explosion in 1994 I had the chance to experience the discharging and hilling effect of intuitive writing. I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this project by "The art of loving" and to offer this simple and useful method of hilling to participants in the writing workshops I conduct.
Intuitive writing is a flexible method. It can be experienced on a one-time session, a concentrated workshop, or in a series of 2-hour group sessions in a protective and encouraging atmosphere.
Using some warmup and inspiring exercises, you will be able to express in writing what's inside you, that is seeking the way for expretion. By doing that – you will be clearing space for new content to be received or to emerge.
The activity is experiential. There are no difficult lessons and there is no need to be a 'professional writer' to participate (It fits to anyone who has learned how to write fluently in childhood).
I invite you, with honest love, to discharge in writing and discover how difficult past experiences can be easier in the future.
Head of A Unique Therapeutic-Rehabilitational Program for People Dealing with Post-Trauma:
"A Journey on the Farm"
Directed by Danny Stirrin
I feel privileged to take part in this project. My base of belief comes from values of simplicity, integrity, and love.
I wholeheartedly believe that tracing back to natural sources, being next to animals and naturally blending with Creation is the force for healing and growth.
My personal life story and experience have led me to establish a social and holistic therapeutic – rehabilitation rural space that attempts to touch and support people experiencing a temporary or long-term mental difficulty.
Danny's Farm is a home for all those wishing for an internal home and meaningful grounding.
"A Journey on the Farm" is a unique therapeutic-rehabilitation program for male and female disabled IDF veterans, who are dealing with post-trauma.
The program was developed by some of the most senior and experienced professionals in Israel, in collaboration with people dealing with post-trauma, who contributed from their personal experience.
The program is jointly led by Danny Stirrin and Prof. Yoram Ben-Yehuda.
The focus of the program is to create an all-inclusive one-stop-shop therapeutic rehabilitation space with a homely, warm, and supportive atmosphere, adapted for and accessible to people dealing with post-trauma.
Program objectives: decreasing distress, suffering, and loneliness among the assistance-seekers, strengthening mental forces and connection to meaning, and providing knowledge and skills for self-management in daily life according to the goals they have defined, as well as help in integrating into job occupation to achieve renewed optimal functioning.
At the base of the program is the belief that it is indeed possible to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the circle of life, and that recovery happens when a renewed awakening of hope forms after despair.
Recovery necessitates active, as opposed to passive coping.
Guiding principle: non-stop acceptance and accessibility with love and open arms at Danny's Farm. Battle-fatigued individuals are invited to arrive independently during all days of the week, to be received warmly and to get out of the feeling of loneliness. The farm acts to create a 'transformational active environment' for the traumatized individuals, that includes the following characteristics: setting challenges regularly, providing tools for coping, and building a sense of efficacy.
The program is conducted with close accompaniment by experienced professionals, with personal, 'tailor-made' work, including setting personal goals and constructing a personal work plan. Concurrently, there is also group therapy work done through varied discourse circles, psychodrama, mindfulness, NLP, animal-assisted therapy, and of course, therapeutic horse riding.
Mental Coaching: Integration -
from the battlefield to a return to life
Led by (Captain in IDF reserve duty) Lior Rochman
I am a captain in reserve duty. I have served five years in total in regular service as an officer in the Combat Engineering Corps up to the role of Company Commander, and I have fought in the Iron Swords War as a reservist in Gaza for long months.
I am a Mental Coach by profession, and consequent to the War, my clinic in Ramat HaSharon has been working around the clock with mental coaching processes for reservists and their relatives, in the transition and bridging of the complex, up to impossible gap, between emergencies at war and back to routine life.
From my work at the clinic and my personal experiences in the War, I realized that there is a real need here. I raised the issue of the gap and with the Art of Loving Association and we immediately developed a working model, to help worriers return from combat.
Establishing a system for providing a therapeutic solution for the reserve duty people immediately, without bureaucracy and waiting, with a team of mental coaches and psychologists, that are skilled in treating reserve duty people and understand how they feel from first-hand experience.
The IDF reservists will pass as a company through a 'funnel' – an initial questionnaire that will determine whether they are in need of mental coaching or psychological treatment, and from there, will be personally connected to a therapist from one of the suitable teams.
I am undertaking to lead the complex integration process between the warriors' needs and therapy methods at the Association, and field of mental coaching.
I am not prepared to see another hero whose soul is longing for change but has no means to embark on the road.
I am not prepared to see another family of a hero whose lives have fallen apart because they are afraid to ask for help.
I am not prepared to see another hero's wife who is fighting the insane challenges that have been created, all on her own.
I believe that with the right guidance, given with great love, every hero has the full potential to return powerfully to his/her life trajectory.