As a nation, Israel excels in many scientific fields, but one area of specialism has developed for the very worst of reasons. The country is a world leader in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For 28 years Natal \u2013 an apolitical non-profit organisation \u2013 has provided psychological support to people impacted by war and terror, regardless of faith, ethnicity or political affiliation.<\/p>\n
The charity was founded by Jude Yovel Recanati who, like many Israelis of her generation, was deeply affected by the Yom Kippur War of 1973. She lost friends and classmates and observed many people struggling with the physical and emotional impact of war.<\/p>\n
Ahead of her time, Yovel Recanati saw the need to expand the available options of treatment for people suffering from PTSD. In 1998 she founded Natal \u2013 an acronym for the Hebrew translation of \u201cIsrael Trauma Centre for Victims of Terror and War\u201d. One of her first moves was to adapt her late parents\u2019 home in Tel Aviv into the Natal national centre.<\/p>\n
Starting with psychological first responders and a 24- hour helpline, and moving on to longer-term strategies such as group and individual therapy, Natal has developed clinical expertise and an understanding of what they call \u201cthe ecology of trauma and resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n
Caroline Ratner CEO of UK Friends of Natal, explains: \u201cThey do a lot of community projects, a lot of physical stuff, which is very important because trauma is something you hold in your body. There\u2019s a running group called \u2018Running with Rami\u2019, there\u2019s a surfing group called HaGal Sheli (\u2018My Wave\u2019), there\u2019s trauma-informed yoga.\u201d They also offer a raft of artistic and creative therapies including theatre and resilience retreats.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince October 7, the demand for their services has grown exponentially. The phones started ringing at 6.30 on that morning and haven\u2019t stopped,\u201d Ratner says, explaining that Natal increasingly exports its expertise worldwide: \u201cThey work with people all over the world because it is very niche. Trauma from the war on terror is different. It\u2019s very specialist. They work with a pastor in Chicago who approached them to help with the gang situation in the city, because that\u2019s trauma from terror and war in a way, and they\u2019re working in Australia too.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for their work in the UK, she explains: \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a lot of demand for what we do in the UK, because the trauma of antisemitism is combined with what we\u2019ve all been struggling with since October 7.\u201d She adds that the shocking events in Israel brought professional challenges to everyone working in mental health in the UK Jewish community: \u201cWe are navigating a different reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
UK Friends of Natal works in partnership with UJIA (United Joint Israel Appeal), which fosters the connection between diaspora Jews and Israel. Anat Caspi Kaivanto, who runs the charity\u2019s Manchester and North West operation, says: \u201cWe were able to fly an amazing team over within a week to lead a training session with Jahm, the Manchester Jewish mental health charity.\u201d The Natal team provided one training for 25 therapists, including Calek, and another course for 25 key members of the community, including rabbis and leaders from Jewish and non-Jewish schools such as Cheadle Hulme and Manchester Grammar School, which have a lot of Jewish pupils.<\/p>\n
Calek says the workshop she attended focused on running group intervention after trauma. \u201cThey were so warm. One of them put her arm around me and said: \u2018l really feel for you all here in the UK,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was such a profound moment.\u201d The sense of reversal kicked in again, Calek says: \u201cIt took me a few minutes to absorb that. I thought: we\u2019re the victims here, and they are feeling sorry for us. It was a real turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ratner and Caspi Kaivanto have also noticed the feeling of reversal too. Until recently, they say, the UK Friends of Natal and UJIA existed primarily to support Israel and to educate people about the country \u2013 no thought had been given to how the UK could benefit from Natal\u2019s expertise. That changed after October 7, and even more profoundly after the Heaton Park attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden, Israel picks up the phone to us and says: well, now it\u2019s our turn to pay back and to come and support you,\u201d says Caspi Kaivanto. \u201cUJIA has fundraised about more than \u00a38\u2009million for Israel since October 7. And after the terrorist attack in Heaton Park, they said, well actually we think you need a bit of help too now.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Manchester, it is still early days. The trauma team returned recently to repeat the workshops, and there have been remote video-call training sessions too.<\/p>\n
The collaboration has been so successful though, that it\u2019s led to a conference focusing on \u201cshared traumatic reality\u201d \u2013 what happens clinically and personally when practitioner and patient are navigating the same crisis. The event will take place in central London in September.<\/p>\n
For Ratner, the important message is that the after effects of trauma aren\u2019t all negative. \u201cOne of the biggest tenets of Natal is post-traumatic growth. It\u2019s all about building resilience,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to have trauma, that trauma is never going away, but you learn how to deal with it, manage it, and grow from it. That\u2019s really important. You can\u2019t let the trauma define you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a nation, Israel excels in many scientific fields, but one area of specialism has developed for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[64365,5652,72315,37,2974,72316,9832],"class_list":["post-262484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-editors-pick","tag-health","tag-heaton-park-synagogue-attack","tag-israel","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-jews","tag-trauma"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117150453855592280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}