A panel of experts at Monday’s Jerusalem Post Conference discussed how Israeli organizations have found innovative ways of turning the pain caused by the events of October 7 into resilience. Participants included Yaron Waksman, Co-Founder and CEO of HaGal Sheli, which is the world’s largest surf therapy organization; Raz Karni, Head of the Nirim Youth Village, which helps at-risk youth change the direction of their lives; and Ori Schnitzer, Global Ambassador for SafeHeart, an organization that was created as an emergency mental health initiative immediately after the October 7 Nova Music Festival massacre; and Mayaan Dee, a Nova survivor.
Schnitzer said that connection plays an important role in healing. “We've been working for almost three years with survivors and their families, and we've worked with over 3,000 survivors to date. We see that the basis is to create a connection to tether someone to reality when they went through the unimaginable. The first lifeline to anyone is a specialized therapist that understands them, and that can be their tether to life.”
Nova survivor Maayan Dee said that one of the biggest misconceptions is that survivors have already moved on from the events of October 7, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Right now, I may look okay. What people don’t see is the panic attacks that can come out of nowhere because someone dropped their phone and, for a split second, it sounded like a bullet.
These are the realities that survivors continue to live with every day. I am making progress, thanks in large part to the mental health support I received from SafeHeart. I’ve gone back to university because I believe that healing is possible and that we can make a difference in the world. But it isn’t easy.”
Schnitzer noted that while much of the world's attention has moved on, the trauma of October 7 remains a daily reality for many survivors, and ongoing security threats continue to compound the psychological toll.“Just an hour ago, I got a push notification saying that Iran had walked away from ceasefire negotiations. My first thought was: if there are missiles again, I know what happened last time. We saw three times the number of survivors reaching out for psychiatric care and therapy. Every missile, every military operation makes it harder for them. Even though almost three years have passed, their trauma is still very much alive and relevant every single day.”
This article was written in cooperation with SafeHeart.