When working the “front lines” breaks your heart:

Cultural, political, community and social justice activists tend to have unique needs in therapy that need to be understood and addressed for personal healing to occur. In my thirteen years’ experience working to support activists, as well as being involved in community organizing myself, I have come to understand some of the unique wounding, as well as unique gifts, that activists bring into the work of therapy.

Address Vicarious Trauma (aka “Secondary Trauma”):

Many of the activists who I have worked with over the years have shown me the tremendous sensitivity, compassion and connection with others that they have been blessed with. However, these gifts typically do not come without a cost. Often, activists have also shown and told me the incredible pain and suffering that they are in touch with, not only their own, but the pain and suffering of whole communities, cultures, landscapes and beings. Being exquisitely attuned to suffering and injustice on a massive scale can, overtime, lead to utter heartbreak, despair, isolation and burnout. 

In therapy, you have the opportunity to slow down this process, and to understand yourself on a deeper level. You can start learning how to separate your own suffering and your gifts of sensitivity and compassion from a sense of drowning in overwhelming and incomprehensible injustices. Instead, you will find a way to stay in tune with your own center of aliveness, curiosity and strength to engage with the world and its faults in ways that are vitalizing rather than depleting; inspiring rather than depressing.

Heal in the context of your own family and community:

In therapy, you will also have the opportunity to express and understand on a deeper level the connections between your own personal history and the work you feel called upon to do in the world. While there is a lot you may already know about these connections, you will also have the opportunity to explore and discover other connections that have been previously out of your awareness. Such growing awareness can facilitate the first steps towards healing and a stronger connection with your own family and community.

I have special experience and expertise working with queer/LGBT activists, with women activists, with activists who survived sexual abuse, and with actvists struggling with grief or a chronic illness. My services are avilable in English and in Hebrew.

I warmly invite into my practice grassroots organizers, community organizers, social justice activists, peace activists, frontline workers, non-profit workers, social workers and other healing professionals.