Facilitating Groups in Emergency and Trauma Settings: Insights from the Field and a Review of the Professional Literature

Abstract

The goal of the “Mashiv HaRuach” initiative is to help the helpers—that is, those who are dedicated to sustaining and supporting the community. These professionals and volunteers deal with trauma and burnout on a daily basis. Among them are psychologists, social workers, medical and nursing staff, educational staff, victim identification and rescue teams, community leaders, and others. Alongside them are support and assistance networks for combatants (such as the wives of reservists and the wives of wounded soldiers).

The importance of supporting helpers stems from the practical understanding that helpers and various professionals who deal with and are exposed to trauma help to strengthen, preserve, and develop the resilience of the communities from which they come. In order to enable them to continue their vital work, they must be provided with the appropriate support and their own resilience must be strengthened.

This document presents an in-depth analysis of the “Mashiv HaRuach” program—an Israeli initiative aimed at strengthening supportive communities on the home front during times of national crisis. The document is based on a cross-analysis of diverse data sources: insights from the field, qualitative and quantitative feedback from over 1,000 participants, in-depth interviews with participants at the conclusion of the process and several months later, as well as a comparative review of similar models and approaches around the world. The analysis examined the program’s key principles of impact, the characteristics of its effectiveness, and the conditions that foster group support, personal capacity building, and the strengthening of resources for coping with shared trauma.

This document was written by Keren Mifano—a medical psychologist, supervisor, and group facilitator who serves as the professional director of the “Mashiv HaRuach” program—based on more than a year and a half of ongoing field support, insights from the team of facilitators, and in-depth learning from the processes that took place with all the organizations participating in the program.

Theoretical Framework

"Shared trauma" began to be studied after World War II. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the term “shared trauma” was coined, and there was recognition of the various implications that “helpers and those being helped are both experiencing the same traumatic reality” (Boulanger, 2013). With the outbreak of the Swords of Iron War, “the therapeutic walls came down”; professional relationships changed, and transference dynamics became intertwined in both individual psychotherapy and the facilitation of therapeutic and support groups (Folk, 2025).

When we consider the care of helpers, we recognize the importance of supporting them based on a practical, theoretical, and research-based understanding of the risk of developing symptoms of secondary traumatization and even PTSD. In other words, we recognize the need to address “the wounds of the helpers” (Dunn, 2000). The therapist (and in our case, the helper) is, in fact, living in the same traumatic reality as those they support and assist. The helper, just like the person being helped, carries emotional wounds that can be a source of compassion and understanding, but may also weigh heavily on them if not properly processed. Support for helpers is important both to enable them to cope with their personal wounds and to help them maintain a clear separation between themselves and the clients or population they support.

Group support has many benefits, and from the events of Black Saturday to the present day, the practical and research-based understanding of the many benefits of support groups during periods of complex and ongoing trauma has continued to grow, including support groups that meet only a few times or even just once. It is well established in the professional literature that finding common ground and reinforcing similarities among group participants helps preserve strengths and build resilience in the face of difficult life events and ongoing crises (Yalom & Leszcz, 2006). Through the “mirroring phenomenon”—a process in which a group participant sees themselves or parts of themselves reflected in another person or in parts of another person (Foulkes, 1964)—the individual’s sense of isolation is alleviated.

According to Fosha (2000), individuals already possess the resources and strengths needed to cope, and through a number of therapeutic components, they can be strengthened during times of crisis, including: transforming pain into growth, creating a safe space and secure attachment, experiential emotional processes, and exploring positive experiences and moments of change. By supporting the individual’s natural internal healing mechanisms and alleviating feelings of isolation, it is possible to undergo a healing process from trauma, increase resilience, and experience change and growth.

At Mashiv HaRuach, we believe in harnessing the power of group support for the individuals within it. Trauma is often debilitating and discouraging, and group participants feel as though their world has come crashing down on them. According to Yalom and Leszcz (2006), the group is a motivating resource, a source of strength that transforms weakness into power. In their view, the group possesses a healing, existential power. With the facilitator’s help, the group can offer a new existential reality in contrast to the traumatic one (Folk 2025). The group helps its members build internal resources, create a supportive environment, form new interpersonal relationships and strengthen existing ones, and cope effectively with crises.

In the field of psychological first aid, both research evidence and clinical consensus support the significant potential of one-time or short-term group sessions to improve emotional resilience, provide a sense of hope, foster connections, and alleviate feelings of isolation. These groups offer participants a space for initial processing of a difficult experience they have recently endured. This allows for a sense of relief even during acute distress (Watson et al., 2012; Fox, 2016). Furthermore, these interventions are highly valuable in preventing future PTSD.

How do we apply these research findings in our work?

Mashiv HaRuach’s various methods focus on making space for complex emotions and creating a safe, open space to address difficult issues such as loss, pain, sadness, and frustration, while simultaneously building new coping strategies and strengthening existing coping resources. The methods take a structured and process-oriented approach to navigating the space between engaging with pain and engaging with resilience, strength, and a vision of hope for the future. All of this is achieved by integrating physical movement (activities such as mindful walking in the desert, yoga, and qigong) with physical relaxation (sound healing and meditation), and connecting these to experiential emotional processing. Mashiv HaRuach’s workshops include periods of processing and emotional work in groups, sessions focused on connecting with the body and movement, and breaks that provide space for personal and interpersonal freedom—all of which also foster group cohesion and strengthen the sense of community.

The spaces chosen to host these groups allow nature’s power to foster an additional emotional connection to the processing opportunities available to each individual within the group. This includes structuring the workshops and selecting various methods that focus on creating interpersonal connections within the group, providing concrete tools for coping with stress and anxiety, sharing and reflecting on coping patterns, and discussing the cases, stories, and events shared by participants, among other things. The design of the methodologies, the workshop processes, and the facilitation approach of the group leaders at Mashiv HaRuach are grounded in the theoretical and research aspects presented above.

Through group support for caregivers, we provide several additional important elements to the participants:

1. The group as a microcosm: The individual views the other participants as pieces of a puzzle that make up their personal, family, and social worlds. When participants come from specific organizations (the kibbutz movement, hospitals, the Ministry of Education)—whether they are part of established teams or not—the individual in the group can discover, through the group, new ways of coping with traumatic and emergency situations. At times, group work draws attention to organizational dynamics in a broader sense, and organizational issues emerge that participants wish to further develop within their respective organizations. According to Foulkes (1964), when trauma occurs on a social level, it is recommended that the response to and treatment of that trauma also take place within a group setting.

2. The Principle of Continuities: According to Lahad (2024), there are four guiding continuities: logical continuity (rules, reality, logic, routine, and daily schedule), functional continuity (the roles we fulfill in family and society), social continuity (secure social circles), and the individual’s historical continuity (self-awareness). During trauma and crisis, most of these continuities in an individual’s life are disrupted; this disruption lays the groundwork for the development of mood disorders and PTSD. Group support enables participants to examine how continuity is nevertheless maintained in their lives—even if not on all levels, at least on some. Through this group reflection on the disruption and continuity, participants are enabled to achieve functional continuity or a return to such continuity, alongside emotional acceptance and support (Folk, 2025).
3. Connection as a Sense of Belonging to a Community: A sense of belonging and social meaning is of great importance for the development and preservation of the sense of self. This shift from “I” to “we” has the power to revitalize inner spaces that have collapsed as a result of trauma. Within a unified mental space of being together, the psyche can once again experience the world and itself and overcome severe states of terror. A social space that represents connection is a critical cornerstone in times of crisis. A broad foundation of interpersonal and social connection provides stability, sustains and revitalizes the experience of a safe space, and bridges reality and the inner world—even during crises and moments of terror (Ziv Beiman, Shalgi, 2025).
   
   In addition to the components mentioned above, we find further support from the professional literature and research for group work in *Mashiv HaRuach*. These findings correspond with the components mentioned above and even expand upon them. According to Greenwald, Stolper and Ziegelnau (2025), the group workshops of Mashiv HaRuach facilitate the five therapeutic components that occur within the group, which constitute an advantage for this format of providing support when coping with collective trauma. These include: a sense of universality that alleviates isolation (a component consistent with Yalom and Fosha), the reflection of additional coping strategies through the group’s “hall of mirrors,” the creation of a shared narrative, the group’s role in holding its members, and the provision of testimony and validation regarding the events that occurred.

Background - Mashiv HaRuach

Since October 2023, Israeli society has been facing an unprecedented war. Beyond the direct impact, widespread secondary trauma and burnout have developed among the responders themselves—medical teams, educators, caregivers, victim identification and rescue teams, and others—due to the emergency and the ongoing emergency routine. The “Mashiv HaRuach” program was rapidly established in response to an urgent need, based on a deep systemic understanding: maintaining national resilience requires caring for the responders themselves. The program offers powerful, multi-day group workshops that combine emotional dialogue, mind-body work, nature, and a sense of community belonging. In doing so, it fosters a process of maintaining community-wide and systemic resilience in a reality where the boundaries between those affected and those providing aid are blurred.

Mashiv HaRuach’s programs include one-day, two-day, and three-day workshops (most workshops are two days long). After several months, depending on the organization’s needs and availability, a one-day follow-up workshop is held, along with periodic meetings as needed. In the last six months, we have also begun offering an additional process of ongoing support for organizations where we identify a specific issue that requires further, ongoing processing.

Practical Interpretation

Mashiv HaRuach's model draws inspiration from several key theoretical principles, each of which is reflected in practical applications in the field, such as:

▪ Shared trauma (Boulanger, Folk): The facilitators and participants operate from the same psychological reality, which creates authentic empathy and a safe space free of hierarchies. This shared sense of experience creates a deep sense of legitimacy for emotional expression.

▪ Foulkes (Group-Analytic Therapy): The workshops are structured around live group dynamics, emphasizing belonging to a shared emotional system rather than individual processing alone. This creates a collective emotional mirroring effect that enhances the sense of cohesion and healing.

▪ The Principle of Continuity (Lahad): Focusing on connecting with nature, emotional dialogue, and restoring routines while constructing a narrative helps restore disrupted continuities—which instills a renewed sense of continuity and emotional security.

▪ Positive psychology, integrative processes, and mind-body work (Dunn, Fosha): Using tools such as breathing, movement, and music, the workshops provide a direct experience of vitality and renewal—and thereby help process pain. In addition, guided circle discussions foster connection and alleviate feelings of isolation while integrating the various layers of the self.

▪ Belonging as a Connection to the Community (Ziv Beiman, Shalgi, 2025) – The groups consist of participants from similar backgrounds: community leaders, medical staff from the same departments at the same hospital, mental health officers from the same units, casualty officers from the same brigades, established teams of educators, and victim identification and rescue personnel. The workshops allow team members to get to know one another more deeply. Participants often describe how their heavy workload—even before the crisis and the war—left little room for meaningful connections. The workshops foster a sense of partnership, basic human connection among team members, togetherness, and team cohesion. All of these elements contribute to and leave a lasting impact on the participants’ daily work, as well as on their future preparedness for potential crises, as illustrated by the examples from the in-depth interviews below.

▪ Coping with collective trauma in a group setting (Greenwald, Stolper, and Ziegelnau 2025) — As noted above, when the source of the difficulty is social, the appropriate space for healing is a social one. A group setting provides an opportunity to assign new meanings to traumatic events and create a restorative experience,

▪ The importance of the group is even greater when the trauma is man-made.Mashiv HaRuach involves a combination of supportive and perceptual work and mutual resonance among group members, as well as an understanding and analytical perspective that creates a safe space where participants can express feelings, thoughts, and emotions that cannot be expressed in other settings.

The integration of these principles creates a unique therapeutic framework: a multilayered model in which physical, social, and emotional experiences are intertwined. The synergy between group work and experiential processes deepens the impact of the intervention and facilitates both collective and individual support processes. These processes have the potential to prevent future trauma-related effects such as PTSD and other conditions.

Assessment and Learning

The evaluation and measurement process at Mashiv HaRuach is an integral part of our day-to-day operations and organizational learning. Its purpose is to ensure that the solutions we provide truly strengthen the communities of helpers, contribute to reducing burnout, and enhance their sense of resilience and self-efficacy over time.

Data collection is routinely conducted in several ways: After each workshop, participants fill out an anonymous questionnaire that includes quantitative questions about satisfaction, their sense of resilience, and the usefulness of the tools they received, along with open-ended questions in which they are asked to describe their workshop experience in greater depth and explain how it affected them. Recently, a follow-up questionnaire has been distributed to all participants at least six months after their participation in the initial workshop—with the aim of assessing long-term impact. In-depth interviews are conducted with approximately 10% of the participants, using a representative sample based on target populations. These efforts run parallel to the evaluation processes we conduct with our target audience. Mashiv HaRuach’s professional team conducts team-based evaluation and learning processes. After each workshop concludes, the facilitators conduct a debriefing and systematically document insights from the field; they are asked to record observations regarding recurring patterns and group dynamics. Following Operation “Rising Lion,” we conducted in-depth interviews with approximately 5% of the relevant participants to understand whether and how their past participation in the workshop had influenced their ability to cope with the new emergency situation.

In the process of writing this document, data from approximately 1,000 participants were analyzed, incorporating:

▪ Quantitative and qualitative data from anonymous questionnaires

▪ In-depth interviews with facilitators

▪ In-depth interviews with participants (approximately 10% of the total number of participants by March 2025)

▪ In-depth interviews with participants following Operation “Rising Lion” (5% of participants)

▪ Documenting insights from the field

Key Findings — The Impact of Participation in "Mashiv HaRuach" Workshops on the Target Audience

High satisfaction

▪ 99.2% of participants would recommend that a close friend take part in the workshops at Mashiv HaRuach ▪ 93% reported an immediate reduction in emotional stress

▪ 88% felt, for the first time, that they had a safe space to process their feelings, thoughts, and emotions in response to the situation ▪ 84% expressed interest in participating in follow-up programs

▪ 93% said that the group session and the sense of “togetherness” gave them the strength to keep going ▪ Over 80% said they intend to apply the insights and tools they gained in the workshop.

Lasting Emotional Impact

▪ Feedback collected about six months after the workshops ended indicates a shift in mindset, improved family relationships, and a reduction in professional burnout. In addition, the data indicates that the fundamental principle of the power of a group or support group continues to benefit both individuals and the organization over time (over 75%). There are established teams for whom the workshop provided an opportunity to pause and engage in interpersonal connection, both in the context of the trauma narrative and beyond it. This connection continues to assist them in their day-to-day work. For wives of reservists, this is a rare opportunity to undergo a process as a group and, following this process, to remain a community of peers who support one another and maintain close friendships.

▪ 76% of respondents reported after a period of time that the tools they learned still help them cope with daily life. Tools such as: relaxation and anxiety-reduction techniques; listening inwardly to what I need right now, especially during times of transition; a deeper understanding of the role alongside the person beyond the role, and how these are sometimes intertwined; paying attention to emotions and how they drive our behavior at certain moments.

▪ More than 60% report that the program helped strengthen their personal resilience in coping with emergencies and stress.

▪ Some participants described profound changes—including decisions regarding work, relationships, and personal time—as a direct result of the workshop.

Operational and Professional Insights

As part of the learning process, we identified a series of key elements that consistently shape the success and impact of the “Mashiv HaRuach” workshops. These insights were drawn from conversations with the facilitators, the open-ended questions in participant feedback, and the real-time feedback we received in the field. These insights highlight both therapeutic and organizational and operational factors that emerged during the learning process and were identified as significant.

Dynamics Among Facilitators as a Critical Variable

▪ Intimacy within the group is of great importance, which is why we limit our workshops to approximately 26 participants. For technical reasons only, the group is divided into two groups of 13 participants, each led by an experienced facilitator or therapist. Processing activities take place in the small groups, and during mind-body and relaxation activities, we bring the group together to foster cohesion and bonding, which are key components of the process’s success. In certain cases, depending on organizational needs, the facilitators work together in a co-facilitation format.

▪ The concept of the “facilitators’ balcony” suggests that the relationship between facilitators itself creates an additional therapeutic field. Co-facilitation plays an important role in holding a group. To accommodate as many groups as possible and provide the broadest possible response—while keeping group sizes no larger than medium (up to 14 participants per group)—each facilitator leads a group individually, while the facilitators work together as a single co-facilitation team throughout the workshop. Matches are made between the facilitator and the target audience, as well as among the facilitators themselves. This is so that the facilitators can process their experiences with one another between the various sessions throughout the workshop and to ensure the joint facilitation of the larger group. Accordingly, facilitation teams report that the levels of trust among them, early alignment of expectations, and the ability to work in parallel and in dialogue—have a dramatic impact on the group’s atmosphere. When unconscious dynamics emerge between two groups from the same target audience, especially when participants know one another, the facilitation team’s role is to hold and attend to what remains unspoken in the parallel processes between the two groups.

Nature and the Body as Therapeutic Tools

▪ The natural environment has a significant positive impact, with the desert acting as a co-facilitator.

▪ Breathing exercises, sound healing, and mindful walking enhance emotional regulation and the mind-body connection. ▪ Participants describe the natural setting as an integral part of the therapeutic experience, which is both empowering and supportive—“The silence of the desert helped me clear my mind.”

The Unique Israeli Challenge: The Person Who Doesn't Ask for Help

▪ Many of the participants did not seek active support.

▪ The workshops served as a vital bridge: mediating between the stressful demands of daily life and an opportunity for emotional processing without requiring an explicit “request for help.”

▪ Referrals to the process were usually made by the organization, which allowed participants to receive support without having to directly admit to being in distress.

A Bridge Between Treatment and the Community

▪ “Mashiv HaRuach” is neither a clinical treatment nor a purely social gathering. “Mashiv HaRuach” provides an initial intervention for processing difficult events, while offering a “follow-up” process for target audiences who are interested. ▪ A gentle, supportive space has been created that allows for dialogue and processing without the stigma of therapy.

▪ This space is considered particularly important for populations who experience emotional difficulties but are not inclined to seek individual emotional or psychological treatment. These participants, who were able to receive group support, would most likely not have sought any assistance at all otherwise.

▪ Demonstration of exceptional logistical capabilities under emergency conditions—attention to the smallest details. This logistical capability, as described above, allows both the facilitators to be fully available to the task of holding and guiding the group—and thus to serve as a “container” in the fullest sense of the word—and the participants to be fully immersed in the process to which the workshop invites them.

Logistics Insights

▪ Accurate and professional assessment of the participating organization’s needs and the development of a customized workshop for each organization based on its specific needs

▪ The quality of the facilitators' presence.

▪ A safe and equitable group environment.

▪ An integrative approach to the mind-body connection.

▪ Incorporating informal activities (outings, campfires).

▪ Groups with a strong common bond—that is, groups drawn from homogeneous target audiences, thereby enabling the creation of a supportive, understanding environment and a sense of “shared hardship” that is sometimes necessary to forge connections, alleviate feelings of isolation, and facilitate collaborative processing.

▪ Aligning expectations and working closely with the participants’ organizations enables the participants to attend the workshop and fully engage in the proposed process.

▪ Proper and tailored group division is essential to the workshop’s success (hierarchy, managers, internal dynamics, etc.)—paying close attention to and focusing on the group assignment process is critical.

▪ Process Design—Organizing Activities and Facilitation in the Correct Order: The way the entire process is structured—from identifying needs, to preparing the workshop in collaboration with the facilitation and logistics teams, to delivering it in accordance with those needs while integrating nature, mind-body work, and circle discussions—has a significant impact on the workshops’ success and their lasting impact on participants.

▪ In-depth familiarity with the field, flexibility, and the ability to integrate learning processes, draw lessons, and implement them immediately.

Examples of key themes that emerge throughout the workshops, by target population:

Medical teams from hospitals

1. Burnout and the need for breaks: Intense and sustained stress, the need for short breaks (“virtual cigarette”), difficulty slowing down—a constant feeling of going “200 km/h.”

2. Disparities within the staff and lack of visibility: A sense of frustration across generations within the nursing staff; at times, there is a perception that the workload is not shared equally. A sense of being invisible and unappreciated by medical management.

3. Cynicism as an emotional defense mechanism: Using dark humor and cynicism to avoid dealing with complex emotions.
Fear of silence—for them, silence is associated with a patient’s death.

4. Complexity in emotional processing: the need to process difficult experiences—from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war to the deaths of significant patients. The difficulty of staying in touch with one’s emotions while working, and the need for a separate space for processing.

5. A constant sense of control: constant vigilance (preventing complications in patients). Implications for home life as well: “The monitors come home with me.”

6. The Relationship with Patients’ Families: Boundaries vs. Emotional Closeness. Experiences of overinvolvement that lead to insomnia and anxiety.

7. Meaning as a Source of Resilience: A strong sense of meaning in one’s role, especially during times of crisis.

8. Jewish-Arab relations: A sensitive issue since the war, with candid discussions that provided an outlet but also brought tensions to the surface.

9. Processing Traumatic Experiences: Extensive focus on October 7 and the period that followed. Disturbing images of soldiers and their families; experiences of burnout versus a sense of mission.
‍“Will I ever be myself again?” - Some participants report reduced functioning since October 7, 2023. The traumatic experiences they endured while working at the hospital were of extraordinary intensity—the harrowing sights, the vast amounts of blood, and the body parts. Some described how they were “reassigned” within the hospital due to the difficulty and inability to return to their original departments. This raised the central question: Is it possible to recover from this? Will they ever be themselves again? Participants also described suffering from nightmares, as well as images and smells that some of them still feel and experience.
‍Telling Their Stories for the First Time—This was the first time the participants had told the stories of October 7 in depth and dared to address them both individually and collectively as a group. Everyone reported how important mutual sharing was; from the group’s collective resonance emerged the personal need for continued psychological treatment and ongoing individual support. Only then were they able, for the first time, to understand the delicate emotional state they find themselves in.

10. Questions about professional identity: “Am I satisfied with my profession?” Re-examining the significance of choosing this career at this time.

11. Repression as a defense mechanism and its cost: A discussion of the cost of repression versus the need for it in order to function (“a certain degree of detachment is necessary”). Some describe impaired social interactions. And
as evidence, the tears flow of their own accord—during the various sessions, it was evident that the participants were “simply crying,” tears flowing of their own accord as a form of release and relaxation, releasing the pain and tension that had built up and accumulated over time.

12. The opportunity to get to know one another—team members got to know each other on a personal level for the first time. They gained a deeper understanding of the various roles at the hospital, the significance of those roles, and the different, difficult ways each person experienced October 7.

13. Alleviating Loneliness—A significant part of the process was alleviating the loneliness felt by the various staff members. They shared how they had not told anyone about the depth of the terror they experienced that day, nor had they confided in colleagues—only sharing fragments of their stories here and there. And on this group occasion, for the first time, a sense of togetherness allowed them to share the most difficult moments they had experienced.

14. The Need for Calm and Quiet—How much they need space for sleep, respite, and team bonding; how much they needed the meaningful pause the workshop provided them in order to begin to understand what they need.

Educational teams from the south

1. Balancing Home and Work: Managing a Dual Life: Motherhood at Home Versus an Educational Role in Preschools. Dealing with children in preschool who have experienced loss and trauma, while simultaneously coping with complex personal circumstances (evacuation, temporary living in hotels, dysfunctional families).

2. Coping with personal and collective trauma—beginning to process experiences: A deep need to process the events of October 7 and the war. Fears, feelings of being overwhelmed, somatic reactions, and difficulty staying in the group setting emerged. This is the first time since the war that they have been given a space for emotional processing (similar to what medical teams receive). There is a growing sense that it is possible to begin addressing the pain, cautiously. Fear of exposure versus a desire to share; everyone feels “wounded”—teachers, students, and parents.

3. Strengths and Resources: Returning to work was seen as a source of strength and healing. The experience of serving the children as a protective force, even when the women themselves were fragile.

4. Anxiety and Existential Questions: “Am I feeling anxiety, and what does that mean?”—the need to normalize anxiety as a natural response to trauma. Exploring religious faith, questions about the path ahead, survivor guilt, and difficulty returning to joy and routine.

5. Loneliness and a lack of support; a feeling that they, too, need someone to take care of them—not just their children. Working in small teams without adequate support.

6. Professional Identity vs. Trauma: Teachers must continue to fulfill their formal roles (pedagogy, high school graduation exams, daily routines) while themselves being part of the traumatized community. Day-to-day survival—“keeping their heads above water.”

7. Routine vs. Emotional Reality: “The train of routine racing ahead”—the education system demands a return to full routine, but the community’s emotional state makes this impossible. Using “masks” and defenses to bridge the gap.

8. The Question of Sharing and Self-Expression: Is it okay to share? How much should one reveal to students or colleagues? The challenge of breaking down barriers to genuine dialogue.

9. The Teachers’ Lounge as a Resource: The Importance of Cohesion and Reflection in a Peer Group (similar to doctors). Modeling: If teachers learn to converse and reflect, they can serve as role models and foster healthy dialogue with students as well.

Southern and Northern Kibbutz Movement (November–December 2024)

Education Administrators (Social Education, Birth–12th Grade, Early Childhood Education)

1. The blurring of personal and professional boundaries between the “person” and the “role”—the managers themselves are part of the affected community, facing constant exposure and difficulties at home and in the community. The challenge of distinguishing between personal and professional processing.

2. Loneliness versus total exposure—“They can see me, and I can see them”—difficulty due to a lack of personal boundaries. Families in the community are perceived as “dysfunctional,” with regressive behaviors exhibited by parents and children.

3. Constant availability and exhaustion from working 24/7 with the community, with no way to disconnect. A high personal and relationship toll (tension, breakups, burnout).

4. North–South Disparities: A sense of “survivor guilt” vis-à-vis those who directly experienced the trauma. Mutual learning between kibbutzim that are already in the process of recovery and those that are still in evacuation. 5. Rethinking the role: The need to redefine the tasks of informal education during war and reconstruction. A shift from survival mode (putting out fires) to a vision of long-term reconstruction.

Welfare, Health, and Human Resources Officers in Kibbutzim

1. The Nature and Purpose of the Role: In-depth questions about the significance of the role within the community—welfare, health, human resources—and how this shapes the future of the kibbutz. The conflict between being an employee in this role and being a member of that same community.

2. Workload and Burnout: A description of a constant workload, especially since October 7, along with the feeling that everything is being done under intense pressure. Questions about how to keep going without “breaking down.” .

3. Difficulty making decisions: Every simple decision has become complex and fraught with significance. Emotional overload affects professional decision-making.

4. Questions for the Future – “Where are we headed?” What will the kibbutz look like in the future? How can we balance continuing with daily life and the need for recovery and growth?

5. Gender dynamics: Most participants are women, while management is male. The experience of a role that acts as a counterbalance—bringing a human, gentle voice to counter management’s push to “get things done at any cost.”

6. The Need for a Peer Group: A strong sense of the need for dialogue between welfare and health officials in the north and south, for collaboration and mutual support. A desire to continue meeting and to form a “professional community.”

A summary of the key themes identified across the three populations presented here, and the similarities among them:

1. Burnout and constant stress: Everyone needs breaks, rest, and relaxation.

○ Hospitals: Intense workload, a "200 km/h" experience.

○ Education: Endless availability; the need to maintain a routine despite emotional distress.

○ Kibbutzim: Work, 24/7—the feeling that everything rests on your shoulders.

2. Blurring the lines between personal and professional life: It is impossible to separate “work” from “personal life”—everyone experiences the trauma in their personal lives as well

○ Education: Difficulty distinguishing between parent and teacher; complete personal exposure to the community and students.

○ Medical staff: Emotional bonds with patients' families; the monitors "come home with me."

○ Kibbutzim: Professional decisions also have a direct impact on the lives of community members.

3. The need for emotional processing and expression—In all the groups, there was a desire for authentic dialogue and for structured, safe emotional processing, rather than just “getting by.”

○ Medical staff: For the first time, they spoke in detail about the events of October 7, describing feelings of relief and tears.

○ Education: This is the first time since the war that space has been provided for genuine emotional processing.

○ Kibbutzim: The need for ongoing processing sessions and the redefinition of tasks through emotional dialogue.

4. Loneliness versus the Importance of “Togetherness” — Everyone describes a deep sense of loneliness at work, and everyone points to the power of collaboration with colleagues.

○ Hospitals: A feeling of loneliness until the workshop; sharing in the group alleviated that loneliness for the first time.

○ Education: The teachers' lounge and the staff were viewed as a resource, as a place that fosters collaboration.

○ Kibbutzim: A strong need for a group of female peers; a gathering of people from the north and south as an opportunity for mutual support.

5. Questions of Professional Identity and Meaning—In every field, there is a need to redefine “who I am” and “why I do this” after October 7.

○ Hospitals: “Am I satisfied with my profession?” A renewed search for meaning in work.

○ Education: Educators are asking what it means to continue teaching within a wounded community.

○ Kibbutzim: A reexamination of the role of social services and education in the community and what their actual responsibilities are.

6. Repression as a defense mechanism and its cost—There is recognition of the need to repress in order to survive, alongside an understanding that this comes at a personal cost.

○ Medical staff: Using sarcasm and dark humor, as well as repression, to keep functioning.

○ Education: Wearing “masks” in front of students and the community.

○ Kibbutzim: An experience of pure survival, without the ability to sustain emotional depth over time.

Comparison with Similar Models Around the World

As part of our ongoing professional development, Mashiv HaRuach has initiated a structured learning process that compares our model to similar programs around the world. This included collaboration and mutual knowledge exchange with Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) in Germany, one of Europe’s leading crisis response organizations. Through this comparative learning process, we identified several unique characteristics that set Mashiv HaRuach’s approach apart even in an international context:

▪ Rapid response: Programs such as FRSN (U.S.) and WoVeN (Women Veterans) were established in response to crises that had been building up over time. Mashiv HaRuach began operating within just a few weeks, with widespread deployment and adaptation of various models based on proven field experience.

▪ Differential Adaptation: While most programs focus on a specific segment (soldiers, first responders), Mashiv HaRuach is precisely tailored to a variety of formal and informal civilian audiences that have been impacted by the crisis. A defined and structured needs assessment is conducted with the various target audiences before each workshop, thereby effectively defining the conscious core mission while considering the potential core mission that is currently unconscious and unspoken. Each workshop is tailored to the specific target audience and its needs, while maintaining a focus on flexibility and the need to adapt the workshop structure based on the content that actually emerges during the sessions themselves.

▪ Use of environmental factors: Similar to the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), “Mashiv HaRuach” utilizes nature and open spaces as an integral part of the process, but adds a unique Israeli cultural dimension. ▪ Team dynamics among facilitators: Unlike other models in which facilitators work separately, in Mashiv HaRuach the dynamics among the facilitators themselves are a therapeutic component in their own right, which is projected onto the group. The facilitation team functions as a cohesive unit. In addition, to ensure that a facilitator can be fully available for facilitation—and thus serve as a “container” in the fullest sense of the word— Mashiv HaRuach’s logistics team handles all administrative needs for the participants and facilitators, while also finding creative on-site solutions for any needs that arise (For example, a participant from the Gaza Envelope had trouble sleeping at night because she was worried the window wouldn’t lock, and the logistics team had the window lock in her room repaired that very same day. Or, for example, when participants who needed childcare to attend the workshop reached out, the Mashiv HaRuach team arranged for a dedicated babysitter throughout the workshop to enable several mothers who needed it to participate).

▪ Development of an infrastructure for on-the-fly evaluation and measurement: Mashiv HaRuach facilitates continuous learning and improvement processes while work is being carried out in the field—a rare combination that allows for constant updates to the model.

Conclusions and Thoughts for the Future

▪ The added value of a group experience: The data show that structured group therapy, based on peer empathy, provides not only emotional support but also a foundation for preventing cumulative traumatization among helpers.

▪ Essential conditions for the success of the intervention: a team of skilled facilitators with a deep sense of unity, a conscious choice of a supportive therapeutic environment (nature), and cultural and dynamic adaptation to the target audience.

▪ Potential for expansion: Based on the data, the model shows good applicability to additional contexts—such as youth recovering from crisis, communities affected by terrorism, and educators in conflict zones.

▪ The next challenge: Developing long-term monitoring metrics, including measuring the impact on professional burnout, maintaining a sense of belonging, and improving indicators of individual and community mental resilience.

Summary

The past eighteen months of intensive fieldwork, reflection, and evaluation have taught us that effective support for caregivers depends on more than just professional guidance. It requires personalized, flexible, and culturally relevant group processes that integrate body, mind, and community. We have learned that group-based interventions —when they take place in nature, when facilitators work as a cohesive unit, and when logistical and emotional needs are fully met—can create a space of genuine support for those who carry the burdens of others.

Mashiv HaRuach’s model continues to evolve through ongoing learning and collaboration, including international partnerships. At its core lies a simple yet essential understanding: those who bear the weight of others’ trauma must themselves be supported. In times of national crisis, protecting the resilience of caregivers is not merely an ethical responsibility—it is a strategic necessity for preserving the resilience of Israeli society itself.

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