Ofra Ayalon

University of Haifa | haifa · Department of counceling and psychology

The following is a description of Helping the Helpers training for 200 teachers and mental health workers from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia 6 months after the Tsunami disaster. The goal of the training was to build support systems for disaster helpers, who would later treat the local populations who suffered directly or indirectly....

In searching for information on the effects of living with the ongoing threat of terrorism, Israel was an obvious place to turn. For several years now reports of acts of terrorism and violence occurring in Israel have appeared in the news media as frequently as several times a week. Moreover, one of the more common types of terrorist acts regularly...

This paper examines the interplay between the destructive and healing forces within human communities, as reflected in the life of children. This work stems from over 30 years of being involved as a participant/near-miss survivor/therapist, in a society exposed to intermittent wars and random terrorist attacks. An interventional model evolved to he...

This study examined the long-term impact of a terrorist attack which involved the seizure of over a hundred hostages, most of them adolescents. The event took place in 1974, in the small town of Ma'alot close to the northern border of Israel and Lebanon. In order to ensure that the effects found among the survivors were due specifically to the trau...

012. "Helping the Helpers": Training Seminars in Israel to Stress-Relief Workers from Former Yugoslavia - Volume 10 supplement - Reuven Gal, Ofra Ayalon, Mooli Lahad

The nature of terrorist activity is such that it calculatedly and systematically fosters fear in the defenseless civilian population. Terrorists use noncombatant persons as targets and as a means of intensification of psychological demoralization in order to demonstrate their ability to strike at any place and at any time. The victim is not the rea...

One aspect of terrorism that is often neglected is the existence of the terrorized. At a time when terrorism has been commonplace, it is appropriate to take a close look at those who have been personally affected by it.

The paper presents a case study of a couple in therapy who underwent a process of becoming aware of the meanings they invest in the spatial organization of their home. Similar dimensions of conflict were revealed in their relationship and in the spatial configurations of their respective ideal homes. As a result of this analysis, a spatial layout w...

Though it has been both inhibited by imprinting and prohibited by custom and law throughout history, incest is still sufficiently frequent for recognizable behavior patterns within the family to be apparent, to be studied, and even to be predicted. These patterns can be examined from three viewpoints.

This article argues the case for anticipatory intervention in schools and community in order to enhance better coping behavior in times of crisis and emergency. The different situations of stress cover loss of parent through desertion or death; long absence of parent from family (army service, hospitalization, voyage); divorce; threat to freedom, t...