A Clinician’s Reflections on Trauma Care in Israel
- Ben Langstein, PhD
- Nov 23, 2025
- 4 min read
Lessons From My Visit to מרפאת תעצומות, the IDF’s New PTSD Unit
Living in Israel has opened up some truly unique professional experiences for me as a therapist trained in military and civilian trauma care. Just recently, I was invited to speak to a new trauma unit within the Israeli army, מרפאת תעצומות (Mirpa’at Ta’Atzumot), loosely translated as “Clinic of Strength.” Yesterday, I was able to visit the clinic and see their work firsthand. This unit is focused on addressing PTSD among soldiers, and it was fascinating to see how my background from working at the VA in the U.S. both overlaps with and differs from what they are building here. In this post, I want to share a bit about that experience, what we discussed, and the powerful reminder that even across countries, cultures, and language, the work of helping people heal from trauma is a shared mission, and that much of what we do at the VA is already mirrored in the approaches this unit is using to treat PTSD. This opportunity also aligns with our mission at The CBT/DBT Center to be active in the community through teaching, learning, and connecting with fellow professionals.
This opportunity only emerged because of a friendly conversation with a neighbor at the Shabbos park who casually mentioned that he was involved in this work. A few weeks later, he invited me to give a lecture in Hebrew to their group. He explained that this new unit was created after October 7th and the war that followed, as more and more soldiers struggled with trauma responses. The goal is to avoid leaving soldiers to suffer in silence or simply discharging them. Instead, a soldier who is showing signs of trauma can be transferred to this unit, assigned a new מפקד (mefaked), their commanding officer, and given space to rehabilitate. After a period of healing, the soldier and the clinical team decide together whether it makes sense to return to their previous unit, transfer into a different role, or separate from the army. I was struck by how thoughtful and recovery-oriented this model is.
In my talk, I shared with them how things work at the VA, where we are treating veterans rather than active-duty soldiers. Much of our work involves triage and collaborating with the veteran to decide whether to begin trauma-focused treatments like CPT, PE, EMDR, or WET, or whether they might benefit first from motivational interviewing, DBT skills, mindfulness work, or a slower-paced and more open-ended psychodynamic approach. Different paths, same goal: helping someone get their life back.
I then offered a brief overview of how we understand trauma and PTSD. Most people who experience a traumatic event will not develop PTSD; people are naturally resilient and adaptable. We do not diagnose PTSD immediately. Early on, we focus on psychosocial support, psychoeducation, normalization, and helping people return to routine. When symptoms persist, such as avoidance, intrusive memories, negative beliefs, or hyperarousal, we begin thinking about trauma treatment. Gold-standard treatments include CPT, PE, EMDR, and WET. These treatments can be intensive and require the person to discuss the trauma, so if someone is not ready, we begin by working on what is possible. This often means DBT distress tolerance skills, grounding practices, or simply re-establishing trust in the therapeutic relationship. I shared how we used CPT with veterans who were ready to process their trauma, whether related to service or earlier experiences in their lives, and how we worked with people who were not yet ready to speak about their trauma but were open to building skills or reconnecting after long periods of withdrawal. Sometimes, the first healing step is simply showing up and not shutting down.
Most inspiring to me was the openness and growth mindset of the therapists. I was struck by just how many questions they had about what worked for us, what we see in our clinics, and how veterans respond to different therapies. It reminded me of somethingDr. Nancy McWilliams said at our Therapy Should Work Summit: "Therapists want any approach that is going to help their patient. They do not care what the brand name is. If they can learn something that is valuable for their particular patient population, they are grateful for it." I felt that energy in full force. They were eager to hear how treatments are structured at the VA and how services are organized.
The Israeli therapists were equally eager to show me the services they have built in such a short time. It was exciting to see how closely their clinical instincts align with ours. There is a similar playbook of established treatments, adapted to their context and always evolving. They have created an entire environment centered on healing. Alongside traditional talk therapy, they offer mindfulness meditation, boxing therapy, surfing, biofeedback, and other modalities that help soldiers reconnect with themselves. There isn’t just one path toward healing, and they embrace that fully.
I am grateful for the chance to speak, and grateful that my Hebrew was "good enough" to connect with this incredible group. The whole place felt like a startup, with the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit you expect from Israelis. After my talk, I toured the grounds and saw soldiers in the unit walking around, talking, smiling, connecting with staff and with each other. The atmosphere was warm, energetic, and deeply human.
One therapist there shared how dramatically things shifted after Oct. 7th. The army realized they needed a trauma unit to meet the needs they were seeing, and as the war stretched on for over a year, they continued adapting. Now, with a ceasefire holding, their work is shifting again as the presentations they are seeing evolve. He said, "We Israelis are constantly adapting to changes around us, we have to." That line has stayed with me.
As I was being shown the clinic, I found myself feeling grateful for the work being done and hopeful about the treatments and healing spaces we are continuing to build for those who need them, especially in a country ready to begin healing after long and difficult years. I then turned to my therapist-turned-tour-guide Eyal and asked, "Now that the war is winding down, do you think this will wind down too?" He looked at me, beaming, and said, "Achi, this is just the beginning."
