Meeting Point: Observations and Reflections from an Israeli Somatic Trauma Therapist During Three Years of War

Michal Shahak will share about her involvement in the mass judicial reform protests,  the shock of October 7th, and the impossibility of its occurrence and the ongoing failures that followed it that brought a painful loss of trust, a shattering of personal and collective security, and a deep destabilization of what home and homeland mean.

She will explore urgent questions for the Jewish people—both in Israel and the Diaspora—how can we continue to hold and remember our shared kinship? How do we nourish our collective memory, our core values, and everything that binds us together? How can we draw upon the rich tools embedded within our tradition to reconnect and mend our connective tissue? And how do we, despite it all, preserve and strengthen our ties of connection, belonging, mutual care, and shared memory?

Michal Shahak, MA, DMT, is an Israeli Senior Somatic Experiencing® (SE) Practitioner and a faculty member for the School for Body-Mind Centering® (BMC). Holding degrees in Dance and Movement Education (BA) and Dance-Movement Therapy (MA), Michal brings thirty years

of global teaching and clinical experience to the fields of somatic movement and trauma

recovery. She taught in BMC training programs across Europe, Brazil, and the US, and

maintains a private clinical practice in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv integrating BMC, SE,

Dance-Movement Therapy, and somatic practices.