War, the Body, and Collective Trauma: An Embodied Inquiry

An interactive session for SE therapists and other healing professionals

What happens to our nervous systems, relationships, and sense of safety when war and violence become part of everyday life? And how do we, as somatic practitioners and healers, meet ourselves and our clients within that reality?

Drawing on her experience of the past three years of war, as both a somatic trauma therapist and an Israeli, Michal Shahak will open a space for shared inquiry into how prolonged conflict lives in the body and shapes daily life. Her reflections draw on years of facilitating and teaching professional groups and lay communities.

Through stories, clinical anecdotes, embodied reflection, and conversation, we will explore what emerges personally, professionally, and collectively when we live and work amid ongoing violence and collective trauma.

A central focus will be the body as a potential safe shore—a place of anchoring, orientation, and connection from which restoration and healing may become possible when the external world does not provide reliable safety. What does it mean to experience the body as an anchor in times of turmoil? And what helps us return to the body when it also carries fear, loss, vigilance, and uncertainty?

Together, we will explore how violence and war can both bridge and fracture social fabric, reshape core beliefs, alter our experience of time and safety, and challenge our capacity to remain present and connected. We will make space for participants’ questions, experiences, and perspectives—including uncertainty, ongoing challenges, and the places where our usual approaches may reach their limits.

This is an invitation to think, feel, sense, and explore together as a community of SE practitioners and healers: What are we discovering, in our bodies and in our work, as we live through these turbulent times.

Image by Wassilios Nikitakis.

This program is supported by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts.