Rolling Trauma and Resilience: Responding to Israel’s Mental Health Crisis

The Iran war isn’t a one-time crisis. Like a living, breathing creature, it continues to ravage Israel and its people on an ongoing basis. For this reason, NATAL’s Chief Psychologist Dr. Boaz Shalgi coined the phrase “rolling trauma”.

What is rolling trauma? It’s one crisis enveloped in more and more layers of trauma that impact individuals and societies. Rolling trauma is continuous, cumulative exposure to traumatic events, which differs from traditional post-traumatic stress disorder caused by a singular event. Some real-world manifestations include the October 7 attacks, the ongoing missile strikes in Israel, displacements, and communal grief.

In essence, rolling trauma is like the snowball effect. As it continues to roll, it collects more and more layers of trauma — both for the individual and their community. 

Adjusting Treatment Response to Rolling Trauma

Once we put a name to this new type of trauma, there needs to be a new way of approaching treatment. How do mental health organizations scale to meet a new level of higher need while also understanding that the crisis hasn’t truly passed?

Reaching as many audiences as possible is the first step. And that’s why we recently launched webinars in Hebrew, Arabic, and English for the public and other organizations. There are also expanded clinical services to cut down on waiting lists, support those affected by anxiety, and mobilize clinical teams to meet evacuees from central Israel at their temporary hotels, offering on-site emotional support.

It was important to establish a support  line for therapists dealing with emergency cases and moved all training programs online while maintaining continuity. Dr. Shalgi led our first professional training sessions for our therapists and volunteers, and we increased our media presence to provide calming tools and direct people to our services.

Rolling trauma isn’t just for the victims. It’s also critical for support teams on the ground to take care of themselves, follow safety instructions, and remember that support is available to them as well whenever they need it. Therapists are living this challenging reality themselves while they continue to help others.

Success Story: Career Development in Action

Trauma-Informed Career Development Coaching Intervention is a trauma-informed, therapeutic practice that takes post-traumatic symptoms into account. According to Shaked Arieli, Head of the Career Development Department unit at NATAL, this new methodology, “offers practitioners a mapping of the specific challenges these symptoms can create in the workplace, enabling us to work on managing them in a way that improves occupational functioning and career-related skills.” 

I want to share the story of Uri* (name changed for privacy purposes), who entered coaching while struggling with years of post-traumatic distress stemming from his military service. Despite his high capabilities and academic background, Uri’s employment situation was stagnant as he worked dozens of temporary jobs over the years.

Initially, Uri’s coach focused on creating a vision for him and mapping his capabilities and barriers. Together, they worked on Uri’s thought patterns, looking for his cognitive biases, including where he perceived work as slavery and exploitation. Gradually, Uri came to see work as an opportunity and was able to address his ability to choose the type of work and conditions he felt were suitable for him.

Midway through the coaching process, Uri found his way to a stable job in his field, with the coaching process serving as a major support system for his interpersonal skills as he integrated back into the workplace. In his words:

“When I started the job, there were difficulties mainly in interpersonal communication at the office. You feel like you’re at war, and it spills over. The coach translated reality for me and helped me find the way. I told my wife, every morning when I leave home for work, I feel like there’s a team of advisors walking with me… I felt I had crutches that allowed me to keep going.”

In coaching, Uri also focused on regulating his emotions and reactions while self-managing his triggers. These issues led to dissociation and aggressive responses, but Uri learned to reframe his triggers, seeing them as an invitation for inner listening and growth instead of a disruption. Learning to use his connection to nature, Uri is now able to create a place of inner calm when triggers arise. He also learned to identify and communicate his needs at work, enabling him to give calmer responses to his colleagues and managers.

In a follow-up interview conducted about a year after the process ended, Uri reported:

“I managed to keep the job for over a year and survived crises. I persevered even though I wanted to leave many, many times. And I got through it. Because of depression, it’s harder for me to maintain consistency in routine activities. I’m working on it.”

Collaborating for Change

In meeting the news of the Jewish community around the world, collaboration with global partners to expand capacity and share best practices is essential for success. I want to share two of our most successful collaborations: Gesher and Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative. Soon after October 7, Jewish-American mental health professionals recognized how their work would be impacted by those attacks — given their patients’ identity as Jews.

Gesher and Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative both reached out to NATAL for its expertise on trauma and how it would translate to the U.S. Gesher focuses on vetting psychologists who are Jewish and Israel friendly, bringing them through trauma-informed therapy by NATAL.

Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative provides virtual Jewish community support groups and other resources to help the Jewish community find a sense of belonging. The organization shared this testimonial about working with NATAL and tapping into our trauma-informed approach to training:

“Collaborating with NATAL has been transformative for the Jewish Community Mental Health Initiative (JCMHI). In a time of immense need and collective trauma, NATAL’s training and consultation provided our team with the tools, language, and support to show up with confidence, compassion, and skill. Their trauma-informed approach, grounded in cultural awareness and global experience, deeply impacted our clinicians, facilitators, and leadership. The warmth and generosity they brought to our partnership modeled the very values we aim to carry into our work. We are profoundly grateful to NATAL and look forward to continuing our work with them for a long time to come.”

Rolling Trauma Requires a Rolling Response

Rolling trauma requires a rolling response that immediately and effectively responds to each layer of trauma — as it occurs. Without this rolling response, we can’t fully meet the needs of anyone on the ground in Israel. Dr. Shalgi coined this term for an emergency campaign that’s like no other. It’s up to mental health organizations that truly understand the complicated challenges that can work as a community to innovate and meet the needs of society and ensure post-traumatic growth and resilience.