The Narrative, Trauma and Psychotherapy Lab
last updated: 1/31/18
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Mor Alfa
Ph.D., Clinical Rehabilitation Psychology Subprogram.

I obtained my M.A. from the Clinical-Rehabilitation Psychology Subprogram at Bar-Ilan University two years ago, and have been the co-coordinator of the University's Community Psychological Services Clinic since then.

I am currently studying issues of trauma, resilience and post-traumatic growth among young women who seek psychological assistance, using a mixed-method design.

My study is entitled: "Hearing Their Voices: Trauma, Resilience and Growth in the Life Stories of Young Women At Risk in the Process of Emerging Adulthood."  It consists of in-depth interviews with young women in their 20's, which will provide the basis for an analysis using the narrative paradigm. These interviews, combined with quantitative data collected through questionnaires, will likely shed more light on the unique characteristics of emerging adulthood among young women.


Evaluating the resilience of emerging adults alongside their capacity for experiencing post-traumatic growth may hold the key to understanding their ability to successfully cope with the tasks of this developmental stage. Furthermore, the study will attempt to portray the role that gender plays in this stage of life.

Orit Ben-Ytzhak

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I am an M.A. student in the Graduate Program for Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
I completed my program requirements two years ago and since then I have been focusing on writing my thesis.

The name of my thesis is:
 “Israeli Men in Their Mid-Life Years:  Experiencing and Coping with Stress”

Abstract:
My research focuses on understanding how “normative masculinity” may contribute to the stress experienced by Israeli men in their mid-life years and the impact this stress has on their daily lives. The study was conducted using a qualitative research method of biographic-narrative interviewing of 14 men, according to the "life stories" method.


Ortal Bhoknik

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I am currently working towards an M.A. from Bar-Ilan University's Cognition, Emotion and Brain Program.
I intend to conduct a study, utilizing write-ups of interviews performed by the Israeli military, 
to identify the underlying mechanisms of social impairment in people who have committed suicide.
In this proposed study I will examine the write-ups of interviews of seventeen-year-olds who went on to commit suicide and compare them to controls. Using pre-morbid data of suicide-completers provides a unique opportunity to learn more about the mechanisms and causes of social dysfunction in this population.


Sharon Cohen

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Sharon obtained her M.A. from The Clinical-Rehabilitation Psychology Subprogram at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Her studies include the engulfment of life events and lifestyle in the trauma experience. Her research uses qualitative research methods to analyze the life stories of national trauma victims. The investigation focuses on key themes that emerge from the trauma experience, in the context of previous life events and the individual's personality.


Maya Ehrlich

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My name is Maya Ehrlich. Several months ago I completed my studies in Clinical Rehabilitative Psychology.

My thesis is entitled: "Post-Trauma and How it Affects the Perception of Personal Relationships."  

By analyzing a series of recorded interviews, I am examining the ways in which traumatic battlefield experiences have influenced Israelis in their perceptions of personal relationships. 


Rivi Frei (Landau)

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I am a bereavement researcher and a fifth year student in the direct program towards a Ph.D. (I was awarded the University's "Presidential" Scholarship).

 I studied in the Clinical-Rehabilitational Psychology track (M.A). I teach Educational Psychology at the Open University, and I am a mother of three.

My work is entitled, "Religiosity and Coping with the Loss of a Child: The Effect of Religiosity, Religious Coping and God-Attachment Style on Adjustment to Loss, Psychological Distress and Well-Being".

Bereavement research looks at the resources which might contribute to the adjustment to loss. There is a disagreement about the contribution of religiosity to adjusting to distress. The study examines the effects of religion variables related to personality  beyond the effect of demographic religion variables (religiosity classification) on adjustment to loss and mental well-being/distress. The study uses a mixed methodology (quantitative questionnaires and narrative interviews).

The study received a grant from the Israel Foundation Trustees (Research Grants for Doctoral Students in the Social Sciences), 2012.


Nehama HaCohen

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Ph.D. Program, Clinical Psychology 
Nehama is studying narrative processes throughout psychotherapy texts.
The study is a qualitative study that follows the dynamics of multiple self-states as reflected in texts of dynamic therapy. The study will examine the issues of unity and coherence of the narrative identity, within the process of psychotherapy as an arena of narrative change. The study combines two different paradigms:  the narrative approach and the psychoanalytical-dynamic theory throughout psychotherapy texts.

  Clinical Psychology Intern at the Bar-Ilan Public Clinic and Bibliotherapist. Nehama is currently pursuing her post-doctorate at the Department of Counseling and Human Development of the Haifa University, directed by Dr. Dana Amir. Nehama is the previous coordinator the relational psychotherapy lab, where she completed her dissertation, titled:  Multiplicity and mutuality in the transition of patient and therapist's self-states: comparison of good vs. poor outcome groups (HaCohen et. al., 2017). Her research project entailed the development of the TPA (Two-Person APES), an empirical mixed-method tool that enables a moment-to-moment intersubjective analysis of psychotherapy processes. The project has won acknowledgeable ISF (Israeli Science Foundation) research grants and has been presented in several highly established conferences, including the 2016 annual conference of the SPR (Society for Psychotherapy Research). In addition, Nehama is a member of the directors committee at the Briah Foundation, for advancing and supporting women-centered medical knowledge and services.Publications:
HaCohen, N., Atzil-Slonim, D., Bar-Kalifa, E., Fisher, H., & Tuval-Mshiach, R. (2017). Multiplicity and mutuality in the transition of patient and therapist's self-states: comparison of good vs. poor outcome groups. Psychotherapy Research. 
HaCohen, N., Amir, D. & Wiseman, H. (2016). Women's Narratives of Crisis and Change: Transitioning from Infertility to Pregnancy. Journal of Health Psychology. 
הכהן, נ., אמיר, ד. וויסמן, ה. (2015). מעבר לזהות פוריה: נרטיבים של זהות מתוך משבר ושינוי. מגמות, נ(2), 55-91.



Avichai Young

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I am currently working towards an M.A. in Bar-Ilan University's Adult Clinical Psychology Program,
studying the effects of combat soldiers' aggressive behavior during their military service.
In an attempt to map the influence of this behavior, my research analyzes in-depth interviews with combat
soldiers who have been discharged from various units of the Israel Defense Forces. 
The research mainly focuses on the participants' perception of aggression and their interpersonal relationships. I am also looking at the participants' use of defense mechanisms to resolve the dissonance that might emerge from the collision of two forces: their self-image as moral people and their actions as combat soldiers.



Shira Minna Haber, M.A

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​Shira is currently completing her graduate studies in child-clinical psychology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Her research stems from the relational approach and follows the dynamics of multiple self-states as reflected in texts of psychodynamic therapy. In her research Shira conducts a parallel examination of two psychological change-processes: the one is the progression of multiple self-states dynamics and tension and involves the transition from dissociation to dialectics, and the second is the progression of emotional experiencing and involves the transition from detached emotional experiencing to a subjective one.

​Shira completed her graduate studies in child-clinical psychology at Bar-Ilan University and is currently completing her internship in clinical psychology.  Shira is an active member of the relational psychotherapy research lab. Her research thesis is entitled: “Working Through Pain to Achieve Growth: Client Transition from Dissociation to Dialectics and from Detached Experiencing to Subjective Experiencing”.







Hagai Mazali

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I am a first-year Rehabilitation-Psychology practitioner. 
My thesis is entitled, "Humiliation and its Consequences:  Understanding the Experience of Humiliation and its Effect on Dynamic, Behavioral and Physiological Processes as Perceived by the Study Participants."

Cheftzy Nachmany

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My MA dissertation will focus on Religious married women's coping with the tension between Halachic requests and personal needs and self-actualization in regard to family planning, and sexuality.
Jewish Israeli religious women live in a unique situation in which on the one hand they are socialized into western modern value, like self-actualization, autonomy, and free will, while on the other hand, they are committed to the Jewish Halachic rules.
The tension between these two worlds may create identity conflicts, especially where the two worlds inflict contradicting values and behaviors.


Milena Ruman

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Clinical Psychology Graduate Program '09

After some deliberation, I chose a subject for my thesis that held a great deal of personal interest for me as an immigrant; in fact, I likely chose the field of psychology originally as a way to understand some of my experiences. I began my work under the guidance of the late Professor Israel Orbach; while the subject didn't fall into his particular field of expertise, he took an interest in my studies and greatly encouraged me. It was to my great good fortune that before he died he asked Rivka Tuval-Mashiach to help and guide me, in terms of the methodological aspect of the research, and she has since taken his place and become my mentor. It has not been easy for me, but I am happy to say that right now, with Rivka's kind support and guidance, I am finally close to completing my thesis.

The Feeling Of Home: A Psychological Analysis Of The Immigrant Experience of Home
My research subject is the philosophical concept of the "Feeling of Home," which I have studied by examining a group of immigrants who arrived in Israel as teenagers. The research uses narrative and phenomenological methodology and analyzes in-depth interviews in order to investigate the subject of  the meaning of home for people who have immigrated from a "personal homeland" to a "historical one." The purpose of this study was to introduce the concept of home as a psychological term that can be used in theoretical and clinical work with immigrants and people who have migrated repeatedly. Another purpose of this study was to offer a different perspective on the immigrant experience, one that adds to the basic discourse about loss and adaptation and provides a more universal perspective on the concept of home, the loss of it, the search for it and the process of building a home for the modern individual.  I believe that as an immigrant myself, I had a unique perspective from which to conduct this research and an ability to better communicate the experience.


Gali Sembira

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I am currently working on obtaining my PhD in Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University (since 2007). 

Being a Step-Parent in a Lesbian Family
In recent years, there have been many changes in family patterns and household structures. New types of families include "merged families" and lesbian-parented families."  Another type, which has resulted from a combination of these two, is the "integrated lesbian family," i.e., a family in which one of the partners entered the relationship with a child or children from a previous marriage. The other partner therefore finds herself in a situation in which she must help raise a child or children to whom she did not give birth and for whom she did not plan; these children came into her life as part of the "package deal" of the new relationship.
I will soon be presenting the initial findings of my doctoral thesis, which are based on a series of meetings  

                                      with 20 parents from integrated lesbian families, exploring their personal experiences. 

Cobi Stein

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I am an M.A graduate of the Clinical-Rehabilitational Psychology Department at Bar-Ilan University.
For three years I have been working towards a PhD on the subject of the loneliness of men who have undergone a national-related trauma.
My research attempts to shed light on the loneliness these men experience and the coping mechanisms – prevalent in the phenomenology of national-related trauma – that they have used to deal with it. I utilize qualitative methods of narrative inquiry to uncover these themes in the life stories of 40 men who have participated in NATAL's testimonial project. 



Gilad Stempler

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M.A student at the clinical subprogram, department of  psychology, Bar-Ilan university.

My study is titled: the long term impact of peritraumatic losses on adjustment and well-being in a sample of Gush-Katif evacuees

The stu
dy examines the long-term ramifications of Gush-Katif forced relocation, focusing on the contribution of early losses during and shortly after the evacuation to post traumatic symptoms, well-being, growth and depression four years later. In order to understand these relationships the study integrates quantitative and qualitative findings. 

Noa Polak-Verdiger

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I am currently working towards an M.A. in Bar-Ilan University's Cognition, Emotion and Brain Program.
My thesis aims to assess the outcomes for young people who served in the National-Civic Service (NCS) over the past 5 years and were identified as youth in distress. Moreover, it aims to provide recommendations for NCS officials as to what needs to be done in order to achieve the best results for these youth.



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