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Review Article Volume 17 Issue 2
Being there – community educational psychology after October 7th
Ofra Alroy, Tal Lombrozo Tauber, Flora Mor
Received: April 12, 2026 | Published: April 24, 2026
Citation: Alroy O, Tauber TL, Mor F. Being there – community educational psychology after October 7th. J Psychol Clin Psychiatry. 2026;17(2):87-93. DOI: 10.15406/jpcpy.2026.17.00858
Abstract
This paper offers a reflective, narrative-based account of community educationalpsychological work with two Israeli communities displaced following the collective trauma of October 7, 2023. Drawing on psychoanalytic concepts of witnessing, holding, silence, and shared traumatic reality, the paper explores what it means to “be there” with individuals and communities whose sense of safety, continuity, and meaning has been profoundly disrupted. Through clinical vignettes and field-based reflections, we describe encounters with children, parents, adolescents, educators, and community leaders during five months of sustained presence in evacuation centers and temporary housing. These fragments illuminate the collapse of language in the face of trauma, the centrality of bodily and relational experience, and the gradual re-emergence of narrative through relational containment. Rather than presenting an empirical study, the paper positions writing itself as a form of witnessing and a restorative practice, contributing to psychoanalytic discussions of collective trauma and therapeutic presence.
Keywords: collective trauma, witnessing, therapeutic presence, shared traumatic reality, community psychoanalysis
©2026 Alroy, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.