Healing Trauma Within Our Jewish Community

Experiencing trauma within our community not only makes us question ourselves but also our families, our leaders, and our faith. We feel stuck with our conflicting feelings of protectiveness over our community (which is a minority that is facing increasing antisemitism) and not wanting our fellow Jews to be harmed, while wanting our voices, which have been silenced and harmed, to speak out to stop the harm from happening to others. Whether this harm is caused by sexual, emotional, and/or physical abuse or from feeling invisible within the community due to being a woman or a member of the LGBTQ community, we can feel conflicted about our faith and where we belong. As part of our work together I will help you feel more embodied in your identity and help you feel more empowered on which ever spiritual path you take. 

As a jewish woman of color I feel drawn into supporting my fellow Jews who have experienced various types of trauma within our community. Women who feel lost within religious spaces and aren’t sure how to navigate all of the feelings and experiences they have had. How to reconcile what they have been taught all their lives, which at times has been really beautiful but also has been really painful. Women who feel alone, broken, voiceless, and powerless who are looking to reconnect, find, and use their voice and truly feel empowered in their lives. Sometimes this questioning comes from sexual abuse within the community (and feeling unsafe to disclose or being ostracized and not believed for disclosing) or from day to day experiences of not being seen or heard in religious spaces. Having questions that weren’t answered or wanting to expand knowledge through study and being told “no”. These are often experiences that do not sit right with us and when voiced we are silenced, leading us to feel invisible, as if we do not matter. 

As a jewish woman who values halacha and is a member of the Conservative/Masorti community (which is a community that not every Jew accepts but is a community that accepts me and I accept it which makes feel safe, settled, and at peace) I understand how conflicting our experiences within the jewish community can be and feel. Even voicing these conflicts makes us feel guilt or shame, like we are turning against our family, community, and G-d. But it’s ok to question and to explore. To be curious about what we are drawn to and to seek resolution and safety within our community (or a community that is loving and accepting to us and us to it) and people we share values with. This may mean we leave our community of birth or stay within our community of birth and fight for change. There is only what feels right and resonates with you.

I will join with you on your path of healing honoring and respecting your empowered choices to do what feels intrinsically right for you. Along the way you will learn how to set and maintain boundaries with members of your family, friends, and even members of the community. You will learn how to become more present and embodied, so you can feel safe in your body and trust your instincts. This will help you feel empowered in the choices that you make rather than remaining stuck, frozen, or made smaller to appease others. My hope is that by the end of our work together you will feel better, more confident, and more at peace and whole in mind, body, and spirit and not fragmented.