The Danielle Sonnenfeld Clinic and Institute for Trauma and Loss Therapy, more commonly known as the Danielle Clinic, is located in Bar Ilan University and operated by the Department of Psychology. The Clinic offers psychological therapy to disadvantaged patients free of charge.

The Danielle Clinic is directed by Professor Tuvia Perry, a faculty member of the Department of Psychology at Bar Ilan University.  The Danielle Clinic distinguishes itself by utilizing narrative therapy to support victims of trauma and loss. Narrative therapy is a method of psychotherapy that separates the person from the problem and encourages people to rely on their own skill sets to minimize the problems that exist in their everyday lives.  Professor Perry explains that “The therapists in our Clinic facilitate the patients in dealing with the traumas that they suffered by creative a neat, clear narrative of the traumatic episode and integrating it into their conscious as a part—negative but containable—of their greater life story.”

Field studies have shown, says Perry, that when a patient observes the therapist experiencing the trauma along with him and able to contain the episode in his conscious, he is positively impacted, and this itself improves his ability to absorb the trauma and surmount it.

The Danielle Clinic and its 8 therapists develop and offer innovative therapy options to patients and communities dealing with trauma and loss. In this framework, the Clinic creates a reciprocal channel between the research conducted at Bar Ilan University and the therapy taking place in the Clinic. The Clinic serves as a theoretical and clinical information center that is channeled into field work by therapists studying in the University.

The Danielle Clinic offers free therapy to youths and adults who have lost loved ones to illness, accidents, or natural causes; women who have suffered stillbirths; soldiers and citizens who are trauma victims; and bereaved family members of fallen soldiers. Some 70% of patients treated at the Danielle Clinic have reported a positive change in their lives.

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