Rationale and Work Methods

Our staff of facilitators at Alot Hashachar consists of skilled professionals from various disciplines of therapy and facilitation, which presents a rich pool of multi-faceted and extensive knowledge and experience. Participants undergo an in-depth, meaningful process as they experience the impact of healing from nature, interpersonal connection in their group work, the power of creativity as a mechanism for growth from crisis, and practical tools. The combination of varied approaches and methods of internal processing is part of our rationale that seeks to introduce the combat teams to different ways of processing the combat experience and everyday challenges. Taking part in the experiential activities and using tools from different disciplines allows the participants to increase and enhance their mechanisms for resilience, to strengthen existing coping mechanisms, and encounter and adopt new ways of coping.

Alongside learning and experiencing different approaches hands-on, we place strong emphasis on identifying existing resources and the teams’ ability to gain strength from past experiences. We guide them as they process them in a positive and empowering way, using personal and collective tools at their disposal in order to cope with difficult events they are yet to encounter in life.

As well as processing past events, the journey enables the transition into civilian life, where we focus on growth, dreams, and personal development. This opens the path ahead towards future challenges and strengthens them in preparation for a return to regular routine or a future in combat, by being more connected and more resilient, emotionally, mentally individually and as a group.

Working With Nature

We believe in hands-on work with nature on our journeys, and offer participants the opportunity to experience and engage with the therapeutic elements in an ocean environment during the spring and summer months, and in the forested mountain terrain in the winter. The physical surrounds of the sea bay are relaxing and charming, and available to participants for their benefit at any given moment, while the forest and its natural expanses produce an effect of moderation and calm, while working on complex, traumatic experiences, reducing tension, producing inner stillness, and connecting to the ultimate present of the here and now.

Throughout the journey, participants engage in exercises that help restore control and focus, which they can use at home in Israel whether in normal, daily life situations or when facing stressful situations under pressure, and which can help improve their quality of life. Methods such as rock balancing by the sea, or the Safe Place method in the forest, offers effective techniques for grounding and focusing the mind. The quiet that permeates nature allows for effective mindfulness exercises that focus on the body and gives rise to alpha wave frequency due to the repetitive gentle rumble of the waves or the rustling forest sounds. There is a high concentration of chrome in the air where we do our work, and the different breathing exercises by the sea lets the mineral penetrate the body, creating a positive impact on the brain, while forest bathing (sensory engagement with nature) and connection with nature helps reduce cortisol, adrenaline, and intrusive thoughts.

Group and Team Work

A key component of resilience, which we highlight on Alot Hashachar’s processing journeys, is the power of the group and organic team as a source of strength, vitality, and support. Through many various techniques adopted from different disciplines, we work on enhancing the strength of the team as a significant resource, a technique the participants can access throughout life. At Alot Hashachar, we have developed a unique model for observing the team and group as a whole, in order to understand the team narrative and story, the people that propel it, and the experiences that have shaped it, but also to reflect on the team’s future in terms of building and strengthening the group, its meaning, and enhancing its strengths.

Through the discussion circles, group exercises, and creative work techniques, team members experiment with closeness and intimacy in their groups, enhancing the group’s emotional language, sharing with honesty and openness, communicating, accepting support, assisting, and asking for help. Similarly, they get to do this in a safe environment, helping them work on their ability to talk about conflicts and differences that exist in the team, to appreciate these interpersonal differences, to acknowledge each other’s behaviors and emotions, to learn to perceive mutual distress, thereby building and strengthening the future of the team, and shared friendships in general and during times of combat.

Creative Work

As part of the personal and group processing experience, we at Alot Hashachar work creatively, making use of various techniques and methods for creative development. We immerse ourselves in various art forms, lending expression to what is transpiring internally, enabling the release of emotional burden and pain, and bringing it to surface in a regulated, controlled manner. Likewise, this kind of work helps develop flexibility, playfulness, and the ability to improvise. Overall, it exposes the group to creative ways of coping in times of stress, giving them creative avenues to emerge from states of stuckness and standstill.

Creativity is a significant method in emotional processing and a key technique we work with at Alot Hashachar. Detachment from routine and the daily environment, as well as the joint creative work of the team, help remove blocks and create a safe environment that offers a place for deep spiritual connection, which is reflected in the creative work.

Working with different styles of writing allows for freedom, revealing areas of unawareness and connecting to the intuition, which are not as accessible amid the intensity of everyday life. The use of different artistic tools such as painting and colors, and working with elements from nature, offers a platform for expressing hidden emotions in a powerful, intimate, yet controlled manner. Work through drama and play allows for experimentation with different perspectives of the same event, examining and exploring the result of alternative behaviors and emotions, as well as practical experience by bringing flexibility, improvisation, and imagination to complex situations.

Practical Tools

Alongside the group process, participants also receive tools for their journey that are practical and useful for developing and identifying resources of resilience. By working with different models developed from different disciplines, the participants become acquainted with different ways to self-soothe and relax, focus, and ground themselves, in order to discover their own independent styles of functioning when dealing with complexities in their everyday life.

Over the course of the journey, participants receive an extensive set of body exercises, including a range of breathing exercises, which they can continue practicing at home when situations call for it. They also learn focus exercises to identify and recognize different points of tension in the body, and different movement exercises. The exercises help the participants to learn, examine, and recognize the different behaviors of the body at times of stress, and provide a wide range of ways to relax and relieve tension, blood flow, and energy, thereby producing playfulness and a sense of vitality.

Moreover, we see the journey as crucial for providing practical tools to help perceive distress and cope with anxiety and symptoms of post trauma. Likewise, participants receive a host of active tools for understanding where sources of support lie, as well as for asking for help. By recognizing and integrating different models, such as comfort circles, the Gesher Me’ached model, and visual projection, among others, participants refine their tools to discern distress and lack of emotional awareness, as well as ways to navigate these states. Participants learn and practice their ability to identify and activate internal and external resources, enabling them to cope with complex situations and work towards solving problems and managing crises.