‘COVID-19 Belongs to Everyone… in This War—We Are Alone’: Israeli Therapists' Perceptions of the Pandemic and 2023 War

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had widespread socio-psychological consequences. About 3 years later, on 7 October 2023, a horrific invasion by the Hamas terrorist organisation took place in Israel, leading to a war in Gaza. These two massive emergency events can be classified as disasters, with far-reaching implications. During both periods, mental health professionals faced shared trauma, thus experiencing the trauma both personally and through the experiences of their patients. In this study, we focus on therapists' experiences, thoughts, and feelings during these emergency events that have befallen Israel. An open-ended questionnaire was completed by 201 therapists. A thematic analysis was performed, revealing two main categories: differentiation between the events, relating to the essence of each threat as unique; and a continuum, relating to the events by drawing a linear line from the first to the second, integrating their implications into a coherent interpretation. The findings contribute to the increasing awareness of the complexity of therapists' experiences in such difficult situations, highlighting the need to pay attention to professionals' perceptions and feelings during such intense times, while also demonstrating the importance of understanding the differences between disasters and their consequences.