Hi there! 

While, it's been a while since we’ve written here, we’ve been busy with our cousin project, Mindfulness in Arabic, MiA in short. 

We’re excited to let you know that there has been a lot of movement and activity around the project: Bringing Trauma-informed Culturally-sensitive Mindfulness in Arabic to refugees and displaced peoples. 

Our first module has officially been launched (after two rounds of feedback) and we’re in the process of organizing several pilot programs in Europe, Israel/Palestine and Turkey.

Some recent feedback we’ve received from a Jordan psychologist and group facilitator working with refugee women in Cyprus: 

"Just to  share feedback with you and pls feel free to pass this on, I used the guided meditation with my group today, and It really moved them, the smiles and sense of aliveness I saw in their eyes, when they came back from their internal space, was beautiful for me and them to experience... I have been with this group for 6 months, so they already were comfortable with going inwards ...but I have struggled to find guided meditations in Arabic...

They asked if they could take it home as it would really help them if they could do it everyday....I told them hopefully soon and shared MiA’s vision with them. They really appreciated it. 

Sending a big bow to MiA’s efforts and looking forward to more in the new year :)"

 Our next step is to launch our Training of Trainers - the first training for Arabic facilitators of Mindfulness. As we proceed with this we are happily inviting partnership and collaboration for this creation, write to us for more information! info@mindfulnessinarabic.org 

In September we also launched our Trauma-Informed Webinar Series, with a join conversation between ToWo/MiA Founder and Director Juditta Ben-David MA SEP and David Treleaven PhD. This series is a grassroots fundraising effort to support MiA’s  ongoing programming and creation. 

We’d love to hear from you! So please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions. MiA is a volunteer based organization (we have amazing people from all over the globe) and we would love your support. We’re always looking for volunteers to support us with Arabic narration, graphic design, fundraising, translation and more. 

Info@mindfulnessinarabic.org

Mindfulness in Arabic! Has launched !! Our Indeigogo campaign - Check it out !

Trauma Robs you of the Present- 
Mindfulness Trauma Refugees and the point of mother tongue

ToWo group and GHS are working passionately towards launching Mindfulness in Arabic (MiA), an online project consisting of a full 8 week mindfulness course in the Arabic language that will be made available freely.

The violent situation in the Middle East and the outpouring of displaced people and refugees from Syria and other Arabic-speaking countries are a strong call to create Mindfulness meditations in Arabic. Refugee Aid workers in Turkey, Palestinian women in the West Bank, Druze women in the Galilee, German refugee counselors, and social workers in Israel have all insisted that Mindfulness practices like this are imperative in Arabic.

A volunteer-based group comprised of women from different faiths, ToWo works in coed groups with Syrians and other refugees. The project is based on the basic premise that trauma robs us of the present moment, and healing occurs in the present body-mind. The first meditations are already being shared with the social workers working with wounded Syrians in a hospital setting.

We are proposing a project consisting of a full 8 week course. The materials will be offered on the internet freely, and will be supported online by a member of our group. We see great potential in being able not only to translate these meditations to Arabic, but also to find the right way to make them handy and useful for those that would like to take the practice on the go!

The crowdfunding campaign for this unique project is was recently launched - please check it out!

It is an innovative trauma informed and culturally sensitive Mindfulness design.

We have already collected a wonderful team of volunteers and are lucky enough to have the support of leading members of the mindfulness community. Among them: Tara Brach, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Shinzen Young, Rick Hanson, Tovana- Insight Meditation society, Israel, Muda Center IDC, and the Bangor University Mindfulness dept, UK.

Any support, donation, and sharing will be truly appreciated!

Join the dream, help us manifest, right here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mindfulness-in-arabic-project-meditation#/

Joining the Red Cross and the Health department- training Arabic speaking Social workers- Trauma and Resiliency- for wounded Syrians

ToWo group have been invited to train Arabic speaking Social workers, in Nahariya and Tzfat hospitals

Trauma and the Mind, Mindfulness, MBSE - mindfulness based somatic therapy for trauma and resiliency. 4 full days over a month. Ms. Juditta Ben-David MA SEP, Ms. Dunia Brodi MA, and Ms. Jumana MD, mental health professionals and trauma specialists, are training the social workers in Hebrew and Arabic. All the participants are counselors that work with the wounded Syrians, in various departments of the hospital.
It's been a delightful interactive eye and heart opening series till now. Working with women and men from the Muslim and Druze community and their specific cultural conditioning regarding the body and yet approaching it in self reflection, patience and deep listening, has been a challenge worthwhile. We believe it is an act of healing for the Social workers as well as to the Syrians that they will treat. We have a couple more days to go. 

** Your support for this project would be highly appreciated.** Donations can be given via PayPal and Bank ** for more detail please write: towogroup@gmail.com

The feedback from the group is amazing
The group has been sharing of vicarious trauma as well as about the stress of the work, which can be at times emotionally conflictual.
It's a novel idea for them, SE MBSE CRM - psychophysical techniques and Mindfulness, yet backed by so much research and theory - they are joining us in curiosity, role play, personal experiences, and lots of questions.
Towogroup@gmail.com

Syrians have been arriving for the last 5 years to the Israeli Hospitals in the north, since the beginning of this long ongoing war- for medical help through the connection with the Red Cross.
Quite a few good thousands have received valuable treatment, families, children, women and men.
Their stories and their wounds are severe, and the staff had very little experience and/or knowledge of the emotional-body-mind side of trauma work, for the Syrians as well as for themselves.

Our materials have been translated to Arabic, so that the tools can be shared easily.

** Your support for this project would be highly appreciated.** Donations can be given via PayPal and Bank ** for more detail please write: towogroup@gmail.com

Mindfulness in Arabic- A new and Unique project !!!

Check out our new page for the upcoming Mindfulness in Arabic campaign
http://mindfulnessinarabic.blogspot.co.il/

We've gathered a good group of translators and web designers, a nice group of volunteers to support the project.

The violent situation in the Middle East as well as the ongoing refugee wave, displaced people outpouring from Syria and the Arabic countries, is a strong call to create Mindfulness meditations in Arabic.

ToWo is a group composed of volunteers. Most of us are professional women, from all faiths, who train and facilitate cross-cultural women's groups, bilingually. We work in coed groups with Syrians and other refugees. Our premise is that trauma robs us of the present moment, and healing occurs in the present body-mind.

Refugee Aid workers in Turkey, Palestinian women in the West Bank, Druze women in the Galilee, German refugee counselors, and social workers in Israel have all insisted that Mindfulness practices like this are imperative in Arabic.  

We are proposing a project consisting of at least 3 Mindfulness meditations in Arabic, up to a full 8 week course. The materials will be offered on the internet freeland will be supported online by a member of our group. We see great potential in being able not only to translate these meditations to Arabic, but also to find the right way to make them handy and useful for those that would like to take the practice on the go !

Beautiful Women gathered to share our Womanhood

Beautiful Women gathered to share our Womanhood

Jewish Muslim Christian, Israeli Palestinian

Building our relationship through our Commonalities 

Sharing our pain and our knowledge

Drinking in a new perspective - of our Healthy Possibilities

--------------------------

What a delightful conference !

Here are a few pictures

Back to Istanbul- ** for relief workers **- working with the Syrian refugees **

JuDitta Ben David (ToWo) was invited again, to join TRI in Turkey, as a colleague and expert in the field of trauma treatment and resiliency building.
She will support in facilitating the Turkish training for Syrian refugee relief workers, therapists, counselors, social workers, and ngo aid.
This is the second time Juditta will arrive in Turkey for this cause, in 2015, to share the practice.
We do need your help !
Please donate ( at the PayPal button on the right)

Turkey has known many upheavals; As we know there are now close to 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Most of them living in tent cities on the border. Arabic Kurdish and Yazidis. In order to continue to receive the basic support, of food health and schools, they cannot leave these tent cities. This situation is a breeding place for many severe problems, and leaves too many in survival mode. The therapists, counselors, and aid workers need all the support they can.
These trips and the work there are not paid for.
The training is given generously to the relief workers, training and accommodation are covered for; Yet the facilitators need to find ways to cover their own expenses. 
The cause is a good one, and definitely one requested and needed by the field. Last time we trained some 30 people, which found it very helpful and practical.
We need to raise funds to at least cover expenses of Juditta's travel, and accommodation there.
We're looking at an expense of 250 $ for the flight
and 300 $ for the accommodation
That is a modest request by all means.
Please Donate here with PayPal --- on the right corner of this post
or send us an email and we shall get back to you asap
Thanks !!

the team and participants from our last visit there

Working with displaced people, women men and kids, in such aggressive and war afflicted regions, where trauma and trauma symptoms are prevalent, and with so much uncertainty as to their future, is a tough call. 
These tools of emotional first aid are like fresh water to them.
~~~ Your donation as small or as large can be of immediate help ~~~ 

THANKS !!!

towogroup@gmail.com

8 sessions of Tools for Trauma, first aid SE_EFA, Multi-Cultural women groups Galilee

8 sessions of Tools for Trauma, first aid SE_EFA, Multi-Cultural women groups.
From the Galilee Healing Sisterhood of ToWo group; supported by the Mateh Asher council.
Led by Juditta Ben-David and Nidham Haiagny
8 Mondays beginning the 13th of April
Matna"s Naaman, near Akko.
Info: towogroup@gmail.com
Registration : nilia@matteasher.org.il

An exciting collaboration - working w/ Syrian refugees

**An exciting collaboration between ToWo project and TRI- Trauma Resource Institute- in Turkey! **

JuDitta Ben David (ToWo) was invited by Mrs. Elaine Miller-Karas, the executive director and co-founder of TRI, as a colleague and expert in the field of trauma treatment, to participate in a humanitarian project in Turkey for Syrian refugees.

This project offered a workshop for relief therapists and staff who work with Syrian Yazidi and Kurd refugees in the eastern and south eastern border of Turkey. The population that has experienced seperation destruction intimidation and death, largely still live in tent camps, unable to return to where their house use to be and without the ability to make home wherever they are. A population that due to their ongoing transient status is still in survival mode and defenseless.

The workshops theme is CRM- Community Resiliency Model; A development of the SE (somatic experience), Brain research, Mindfulness, and understanding their application in building community resilience. The technique is backed up by research.

TRI, like the ToWo group, share and provide the basic psycho-physical aid tools in major trauma afflicted areas. (ToWo has already offered successfully similar workshops in South Africa, and Ireland, and TRI in Mexico, Rwanda, and the Philippines). Both, ToWo and TRI train groups and individuals in the field so that they can deliver these tools further on in their communities. ToWo has specialized in working with women's groups.

It was a successful workshop that was given voluntarily. The participants were flown in to a comfortable university in Istanbul for the study and practice.

JuDitta will write a few words about her experience later.

CRM workshop will take place in Israel too and JuDitta was asked to be their representative here.

We wish for further cooperation between the two organizations- who share a similar vision.

more info and a possibility to donate at: 
towogroup@gmail.com

OMG a forth venue for the Galilee Healing Sisterhood !!

 Slowly but consistently, circles of women that want to learn with us are forming, here in the western Galilee.

"Galilee Healing Sisterhood" - GHS is rolling and the road is opening:

A forth venue: Matteh Asher
A course opening on January 11th , 2015 !!

Open to the public,
first step is NVC and then Trauma therapy Skills SE_EFA
write to: ToWogroup@gmail.com or Nili@matteasher.org.il
for registration and info.

Hope to see you there.
We could use your financial support, to bring these tools to as many communities in this region
All these courses are being subsidized by our volunteers kind work and teaching.

Please use the Paypal option here, or write to us for a tax deduction option.

*** For many more circles to bring healing and resiliency skills,
Happy Holidays of Light .***

The course is full ! There's a waiting list for the next course ....

Ireland - Juditta will be giving an intro and a full training, EFA_SE & MBSE - in Cork and Dublin

The 28-30 November
A new beginning, the MBSE training in Cork !
Mindfulness based Somatic Experiencing Trauma therapy.

After 4 years that Juditta Ben-David MA SEP taught at SHEP, where a few accomplished graduates have finished the training, we're offering a new training **

For those that would like to apply, inquire, taste:
Leemore Butler  is the ToWo Ireland admin
info@doulasinireland.com
or towo@europe.com
086-8148658

There will be a special intro day, EFA_SE (Basic SE skills for first aid)
So if you're curious... that's the way to get a taste :-)
in Cork and in Dublin, 28th Nov, and 5th Dec

Here are the flyers for the courses. Please write to Leemore,

the EFA_SE flyer

the MBSE flyer

towo@europe.com
086-8148658


See you there !!

And in that regard we'd also like to share with you an article that Andy wrote, one that resonates strongly with Judittas' work, and the EFA_SE intro she teaches :

"There is a growing movement to create “trauma-informed” services, organizations and communities. This movement reflects an understanding that psychological trauma and toxic stress are near-universal experiences that can affect every aspect of life, and that everyone has a role to play in addressing the issue." 

"The good news is that you don't have to be a human service professional to make a difference"- Andy

The full article written by Andy Blanch, gives a nice view over CRT's spirit and latest projects, 

and in it you can hear the resonance to the ToWo and the GHS work. Amen, So be it :)

The circles are forming! - The Galilee Healing Sisterhood

 Slowly but consistently, circles of women that want to learn with us are forming, here in the western Galilee.

"The Galilee Healing Sisterhood" - GHS is rolling on and the road is opening:

*First circle - in Tamera, a town that is mainly Arab Muslim;

*Second circle - in Sajur, a mainly Druze town;

*Third circle - in Maalot Tarshiha, a city that unites all the cultures, Christians, Jews and Muslims;

and counting... 

=At this time, we create groups close to home, in a language that's close to home, after receiving the invitation from the women of the area.
=These circles serve for receiving tools for living a multi-cultural life, tools of NVC (Non Violent Communication) and women empowerment, tools for health in a society that is full of trauma, and off course, tools for video-docu creation and mindfulness. 

=The groups are bilingual, in Hebrew and Arabic.

=From these circles that are taking the intro workshops, we shall form the group that will join a full year course. 

=At this time - Anat and Nadia have joined us for the teaching, Samira and Nidham as administrative help, and Noa as a solid support throughout the whole project !

*In Julis - a Druze village in the area, at the "Medica" alternative medicine school, we are opening a course for "reducing stress and anxiety in everyday life, through mindfulness". This course is open for everyone: Arab-Jews, women-men, and derives too from the course of the GHS. It too will touch upon the effect of trauma in our life and how to resource etc.

*If this interests you, or anyone you may know,

if you feel like interesting someone or some group from the Western Galilee area, hurry up and connect between us!

towogroup@gmail.com 

Or leave a message at 077-6639903

and we will see to which initial group you would want to join,

and you'll get all the info that's needed for making a decision and registration. 

We will be glad for any help in translation to Arabic

and for help as assistants in the groups.

 We can only repeat and emphasize especially at this very shaken time, a time in which great violence thunders in this country and its neighbours,
that these issues are even more important and relevant to our lives now ! 
After all, we know that unresolved trauma that hasn't been dissolved and shed off from the nervous system, might cause more violence, as well as inter-generational trauma :-(

What's in it at a glance:
Shedding off the trauma from the nervous system, tools to be used in the everyday life to restore the spiritual-emotional health, and the need to communicate our needs; The transition between the Trauma Vortex that pulls us to believe in a narrow, pessimistic perspective, into the Healing "Vortex" and the space of possibilities that gives delight to the spirit, spiritual resilience and vitality;

The possibility to reach the source of creation at an hour of pain and sadness; To find resources, insights and strengths to choose life.

 All these are tools needed especially for us women, to be transmitted to children and the community as well.
Tools for our sensation, so we could speak out our truth without shame, to create and lead a social net that is sane, cooperative and clear.

 Let us be light to ourselves and our surrounding, and show there is another way.

if you feel like interesting someone or some group from the Western Galilee area, hurry up and connect between us!

towogroup@gmail.com 

Or leave a message at 077-6639903 

C-R-T (center for religious tolerance) & the GHS (Galilee Healing Sisterhood)

We are very Happy and Grateful to be one of the projects that the C-R-T  has chosen to support this year. The GHS (Galilee Healing Sisterhood) course seems to be resonating with
  the C-R-T's focus of trauma informed communities,
and it is exciting to meet people and souls that have a similar vision and inspiration. We are very grateful for their generosity and confidence in the first steps of the GHS training.

Check out CRT MiniGrants program for 2013/14, "ToWo"'s in it :)

http://www.c-r-t.org/project-minig3.php

Here's a link to an interview with Andy Blanch, who in her life and work gives inspiration for women to make a change, since what's important, is that we see each other as ones who have capabilities and mastery.

Isn't she amazing and wise?


We still are in need of funds !

** To be able to complete the GHS training as intended, a full year professional course **,
throughout the lively multicultural woman setting here, be it Druze, Christian, Jews, Muslim, Buddhists,
and see the fruits in the women groups that our students will facilitate throughout the Galilee later :-)

If you are so inclined, and would like to Donate, Volunteer, Host an event, please contact us at:

towogroup.resource@gmail.com

Druze women from Sajur- joining the circles

Last week Juditta has met with amazing Druze women from the Sajur village in the Galilee, regarding the GHS training. They have shown their serious interest in the training and have suggested to organize an intro meeting for more women in their area. This shall happen once the Yitro (Jethro) Druze holiday will end, mid May. 

Some info about this holiday: Yitro, who was in the bible Moses' father-in-law, a Kenite shepherd and priest of Midian, is revered as a prophet in the Druze religion and considered an ancestor of the Druze.

They have also asked for English lessons for their women, which they feel will aid in opening their horizons and support their continuing education. ToWo group will try and support them with this as well. if you have an inclination to volunteer your time and knowledge and meet strong curious and well intended women from the Druze community ,please write to us: towogroup@gmail.com

The Conference was a success !! Pat, Bonnie, TDIL, Nes Amim, and 120 people- Trauma Mindfulness Body Attachment

Wow ! The workshop was so successful that we didn't get to write about it yet  :-) And as a teaser, yes, we did receive a nice donation towards the GHS project :-) Galilee Healing Sisterhood.

We're still excited from the amount of people that came to learn from Pat and Bonnie. The crowd was made of 120 people that filled the room, amazing professionals, all curious to hear one of the pioneers of body-oriented psychotherapy, fascinated and smiling like during a good meal. I'm so very thankful for this. And moreover, for the possibility to create these kind of workshops in the north of Israel too!

Dr Pat Ogden, at her 70's, looking cool in her pointy boots and 20 years younger, knows how to impact this kind of intelligent crowd easily. She skillfully combined theory, videos from counseling hours she has given, explanations about the steps she has taken, and reading of the client's body language along with the audience. But most of all, Pat brings a deep and broad understanding of attachment theories, knowledge of brain research (about attachment and trauma) and of the latest researchers that work in the field, many years of experience along with an authentic physical intelligence of a dancer, and as a student/partner/close friend of Dr Ron Kurtz.  

Out of these materials Pat weaved a clear and amazingly interesting common ground, a road map, which for the practitioners, and especially for those who work with developmental traumas, was inspiring.  

We are so thankful to TDIL, who helped so much in the organization of the workshop, and took part in the preparations and production. It is so good to know, that even a well founded organization wants to go ahead and fresh up, and invests in opening new fields of knowledge to its members. The insertion of techniques from the world of body-oriented psychotherapy to the field of the trauma therapy and dissociation, appeared to be necessary and meaningful on the way to healing.  
    
The ToWo project won a nice donation!! Yes, after deduction of the expenses and the part of the teacher and the partners, a nice sum is left for the ToWo project and the up-coming course in the Galilee. Juditta (ToWo project founder and the conference CEO) donated all of her part of the income to the building of the project in the Galilee, and also Liora from TDIL and members of the committee donated 1/3 of their income to the project… Pat also donated part of her income… which gives us pains in the butt and lots of work to prepare the course still in this year.

So here’s another big thanks to all those who took part, to TDIL, Juditta and Pat :)   

And did we say mindfulness? Not yet? So indeed, all the work that Pat suggested is based in a process of mindfulness, which she defines as anchored related mindfulness. We liked it. Of course, because our tools are also mindfulness based J.  And there’s nothing like resonating with friends who share your language and path in life, investigating the field together, while being supported by a highly experienced woman. 

Just to remind you:
The ToWo project will train professional women from all cultures in the Galilee, with tools from the world of trauma therapy, mindfulness based tools MBSE, SE, EFA, and body oriented psychotherapy. This broad course of 32 weeks will include also NVC (non violent communication), deepening of treatment in a multi-cultural society, and… training in tools from the worlds of media and video, for documentation of life stories (more on this some other time… Let’s leave a little suspense). The course will be co-taught in Hebrew and Arabic.

We will be glad to answer questions on this issue; the interviews for the first group have already started. For more details and registration write to:

towogroup@gmail.com 

So, here’s a little taste of the workshop
for those who were there and those who weren’t.
A few pictures and a link for the transcription of the workshop,
that will surely give you a hint of the insights.

Thanks
And hoping to see you
Juditta and the ToWo group