Our Therapies

How do we heal a child from trauma?

Children are often muted by their trauma.

Children who have post traumatic stress cannot sit down and talk out what’s on their minds. With these unique therapy programs, children affected by terror can choose to do what they feel instead of just saying what they feel. The help of “intermediaries” empowers them, allowing them to open up and express themselves to their therapists.

Animal Therapy

Invites the children to enter a warm space where they rebuild their confidence, gain leadership skills and responsibility through dog training, horseback riding, and participating in our centre’s petting zoo.

Drama Therapy

With the help of different props and puppets, the terror-stricken children express their feelings about their traumatic experience, with the medium making it easier for them to share what’s really going on inside.

Music Therapy

As their traumatic stories keep them speechless, the beauty of music and its movements provides the kids with the words that help them understand what happened, what’s hurting, how they feel, and how to recover.

Art Therapy

By picking up a crayon and drawing a picture or by using paints and other tools, the child and therapist have a vehicle through which to discuss in depth the emotions presented in the art, allowing the child to indirectly address his inner feelings and fears.

Horticultural Therapy

This new program uses agriculture to help children improve socialization, task initiation, cognitive abilities, and learn new skills. Most importantly children can regain those skills that are lost due to trauma.

Helping the whole child heal

Physical, Occupational & Speech Therapy

Like any centre confronting the developmental challenges of children, our programs treat children with developmental delays, gross, and/or fine motor difficulties. We also treat a wide variety of children with speech, language, and handwriting issues; organizational problems; and long-term challenges such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy.

Certified therapists work closely with school staff and parents to help the children, as they are all mainstreamed into regular schools where they can learn alongside other children and fully achieve their potential.

Helping a child heal from anywhere

How do we respond to a crisis situation?

Responding to emergency situations is not new to Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund. In response to the October 7th Massacre, we have launched some new programs and expanded treatments to allow for more children to have access to therapy:

Open Studio

This is a twice weekly program in which children who have not yet been diagnosed can come in for art therapy in groups, under the guidance of experienced therapists. The therapists often discern the need for a formal diagnosis and follow-up treatment towards the path of healing.

Mobile Therapy

We have hired and trained experienced therapists to go out to the temporary homes of the evacuated survivors of the October 7th massacre for twice weekly whole-family and group therapy treatments since the children can not travel to the treatment centres.

Whole Family Therapy

We noticed families fracturing over the war and barrage of terrorist attacks. Through our specially tailored therapy program, the survivors of the October 7th massacre meet together as a family and work through their traumas and the total upheaval in their lives.

The "Karov" Programme

The “Karov” programme is a community-based mental health treatment initiative designed to support adolescents aged 12–18 with psychiatric diagnoses and functional impairments, aiming to prevent hospitalization and separation from their homes. The programme offers intensive weekly care, including two individual therapy sessions and one parent session, along with group therapy, enrichment activities, and paramedical support. It addresses the severe lack of mental health services in peripheral areas of Israel, where access to care may require hours of travel. Operated by a professional multidisciplinary team, “Karov” has shown clear improvements in participants’ mental health, social integration, and academic performance.