By Beth Toomey, MSW, RSW-Clinical Specialist
When watching the news is not enough
In October 2023, like many around the world, I watched the escalating violence in Gaza with shock and incomprehension. As a trauma therapist, I also carried a professional awareness: conflict brings more than physical devastation—it inflicts lasting psychological wounds. Gaza stands at the heart of the Palestinian struggle, and once again its people were engulfed in the disorienting fog of trauma. At the time, the war felt very far away, and I could not see how a rural Nova Scotian social worker might offer meaningful assistance.
In late winter 2024, a colleague contacted me about Healing for Gaza (HFG), a charitable, non-profit initiative fiscally sponsored by HEAL Palestine, a registered U.S. 501(c)(3) organization. HFG was founded in January 2024 as a non-political, non-religious emergency mental health initiative designed to provide accessible, evidence-based, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed psychotherapy for Palestinians affected by displacement, fear, and trauma.
Since its inception, HFG has delivered more than 1,500 psychotherapy sessions to children, parents, and frontline workers. What initially began as a handful of individuals has evolved into a global network of over 120 psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, interpreters, clinical coordinators, advisors, and volunteers responding to what international health organizations describe as an unprecedented mental health crisis. Patients are referred either through partner NGOs on the ground or can sign up directly through an online link shared via social media platforms such as Instagram.
When I was invited to apply, I gave the decision careful thought, contemplating the challenges of such a complex situation. Palestinians were living without reliable access to food, water, basic infrastructure, and health services. The need for trauma care was urgent, the scale of the emergency unprecedented. Despite the unknowns, I felt compelled to contribute. Over time, the experience has proven deeply positive—broadening my perspective and allowing me to learn and benefit alongside those I have supported.
Since joining HFG, I have received intensive training in cultural competence and in providing remote support in war zones. I have participated in regular supervision with international colleagues and conducted weekly sessions with clients. The work has been a steady reminder of how essential mental health care is for people living in crisis. There is no “post-trauma” in this context.
HFG is a structured and well-organized initiative, with patient safety at its core. Monthly supervision sessions bring together clinicians from around the globe to share expertise. Clinical coordinators, who serve as the first point of contact, play a vital role in matching clients with clinicians and interpreters, safeguarding confidentiality, and ensuring that therapy continues even amid bombardments, blackouts, and displacement.
For those of us providing care, the work extends beyond clinical intervention—it involves bearing witness to extraordinary suffering, grief, and loss, as well as to the resilience and courage that persist in the midst of soul-crushing devastation. To do this work, therapists must be able to both witness and hold space for unspeakable pain without being consumed by it. HFG leadership, under the direction of Dr. Alexandra Chen (founder & executive director), ensures that its clinicians and interpreters have the professional support, supervision, and internal resources necessary to accompany patients week after week through such profound encounters.
Clinical social work as an act of hope
Over the last 16 months, I have delivered regular psychotherapy sessions to Palestinians displaced to Egypt. They include students working to complete high school and transitioning into university, adults rebuilding their lives, and frontliners evacuated for life-saving medical care whose families remain trapped in Gaza. Arabic is their first language, and this has been my first experience delivering trauma therapy through a translator. Initially, I wondered whether clinical and relational depth could emerge in a three-person virtual setting across two languages.
What makes this possible are HFG’s bilingual connectors—clinically trained interpreters fluent in both Arabic and English—who enable non-Arabic-speaking clinicians and Palestinian clients to communicate fluidly, each in their own language, without losing the intimacy or immediacy of the therapeutic exchange. Unlike in many humanitarian contexts where interpreters rotate frequently, HFG assigns interpreters long-term to a specific clinician–patient pairing.
What surprised and encouraged me was how naturally a safe, collaborative therapeutic container evolved. Over time, trust has grown, communication has become fluid, and the interpreters became an integral part of the therapeutic alliance.
My clients experience a variety of trauma-based symptoms—but they also show remarkable resilience and insight. As a certified EMDR therapist and consultant, as well as a practitioner of Somatic Experiencing, I use an integrated, evidence-based framework. EMDR in particular has demonstrated measurable effectiveness in reducing trauma symptoms, even in this cross-linguistic, virtual context. With careful pacing and cultural attunement, relief is possible. These individuals are reclaiming agency and rebuilding their lives—even in the midst of genocide.
This experience reaffirms what I have long believed: clinical social work is a powerful tool for advancing both healing and social justice. It addresses not only psychological symptoms but also the systemic and collective wounds that shape human suffering. In our clinical social work practice, we can affirm both dignity and the right to heal.
Healing for Gaza marked its first anniversary in July 2025. Since its work began, the organization has provided clinical care to approximately 150 patients and has now delivered more than 1,500 psychotherapy sessions. A similar number of patients are still waiting to begin therapy as the humanitarian crisis deepens.
HFG continues to accept applications from qualified mental health practitioners who wish to support Palestinian children, adults, and frontliners in need. For those considering it, I can say that being part of HFG has been both professionally enriching and personally meaningful—an opportunity to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
Beth Toomey, MSW, RSW-Clinical Specialist, is the founder and clinical director of East Coast Psychotherapy & Trauma Clinic Inc. in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She specializes in trauma resolution with adults and first responders, serves as a treating clinician and consultant within Unama’ki Indigenous mental health and addiction initiatives, and volunteers with Healing for Gaza.