“We are being challenged by world events, by the tides of history, to develop a more mature consciousness. Yet we cannot do it without facing what hurts. Life is not a piece of tragic fiction, in which at the end of the reading we all get up and go out for drinks. All of us are actors in a great unfolding drama, and until we dig deep, there will be no great performances. How each of us carries our role will affect the end of the play.”
— Marianne Williamson, The Gift of Change
Our multi-disciplinary healing approach includes digging deep and facing what hurts.
We named our approach “Beyond Words” to signify that the painful emotions shared in our workshops are often beyond words, that our healing approach is also frequently nonverbal, and that to resolve the conflict something is needed that is more than speeches, conversations, shouting matches, debates, and even dialogue. Something that brings to the forefront the power of emotions to destroy and to connect and the need to transform pain so it is not transmitted. Later we added the word “Together” to emphasize the particular power of a beyond words healing process when it happens in conjunction and in the same space with the “other,” with our former “enemy.” Hence the name Together Beyond Words (TBW).
While working with Jews and Palestinian Arabs we realized that one of the greatest obstacles to the possibility of a just peace is the incredible depth of pain and existential fear experienced by both sides. A research study completed after the 2006 Second Lebanon War shows that 30% of Israelis – both Jews and Arabs – suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, 50% have sleep disturbances and nightmares, and 55% are afraid of being in public places. The study also showed that women are five to six times more likely than men to suffer from these symptoms.
All these feelings, so deeply embedded in us, drawing their destructive strength from a long and pain-filled history, have little room for expression within Israeli society. They cloud our vision and stand in the way of seeing that the problems we are facing today do have solutions – solutions that would be acceptable to Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israeli’s.
By creating a safe, supportive place where these emotions can be expressed and acknowledged, Together Beyond Words empowers and trains Arab and Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian women and men to move from a position of hopelessness caused by years of protracted conflict, existential fear, and oppression, into taking a leadership role in promoting human rights and peaceful coexistence.