History of Connections & Links

Connections & Links ~ From Trauma to Resilience was originally founded with the name of its first donor as The Barnett Janner Child and Family Research and Training Unit in 1981. Its founders, Dr. Victoria Levi and Dr. Ruth Vleeschauer, two psychiatrists, devoted their work to community psychiatry. Since its inception, the purpose of this non-profit organization has been to provide a network of training opportunities for professionals working with children, teenagers and families in Israel .

C&L's goal has always been to identify unmet clinical needs in the field and to present the most advanced approaches of therapy to care for the needs of those caring for the population of Israel .

The independent nature of the organization allows it to set its own goals, according to the highest professional standards. As an integral part of its perception, the organization owns no building or administrative equipment and is not affiliated with any political party. Its services have been maintained by payments for providing workshops or consultations and by contributions from benefactors .

The organization executed many successful projects during its first twenty three years under the leadership of Drs. Levi and Vleeschauer. They include :

Active participation in supporting the Necessity of Reporting Child Abuse Law
Evaluation and treatment of abused children
Development of a framework and programs to enrich and train professionals working with children at risk
Formation of support and study groups from various government agencies on a broad community level in Ashkelon, Beersheva, and Jerusalem
Encouraging and developing laws regarding prevention of sexual abuse
Developing a framework for treating teenage sex offenders
Developing and promoting a program to prevent violence in the school systems

In 2004 the leadership of the organization was transferred to Judith Spanglet who had been active in the organization since its inception. Dr. Meirav Tal Margalit began to co-direct the organization in 2005. These two trauma therapists accepted the principles that were handed over to them and expanded the focus to help not only the helpers but also to answering the needs of traumatized populations that can benefit from the use of body-oriented psychotherapy. Connections and Links has focused on servicing the populations living in the periphery of Israel particularly in the south. However, when the Second Lebanon War created an emergency situation in the North, C&L provided workshops, trainings and individual sessions to those who suffered from the katyusha rockets and for their therapists.

Connections & Links has also provided cutting-edge body-oriented psychotherapy trainings and workshops for professionals from the entire country with experts from Israel and abroad.

Our vision is that C&L will contribute to the people of Israel's well-being, growth, and communal resiliency as they acquire personal and inter-personal connections and links within our own communities, our nation and with our neighbors .

A more extensive list of the activities of C&L can be seen on this site.