OUR ACTIVITIES

When we speak about rehabilitating people with psychological injuries, and about preventing such injuries from taking hold, what we are really working towards is returning them, as far as possible, to the course of civilian life. What does that mean in practice? It means their level of day-to-day functioning, and we mean functioning in every sense: getting up in the morning and wanting to begin the day; interpersonal, occupational and professional skills; and the most basic actions of ordinary life. A return to the routine they had before the injury, or at least as close to it as can be reached.

We do this by giving each participant the tools that are right and suitable for them, so that they can return to the rhythm of their lives in light of the circumstances that broke it. This is an essential point in our work: there is no single, uniform way for all people to cope with psychological distress.

Psychological injury caused by military events has a character of its own. Because it results from an absence of choice (military service is compulsory), it tears a person away from ordinary life and places them in extreme situations, unusual even measured against an entire average lifetime. Combat does not make appointments in advance, and nothing can prepare you for meeting it directly and at close range.

Alongside this, given the “macho” character of combat service and the relatively young age of those affected, there are particular elements that weigh heavily on an injured person’s life, seep into them, and lead them to withdraw further and to keep their feelings and difficulties to themselves: guilt, shame and others. These reactions are not justified, of course, and have no real logic to them, but they exist and cannot be hidden away. They turn a person into a ticking bomb. Withdrawal, and feelings such as shame and guilt, only deepen the complexity of the injury and its consequences.

We hold no illusions and we will not offer false promises to the people who take part in our activities. We will not erase the memories, the images or the pain; that cannot be done. But the goal we are working towards is not only achievable, it is also vital for them, and it is our moral and rightful duty to pursue it: to allow each of them to learn to live alongside the events, rather than beneath their weight.