By MYRON LOVE Psychologist Dr. Cathy Moser and her husband, Jeff Itzkow, a healthcare policy analyst, are leading a campaign to raise money for the Jerusalem Foundation’s new Resilience Centre in Israel’s capital.  Aided in fundraising by longtime friends Donna Weinstein and Gina Chodirker, the Winnipeg couple is pledging to double every dollar donated to the Centre up to $100,000.
According to the Jerusalem Foundation, estimates suggest that over half  a million Israelis are suffering from PTSD as well as other psychological issues since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and ensuing wars. 
“It is not only Israeli soldiers who have been traumatized,” Moser observes.  “Everybody in Israel knows someone who was affected by the attack on October 7.  This past year has triggered trauma from past wars as well as intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust.
In response to this tsunami of trauma that has hit Israelis, soon after the October attack the Jerusalem Foundation founded the Resilience Centre – operating out of the Shaare Zedek Hospital.  The Resilience Centre utilizes a range of treatments for trauma therapy – including the pioneering use of the psychedelic drug ketamine.
Cathy Moser has been treating patients for the past 40 years. During that time, she says, she has treated victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and other horrific life events.  Conventional tools and treatments can successfully treat trauma, but some (traumas)are so barbaric and complex that no matter how skilled a clinician is, we cannot restore one’s “lifeforce,” she points out.
 “In the last few years, I have dedicated myself to learning how to treat the most severe cases of PTSD,” she reports.  “I have learned that there are excellent outcomes with the use of psychedelic drug treatment, and the research in this area is flourishing.”

She points out that people affected by PTSD are typically unable to change the faulty thought patterns caused by witnessing and being impacted by trauma.  “While years of Cognitive Behaviour and other therapies can ameliorate the condition, it remains a vulnerability factor forever.  The psychedelic medicines enable people to let go of the shame and blame that they feel and see the ‘bigger picture’, and their own behaviour in a more rational fashion.”
She says that she first became aware of the potential for using psychedelic drugs in treating PTSD patients last year when she heard an interview with a  cancer patient by the name of Janis Hughes talking about using psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) to treat her existential anxiety about dying from cancer.
“She said that she had been diagnosed for terminal cancer, given 6 months to live, and couldn’t stop crying for the first 3 months,” Moser reports.  “She had heard that Psilocybin would help, but there was no one to treat her in Winnipeg.  I thought to myself: ‘I can do the training; and pray that it won’t be too late for Janis.’   It turned out that someone who does this kind of work (outside of Health Canada) heard her on the radio and helped her.  I had the honor of meeting Janis  half a year after her diagnosed death prognosis, and she is happily working as an advocate for legalizing psychedelics for therapy. “
Moser subsequently trained with Therapsil, a non-profit organization dedicated to accessing psychedelic medicine and Ppsychotherapy for Canadians.

In her continuing efforts to make a difference, Moser reports, she connected with the Jerusalem Resilience Center.  “I spent time with the team in Israel this past summer and witnessed their treatment efficacy   There are less than a handful of legal psychedelic treatment centers in Israel, and this is a main one.”

At the Jerusalem Resilience Center, she met  Dr. Sinai Oren, the director,  and his team in August. “The staff psychologist had been treating one patient who was a tank operator whose brigade experienced an unexpected attack,” she recounts.  “Tanks have a manually activated deflection device for protection.  Tragically, a decision to move forward occurred seconds before the deflection device was fully engaged, and the tank was blown up. Most of his friends were killed, and he was injured. 
 
“All the therapy in the world was not going to help this guy forgive himself because, under these circumstances, there is a default network that won’t allow the brain to see the situation objectively.  All of the sights and sounds and smells associated with the experience will forever trigger feelings of helplessness, inadequacy, shame and pain that were felt at that moment.
“While conventional therapies will help the individual see the triggers coming and lessen the intensity of responses. the tendency is to regress under challenging life circumstances. Hopefully, using  ketamine can make a difference for this individual.”

The response to Cathy and Jeff’s appeal has been pretty good, Cathy says.  “We have already raised about $40,000 from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation from Vancouver, ” she reports.
She is encouraging readers to donate what they can – no matter whether it’s $18 or $180 or $1,800.  The Jerusalem Foundation can send out Tribute cards for special occasions, or you can send a note of support to friends and family in Israel.  She is also offering to send any donor who is interested two CDs that she produced to help her clients, friends and family overcome stress and anxiety. One CD is about stress management; the other is about overcoming anxiety. (email cathy.g.moser@gmail.com to request the link to receiving the CDs). 
 
“I know that many of us have lost our core sense of well being,” she observes.  “If you find yourself stressed out or overly anxious by what is going on in the world, it is important to engage in these types of self-care practices.”
Readers who want to make a donation to the Jerusalem Resilience Center can go online and type in  https://jerusalemfoundation.org/  hit DONATE – and in the box that asks that for the project to which you would like to donate, specify the Jerusalem Resilience Centre.