In 2024, Dr. Cathy Moser, a Winnipeg-based clinical psychologist with over 40 years experience, was looking for ways to support the individuals and communities affected by trauma in Israel following the Oct 7, 2023 attack. Through her Winnipeg contacts she was guided to The Jerusalem Foundation of Canada, who then introduced her to Dr. Sinai Oren, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who is the director of The Shaarei-Nefesh Resilience Centre, also known as The Jerusalem Resilience Centre. A beautiful therapeutic relationship – in many ways – was born.
Cathy, (or Dr. Cathy as she known by her patients), was particularly interested in The Resilience Centre’s ground-breaking approaches to address treatment-resistant depression, including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and their receiving approvals for clinical trials using MDMA and psilocybin. Read here, for more info about psychedelic research in Israel.
Cathy knows a lot about rupture and repair and the long road between the two states. And, recently, she’s been trained in clinical usage of psychedelic medicine to assist with trauma and other mental health conditions.
She has launched a national matching campaign in Canada (even extending to the U.S.) to support The Jerusalem Resilience Centre, and it’s already triggered a series of donations, with a strong contingent from Central and Western Canada. But there’s still more ways to go if a true movement is launched (if you want to be a part of the movement – you can donate here). We sat down with Cathy just before her recent trip to Jerusalem where she visited the Centre, located in the Jerusalem Foundation headquarters.
Estimates suggest that impact of the Oct. 7 attack and the ensuing war could result in over 500,000 people in Israel facing psychological issues, including stress, anxiety, and predominantly PTSD. Many will need varying levels of therapeutic support to restore normal functioning. There are many reasons why someone may want to support The Jerusalem Resilience Centre– what is yours?
Just knowing what the Israeli people are going through brings such sadness and anxiety to my heart, and an awareness of how difficult it will be to move forward, you know, creating a nation that can live amongst other peoples. I knew that something had to be done to help. People who have such trauma like that, it’s almost unimaginable that they could recover from it.
And the whole nation is traumatized. You can’t heal a burning hand when the hand is still in the fire. But we have to start somewhere.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, as it may help explain why you are so dedicated and passionate about this initiative.
I’m 67 years old and I’m a wife and a mother and a grandmother and a clinical psychologist. For the past 40 years, I’ve worked with both children and adults, and I’ve worked with children that have been traumatized by abuse, and adults that have been traumatized by all sorts of horrible events as part of my practice.
My nature is to want to help people, whoever they are, and to understand their trauma, their issues, to understand other peoples’ challenges.
I feel blessed that I was brought up in a loving family and was given so many opportunities. I’ve always realized that being brought up in a home with love and food security was a freedom. And it came with responsibility. My parents were always fundraising for Israel bonds. They took part in community activity, and, were always reaching out to people and helping people beyond the Jewish community. And so, they just set the example. You know, giving a portion of your income to help others because we were so fortunate. It was a ‘pay it forward’ attitude.
What excites you about the latest clinical and research data that links psylocibin, MDMA and ketamine to supporting those with treatment-resistant mental health conditions?
Simply put, these approaches are helping people when other approaches haven’t been able to. There is a hesitancy out there regarding these drugs – and remember, we are talking about the clinical use, not recreational use where abuse is more likely – but the research is showing us time and time again why these approaches deserve our curiosity and attention and why they save lives by preventing depression-related suicides.
What do you wish people who are hesitant about psychedelics knew?
I wish people would recognize it as medication. Physicians and clinicians are being trained in these areas now. I myself completed over 100 hours of training in March 2023 as it’s a valuable resource for my Canadian patients who are feeling stuck as they try to diminish their symptoms of existential anxiety, treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. Our government is much more willing to offer Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) before they will authorize Psychedelic Medicine. Those who are at the end of their rope insist that they have ‘a right to try before they die’. This holds true for those with PTSD – so many people who would have been given a new lease on life through Psychedelic Medicine have taken their own lives because of their insufferable anguish and the sense of despair and hopelessness they are left with after exhausting traditional treatment methods.
What are you hoping for?
I would want people to start thinking of our Israel friends and citizens as part of our extended family. They are our brothers and sisters that are on the front line, defending what we all know needs to be defended. And to realize that we have a responsibility to help them get through this, and that this is a way. One of the only ways that they can be free of this intergenerational trauma that they have endured. The impact is multiplicative when you live in Israel. Every time something happens – a siren, an attack, a news report being released – it notches up the level of impact. The soldiers, the first responders, the witnesses of horror all need extra support in order to stand up and live another day with the love and commitment that brought them to Israel.
Why are you so excited about this clinic? Why are you leading a matching campaign?
It’s not just for a clinic. It’s to provide a model and a movement to establish a way that people who have experienced such severe, intense trauma in this past year can go through it again with love, support and a different perspective. Instead of living with feelings of anger, blame, shame and guilt, they can begin to love themselves again.
The Jerusalem Resilience Centre is unique in that it provides the best of both worlds – Psychotherapy and Psychedelic Medicine. It can’t help but benefit those who pass through their doors well beyond the efficacy of current therapies. A secondary benefit is that it will appeal to Israelis who have an extremely high ’emotional pain’ threshold, and who are resistant to therapy. Providing people with the powerful combination of medicine and therapy will make the idea of seeking this type of therapy much more acceptable. The Jerusalem Resilience Centre will be monumental in starting a movement that will provide Israeli citizens with a way of getting through this trauma so that once the sirens stop, they will be able to sleep through the night.
If you’d like to support The Jerusalem Resilience Centre, and your donation will be matched by end of June 2025, please donate here and choose “Resilience Centre” in the pull down menu. Thank you.
For more information about this emerging field of science, Cathy recommends reading this Canadian Medical Association Journal article and watching the Netflix series, How To Change Your Mind.