Coping and Resilience

Professor Mooli Lahad is one of the world’s leading experts on psychotrauma treatment, community and public behavior & coping and rehabilitation after disasters. He is the founder and president of the Community Stress Prevention Center (CSPC) a x NGO that was established in 1980 in Kiryat Shmona, a joint research center with Tel Hai College, and was the former vice president of ITC (Israel Trauma Coalition). Professor Lahad has led many international psychosocial projects following crises or disasters world-wide, focusing on empowerment and training local professionals to train others in their community and on developing resiliency following crises. His models and methods are taught in universities and professional bodies around the world including UK, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Russia, USA, Japan, France, Spain and more. The Community Stress Prevention Center was declared a center of excellence by the university of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Professor Lahad is the recipient of six professional prizes among them: The Israeli Psychology Association – Bonner Prize for outstanding contributions to Education in Israel, The Adler Institute for the Welfare of the Child award, Tel Aviv University, the Israeli Lottery Prize for innovations for developing a telepsychology services and more recently from World WIZO and WHO for his humanitarian work in disaster areas.

Dr. Rabbi Laura Gold is a clinical psychologist who has maintained a private psychotherapy practice for the past 30 years, working with children, adolescents, adults and couples. She works with patients with a full range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, history of trauma, relationship difficulties, emerging adulthood, sexual identity and sexual orientation issues. She also has specialties in pre-marital counseling and in helping people with religious and spiritual concerns. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B. 1982) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D. 1988), Dr. Gold spent seven years on the faculty of the University of Michigan and as Director of Training for a university-affiliated outpatient mental health clinic.
Dr. Gold moved to New York to enter rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary; she was ordained in 2003. In addition to her ongoing work as a psychologist, Dr. Gold served for eight years on the faculty of the JTS Rabbinical School as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pastoral and Professional Skills. She feels especially privileged to have had the opportunity to volunteer at Ground Zero for the Disaster Mental Health Intervention branch of the Red Cross in the days and weeks following 9/11. She has published and/or presented on such topics as sexual boundaries and boundary violations involving clergy; eating disorders; and depression. Rabbi Dr. Gold serves as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Rabbinical Assembly; teaches and leads workshops; officiates at life-cycle events; and offers consultations to individuals and organizations on a number of subjects, especially focused on issues of sexual boundaries and boundary violations.

Dr. Emily Arnstein is licensed as a clinical psychologist in the states of Illinois and New York. She has a private practice in Manhattan and provides therapy for children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing anxiety, depression, and trauma. She is also the Middle School Psychologist at The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York City. Emily graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan and subsequently received her Psy.D in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. During the pandemic, Emily has transitioned her practice to telehealth and as a psychologist in a school, has been working with students and families as they made the sudden and difficult transition to learning remotely and then transitioning once again to a hybrid model of learning. Emily has helped families navigate a range of challenges including how to manage screen time, how to help children cope with increasing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and how to deal with loss.