L'Chol Nefesh aims to create therapeutic equal opportunity in order to provide thousands of people suffering from severe mental disturbances the chance to return to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Thousands of individuals in Israel today suffer from severe mental distress. Due to budget constraints and the growing impact of short-term therapeutic treatments, patients treated in the public health system routinely receive medication and a minimal number of psychotherapeutic sessions as a temporary solution to relieving their symptoms. L'Chol Nefesh steps in to provide these people with long-term psychotherapy, which regards psychological breakdown and distress as an expression of psychic pain needing relief, while also providing an opportunity for growth and development.

Vision

L'Chol Nefesh aims to create therapeutic equal opportunity in order to provide thousands of people suffering from severe mental disturbances the chance to return to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Goals

1. Expand awareness of the unique value of intensive long-term psychotherapy.

2. Provide the opportunity to patients suffering from severe mental distress, and those receiving treatment from public mental health services, to receive intensive long-term psychotherapy.

3. Train psychotherapists to administer the aforementioned approach when treating patients with severe mental disturbances.

4. Expand the therapeutic concept by stressing the positive impact of intensive long-term psychotherapy on patients' quality of life and showing the long-term financial benefits of such treatment.

Target Audience

1. People suffering from severe mental disorders who require intensive long-term psychotherapy and do not receive it due to budget constraints in the public mental health care system.

2. The professional community (psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) providing psychotherapy in public mental health services.

Methods of Operation

• L'Chol Nefesh is working towards establishing Treatment Units in existing and recognized public mental health centers, which will provide long-term psychotherapy (see Appendix 2).
• Patients at each Unit will receive long-term, intensive psychotherapy – up to three meetings per week, for at least three years.
• L'Chol Nefeshwill supply research accompaniment for each Unit in order to evaluate the impact of the long-term psychotherapy on patients' quality of life, including the method's general feasibility.
• L'Chol Nefesh will implement educational courses, conferences, and seminars, with the goal of raising awareness to psychoanalytic treatment. We will also share our increased clinical experience in the field with mental health professionals.