Your Therapist May Be Making Your Jewish Trauma Worse | Trauma Specialist Dr. Miri Bar Halperin

In this episode of Here I Am with Shai Davidai, Shai sits down with clinical psychologist, trauma expert, and educator Miri Bar-Halpern for a candid conversation about trauma, identity, and what it means to keep showing up when the world feels unstable. Miri shares how her upbringing in Israel and her family history as a third-generation Holocaust survivor shaped her work, and she explains the difference between resilience and post-traumatic growth, focusing on how values-based action and meaning-making can help people move from surviving to thriving after trauma.

They also discuss what many Jews have experienced since October 7, including traumatic invalidation in therapy spaces, academic settings, and public life, and why naming the harm is a key step toward healing. The conversation ends with Miri’s work in radicalization prevention through Parents for Peace, including warning signs for families and why antisemitism can appear across extremist ideologies, making this a powerful episode about mental health, advocacy, and reclaiming agency.

Guest: Trauma Specialist Miri Bar-Halpern

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Credits:

Producers: Shai Davidai, Abbie Sophia, Adamit Productions, Allison Fuller, Josh Tepper, Bonnie Berkovits

Filmed @ The CAVE Soundstage in Hackensack and edited by Adamit Productions

Graphic by Shira Auman