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A Tel Aviv college is to open a new training centre for therapists as demand for mental health treatment in Israel continues to rise in the wake of October 7, and amid the subsequent wars the country has faced.
The centre at the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, is intended to build on the institution’s decades-long work training art therapists, and brings together four master’s programmes in visual art therapy, psychodrama, bibliotherapy and movement therapy.
Alongside individual and group therapy, the faculty will emphasise community therapy, reflecting the needs of families and communities affected by bereavement, trauma, displacement and prolonged uncertainty.
Dr Angie Jacobs-Kayam, the dean of the new faculty of therapeutic professions at Kibbutzim College, said psychological distress was increasingly being understood in the context of patients’ families and communities.
The curriculum will also examine the role of artificial intelligence in therapy, with the aim of preparing graduates for emerging challenges.
Students will undertake practical training through partnerships with hospitals, mental health clinics, schools, social welfare services and other institutions.
College president, Professor Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt, said academia must begin training the therapists Israeli society will need for years to come.
About 435,000 people received treatment at mental health clinics in Israel in 2025, a 30 per cent increase on 2022, according to health ministry figures.
The number of therapy sessions rose by 42 per cent over the same period, reaching approximately 3.5 million.
Bank of Israel research recently warned of long waiting times and a shortage of professionals in the public mental health system.
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