What’s New
July 2023
Meshulam Gotlieb was interviewed on behalf of the NEABPD, Israel for Efrat Barzel’s podcast Patuach (hosted by Hidabroot) alongside Yris Bilia.
June 2023
Meshulam Gotlieb spoke on “Mental Health: Our Responsibility as Individuals and as a Community” at Midreshet Roni (an Israeli pre-military bet midrash study program).
Meshulam Gotlieb met with Paula Tusiani-Eng, President of Emotions Matter (NYC, USA), a national organization dedicated to BPD advocacy, awareness, and connection.
Meshulam Gotlieb met with NEABPD representatives and Family Connection facilitators (Boston & NYC, USA)
May 2023
Meshulam Gotlieb lectured on Families, BPD, and DBT at Bar Ilan University’s DBT Program (6 academic hours) in the Continuing Education Unit at The Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work Bar-Ilan University
April 2023
Meshulam Gotlieb met with Lynn Courey, President of The Sashbear Foundation in Canada, the official provider of the Family Connections program in Canada.
Meshulam Gotlieb met with Rabbi M. Torczyner, founding head of Torah MiTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov of Toronto Rabbi Torczyner was honored with the Ontario Medical Association‘s Community Service Award in 2019 for his accredited Medical Ethics classes. Among his interests are doctor-assisted suicide, live organ donations, and the community’s responsibility to those suffering from mental illness.
December 2022
Meshulam Gotlieb was interviewed by Tali Asher for her podcast: Who Wants a Miracle (Hebrew, Episode 25)
November 2022-February 2023
Series of lectures given in cooperation with the Petah Tikvah Municipality on BPD Traits, Evidence-Based Treatment Options, and Treatment Refusal in BPD.
July 2022
Guest lectures in English and Hebrew given by Yris Bilia to our Alums Continuing Education Program
June 8, 2022
Nefesh, Ruah ve-Neshamah – Mandel Foundation Graduate Unit Retreat: “From Need to Action” Panels – MK Idit Silman, Mrs. Vered Aviad, MK Michal Waldiger, Mr. Meshulam Gotlieb, Interviewer: Mrs. Sheli Yechimovitch May 30, 2022
Presentation at staff meeting of psychologists and social workers presided over by Professor Rael Strous at Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital Mental Health Center on “The Israeli NEABPD, the Family Connections Program and Its Implementation”
May 26, 2022
Presentation to staff at Herzog Medical Center, Jerusalem:
“BPD: Traits and Treatment – Managing a Patient Suffering from BPD in Hospital”
May 24, 2o22
“Facts on the Ground: BPD Treatment in Israeli Hospitals” (Heb) – Zoom event in Collaboration with Nefashot in honor of BPD Awareness Month with Professor Ehud Bodner and Ravit Tal Marom, PsyD. (Audiovideo recording available in resource area. Links to Bodner publications are available there as well.)
May 16, 2022
The First Jerusalem Mental Health Expo: Addressing RESILIENCE through EDUCATION, INFORMATION and COLLABORATION: Talks Online.
NEABPD, Israel: Booth and Mr. Meshulam Gotlieb’s participation in the panel on “Building Safe and Healthy Mental Health Relationships” with a focus on the role of family members in treatment (Talk: 9:26-17:00)
May 12, 2022
Participation in the founding of Knesset Committee: “The Religious Zionist Coalition on Mental Health”
Mr. Meshulam Gotlieb joined working group on “Family” initiatives run by MK Michal Waldiger.
May 10, 2022
“Two Voices on Treatment Protocols for BPD” (Heb) – Zoom event in Collaboration with Nefashot in honor of BPD Awareness Month with Dr. Yogev Kiviti and Mr. Yorai Barak, PsyD. (Audiovideo recording available in resource area.)
February 7-8, 2022
Workshop entitled כיצד מלמדים בני משפחה של מטופלים לתקף עם מח חכם ולצעוד בדרך האמצע (“How We Teach Family Members to Validate in Wise Mind and Walk the Middle Path in Family Connections”) presented by Chaya Leiba Kobernick, PsyD, and Meshulam Gotlieb, MA, at the annual 2022 Israeli Association for Cognition and Behavioral Psychotherapy conference.
January 16, 2022
Zoom Lecture entitled “The Challenges of Coping: A Fascinating Encounter with a Person with Lived Experience of BPD (PWLE) and the Father of Another PWLE” (Yahel – Hadera)
אתגרים בהתמודדות: מפגש מרתק של מתמודדת עם בורדר ליין, ובנוסף עם אבא של מתמודד
December 26, 2021
Lecture entitled “Living in the Shadow of BPD: Between Distress and Hope, Acceptance and Change” at conference on BPD sponsored by Yahel, Hadera [Hebrew]; advertised at https://rishon.mcity.co.il/?id=10202112200537233
December 15, 2021
Lecture entitled “Skills and Hope: The Path to Individual and Family Healing” at “Mental Health Rehabilitation in Israel: From Crisis to Intervention” Conference Sponsored by Yadid Nefesh; NEABPD, Israel; Amudim; and Osim Nefashot [English]
November 7, 2021
In-person training seminar on “The Israeli NEABPD, BPD, and Treatment Options in Israel” for Case Managers at Amudim, Israel
October 28, 2021
Zoom lecture on “Living in the Shadow of Borderline Personality Disorder: Meanings and Skills for Family Members” (with special attention paid to BPD’s nine traits and types of dysregulation) at Mercaz Yahel, Hadera Branch
Lecture available on NEABPD, Israel Youtube channel.
Oct 11-13, 2021
Original research presented by Mr. Meshulam Gotlieb, MA, at the Virtual ISSPD Conference, 2021 (International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders) at the free symposium entitled International perspectives on the impact of family engagement in Family Connections – “Localizing FC to the Jewish and Israeli milieu in the State of Israel: Improving engagement and comprehension by applying theologically, culturally, historically, and socially relevant paradigms.”
September 12-November 28
Training seminar for the staff of Mercaz Yahel, Hadera Branch on BPD, DBT, and Supporting Family Members of BPD sufferers (three one-hour sessions on Zoom).
June 3, 2021
Spoke at Zoom conference with over 600 participants on Borderline Personality Disorder at Yadid Nefesh and Mercaz Hamishpachot Yachad on “How Families Cope with BPD and Are Empowered” (Time on Tape: 2:32-3:16). Mr. Gotlieb spoke about personality disorders, treatment options, and the role and challenges facing families who have a family member suffering from BPD.
May 18, 2021
In honour of Israeli BPD Awareness Month: Mini-Conference on “The State of Treatment Options and Clinician Attitudes to BPD in the State of Israel” [rescheduled due to war]
May 4, 2021
Lecture on Living in the Shadow of Borderline Personality Disorder in honor of Israeli BPD Awareness Month given in collaboration with Ezer Mizion, The Department for Mental Health, Mercaz Yeutz le-Mishpachot, Jerusalem
החיים בצל הפרעת אישיות גבולית מרכז ייעוץ למשפחות ירושלים
May
Launch of Israeli BPD Awareness Month in conjuction with BPD Awareness Month in the United States of America
April 25, 2021
Spoke to the Mental Health Department at KeepOlim on the Myths and Facts about Borderline Personality Disorder and Its Treatment.
March 18, 2021
Spoke to the DBT Consultation Group at AmiTEAM about the Israeli NEABPD and its programs.
March 7, 2021
Spoke to Shalva Schneider, LCSW, the Director and her staff at Jewessence on the Myths and Facts about Borderline Personality Disorder and Its treatment.
February 22, 2021
Workshop on “How We Teach Radical Acceptance to Family Members in Family Connections” (5) presented by Chaya Leiba Kobernick, PsyD, and Meshulam Gotlieb, MA, at the annual Israeli Association for Cognition and Behavioral Psychotherapy conference.
January 2021
A blogpost entitled “A Review of Marsha’s Memoir” by Yoray Barak, an Israeli NEABPD member, was published at “British Isles DBT Training.” As he writes “When I came across countless examples of her stringent demands from therapists, I was strengthened by the sense that she had brewed into the declared elements of therapy another spiritual component, whose function is motivational. It is about strengthening therapists in the fight against hopelessness. It is to courageously dare to try again and again, patient as caregiver, and row together in one boat on the way to a safe shore. She urges us to recognize the greatness and sanctity of the role we play, the role for which we have volunteered. We may be the last thread that binds someone to life.” May all clinicians be endowed with the strength and ability to show such great dedication to their patients!
November 30, 2020
A Zoom book reading and lecture in honor of Nefashot’s Mental Health Week. We will be reading An Umbrella for Alex (Rachel Rashkin-Shoot, Psy.D.), a children’s book that teaches parents how to talk to their kids about a spouse or co-parent’s mental health. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Martha Bockian, PhD. This event will also launch a mini-campaign to raise funds to translate the book into Hebrew.
November 24, 2020
November 4, 2020
Article in The Jerusalem Post (November 4, 2020): “Struggles with Mental Illness Amid the Aliyah Dream” by Alan Rosenbaum detailing the events that precipitated the founding of the Israeli NEABPD.
Does talking about mental illness help? Here is a letter that I received a few days after this article was published. This article may very well have changed this young man’s life!
Dear Meshulam, We were once together …. do you remember us? Our son, has OCD. We saw you[r] interview in the Jerusalem Post last week, so it reminded me. Would you be so kind as to contact me? We are still struggling here, your article is helping me to reach out…I would like to discuss what you know about treatment options, as what we are doing is clearly not enough lately. Thank you very much.
I spent two hours talking with her and gave her much needed hope and new treatment avenues to explore.
October 15-November 2, 2020
Meetings at Knesset w/ MK Kati Shitrit and Former MK Idit Silman Regarding Creation of Mental Health Lobby in Knesset, with especial focus on Suicide Prevention
הזמנה – השדולה לבריאות הנפש ולמניעת אובדנות
October 2020
Launch of Monthly Zoom Series in Hebrew (on the first Tuesday of every month) entitled “Living in the Shadow of BPD” for Members of What’s App Group originally named “BPD Family” and then renamed “Al Galei Ha-Regesh” (On the Waves of Emotion). The lectures on Distress Tolerance (October 2021) and Setting Limits (November 2021) are available on the NEABPD, Israel Youtube channel.
March-October 2020: In the Shadow of COVID 19
During this period we completed two Family Connections groups on Zoom and launched four more (two in Hebrew and two in English). In late December, we plan to launch an additional two Hebrew Zoom classes. In addition, we kept in touch with FC graduates via What’s App, and we conducted an ever-increasing number of phone and Zoom peer-to-peer counselling calls with both sufferers and family members.
Summarizing her experience in the Zoom course, one alumna wrote us an unsolicited poem that began, “Even though we never met face-to-face, I feel like we really know one another….”
למרות שלא נפגשנו פנים אל פנים
ההרגשה היא שכן אנו מכירים.
מכיון שהמצב הוא ככה
לכבוד השנה החדשה ברכה שלוחה.
שתשפ”א תהי טובה מתש”פ
שיהיה לנו רק טוב – ממש.
שיתמלאו משאלות לבכם לטובה
ושתהי אחלה שנה.
Another veteran alumna reminded us that it is not what the Israeli NEABPD does during this period that defines us, it is what we did before this period even began. She wrote us at the end of the first lockdown saying, “I felt obligated to [write to] say thank-you, I was in your DBT [sic] course [that began about one year ago], we learned about Borderline Personality Disorder. Now, after the Corona, after being [trapped at home] with the sufferer for a month and a half….Managing the situation with the DBT tools we learned helped me to survive the period without suffering and fear, the approach was appropriate for the illness …. I acted differently based on the knowledge I accrued in the course. You helped me alot. You are a shaliach mitzvah [conduit of Divine blessing] for families coping with this illness.”
שלום וברכה
מרגישה חובה להגיד תודה , שמי א.ה., הייתי בקורס DBT , למדנו על הפרעת אישיות גבולית.
עכשיו אחרי הקורונה, להיות חודש וחצי עם חולה (למדתי על המחלה בקורס).
ההתנהלות לפי הלימוד של הDBT עזר לי לעבור את התקופה בלי סבל ופחד , הסגנון היה מותאם למחלה , … אני נהגתי אחרת מכח הידע שרכשתי בקורס.
עזרת לי מאוד ,
אתה שליח מצווה למשפחות ה[מ]תמודדות עם המחלה.
January 2020
Speaking before the staff of Clalit’s Outpatient Program at the Talbiyeh Center for Mental Health about the Family Connections Program
November 2019
Speaking before the staff of Harei Yehuda-Tsur Haddasah Riding Therapy Program
October 2019
Speaking before the staff at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital’s Eating Disorders Unit (In-Patient and Out-Patient) on “The DBT Basics of Family Connections and Their Application to the Families of Eating Disorder Sufferers”
April 2019
Speaking before an audience of 400 clinicians at The Israeli Society for Community Mental Health conference on the topic: “Coping with BPD in the Family and Empowering Family Members through DBT.”
מכתב תודה למר משולם גוטליב על השתתפות ביום עיון
March 25, 2019
Presentation to hot-line staff about identifying and understanding the impact of BPD at the Jerusalem branch of Magen. See the following letter of thanks: מכתב תודה למשולם גוטליב
March 16, 2019
In collaboration with the Vaad Tarbut BK Feigenson and the Meyerhoff Community Center, the Israeli NEABPD screened “My Mom Is Not Crazy” in Bet Shemesh to an audience of over one-hundred people and followed up the screening with a conversation with the film’s director, R. Mordechai Vardi.
Meshulam Gotlieb & R. Mordechai Vardi
March 15, 2019
The Israeli NEABPD is running in the Jerusalem Marathon for the second year in a row. For last year’s run, see March 2018 below. This year’s marathon takes place on March 15, 2019. To join our team or sponsor a runner, click on the following link: https://my.israelgives.org/en/campaign/NEABPDJerusalemMarathon2019
Pictures of Marathon Day!
February 2019
Presentation to clinicians as part of the Boston Child Study Center (BCSC) DBT Training Session at the Geha Mental Health Center. The presentation introduced the clinicians to the NEABPD, Israel’s work with family members, offered a family member’s perspective on living alongside BPD, and explained how DBT skills can also help family members to cope and even enhance the quality of their lives.
January, February, March 2019
Three presentations to ESRA counselors in Netanya to familiarize them with our work, BPD and its treatment options, and DBT.
October 2018
In collaboration with Nefashot, the Israeli NEABPD kicked off mental health week with a special screening of “My Mom Is Not Crazy” on October 11, 2018 at the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) in Jerusalem. The heroine of the film, Amira Raanan, gave an inspiring and informative talk and engaged the audience after the screening. (This event also doubled as the first of our well-established, monthly, Family Connections alumnae/i meetings!)
June 2018
As part of the international NEABPD family, our courses are advertised on the American NEABPD website.
https://www.borderlinepersonalitydisorder.com/a-new-psycho-education-skills-and-support-group-for-family-members-of-those-suffering-from-borderline-personality-disorder-and-severe-emotional-dysregulation-is-opening-soon/#more-214250
May 2018
Presentation at Milam, Jerusalem “Breaking Through Stigma” Event reported in Local Press
“One family member [who spoke]….has learned in his journey to make lemonade out of lemons. Dedicated to helping his daughter he learned DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) skills, which helped him tremendously in coping with his own situation and now he is sharing what he has learned with other parents [and other family members] through a group called the NEA.BPD [a non-profit organization that he co-founded].”
March 2018
As part of the international NEABPD family, we also receive exposure on the American NEABPD website. Check out the following link about the Jerusalem Marathon (including the letter below): https://www.borderlinepe
Dear Family and Friends,
I have decided to run in the Jerusalem marathon this year (March 9, 2018) to support the Israeli NEABPD – The National Educational Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, Israel.
Over the last year and a half in the IDF, I have run thousands of kilometers in full combat dress, but these kilometers will hold a special place in my heart. As I run up and down the hills of the city where I was born, the city of David and Solomon, of the Holy Temple, my heart will beat to the rhythm of Jewish history.
At the same time, my heart will also beat for those suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Those, like my sister, who suffer from BPD run a marathon every day, struggling with their emotions and battling their fears, as they strive to lead a life worth living. Tragically, ten percent of those sufferers end their own lives. Many others lead exceedingly difficult lives burdened by their enduring pain, emotional dysregulation, and deficit in relationship skills. Compounding this is a devastating stigma that often leads to inadequate treatment and care. As my family has learned, with appropriate care and support, however, BPD sufferers and their families’ lives can be changed.
My parents along with mental health professionals and other family members of BPD sufferers established the Israeli NEABPD to help both the family members and the sufferers. Having witnessed the effect of the disorder on the various members of our own family, my parents felt that it was crucial to help other parents and family members obtain the necessary knowledge, skills, and support so that they could effectively help themselves and their loved ones. By helping family members “put on their oxygen masks first,” the Israeli NEABPD empowers family members, helping them understand and better cope with the challenges they face, so that they can improve the quality of their own lives and so that they can advocate effectively for their loved ones. Please help me, help all of them.
With all my heart,
Netanel
October 20, 2017 – Integrated into Abiliko – Major Israeli Mental Health Portal
