Shir Daphna-Tekoah

Sensitive and contextually appropriate methodologies are crucial when exploring complex and multifaceted phenomena such as conflicts, violence, trauma, gender, security, and insecurity. In our studies we utilize the Listening Guide method to analyze the narratives of women from diverse positionalities in conflict situations in Israel. These women include those who experienced sexual abuse; social workers coping with trauma, injury, and death; activists striving for peace in a militarized society; and women in combat in the Israel Defense Forces. The Listening Guide allows us to produce nuanced analyses and understanding of women’s experiences within broader sociopolitical structures, revealing how personal narratives are shaped by and contribute to collective understandings of gender, power, and conflict. Our use of the Listening Guide facilitated unpacking voice and deconstructing binary distinctions. This chapter focuses on a case study to illustrate how our utilization of the Listening Guide provided a deeper understanding of combatants’ war experiences, as perceived by the combatants themselves. The Listening Guide method, as applied in our work, is part of a multidisciplinary research endeavor, unveiling the intricate interplay between the spoken and the unspoken. This method transcends conventional psychological and feminist frameworks, illuminating the delicate textures of speech – its tones, pauses, and silences – while capturing the psychological depths embedded in personal narratives. Through this lens, we conduct a rich sociopolitical and psychological analysis, grounded in a multidisciplinary perspective. We trace the fluid boundaries where the personal is both political and psychological. Simultaneously, we uncover the nuanced strategies through which speakers artfully distance the political from the personal, often enshrouding and silencing fragments of their emotional and psychological selves. * The current research was held before the horrifying 2023–2025 Israel-Gaza war.

Background: The experiences of women veterans who served in combat and combat-support roles deserve much attention. The study aims to explore the differences in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder between women combatants and women in combat support roles. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included the files of 71 veterans’ women (mean age 25.81 [SD = 5.243; Median = 24.50]), who served over 20 years, and who filled out questionnaires on admission for evaluation. The outcome variables included 2 measures of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) and Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5)], the predictors included the Dissociative Experience Scale, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Results: Of 49 who filled out the PCL, 77.6% (n = 38) met the criteria for probable PTSD probable PTSD (PCL ≥ 33); Of 45 who filled out the DES, 17.8% (n = 8)—met the criteria for probable dissociation (DES ≥ 30%); and of 41who filled out the BSI, 78.0% (n = 32)—found with probable distress (BSI ≥ 63). Dissociative symptoms (P = .007) were the only variable where women in combat duties differed from women in combat support roles. In women who reported experiencing combat trauma, whether they were physically injured or not, and regardless of being in a combat or in a combat-support role, the presence of probable PTSD is most strongly associated with probable distress, as measured by the BSI. Conclusions: These findings clarify the unique needs women veterans face in receiving mental health care, of both combatants and women in combat support roles.

The current research aims to explore the nature of trauma experienced by female combatants. Data were collected from two focus groups and a series of personal interviews with 100 women military veterans who had served in the Israel Defense Forces as combat or combat-support soldiers. Interviews with these veterans revealed a variety of narratives about their war experiences, including an intertwining of the emotional and the physical. The ongoing danger and traumatic events that the combatants and combat-support soldiers faced on a daily basis were woven into their stories. These narratives indicated that-alongside their exposure to traumatic and potentially life-threatening situations-the soldiers also felt empowered and valued as a result of their military service. The women soldiers' perspectives regarding their military service covered three main themes, "experiencing trauma," "meaningful combat experiences," and "the need to be heard." Through qualitative research and narrative analysis, this study offers mental health professionals, policy makers, and scholars ways to gain a nuanced insight into women's combat trauma that avoids categorization. Based on the research findings, we suggest that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women soldiers, who face a "double battle"-combat, with the attendant trauma, and the gendered biases of the masculine military environment. Our findings suggest that there is value in engaging with and listening to diverse narratives of trauma and emphasize the need for a critical perspective in the study of trauma and combat trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the COVID-19 pandemic are required to deal with unexpectedly traumatic situations, concern about contamination, and mounting patient deaths. As a means to address the changing needs of our hospital’s HCWs, we conducted a narrative analysis study in the early stages of the covid-19 outbreak. A focus group of medical experts, conducted as the initial step, recommended that a bottom-up research tool be used for exploring HCWs’ traumatic experiences and needs. We therefore conducted 450 semi-structured in-depth interviews with hospital personnel. The interviews were based on Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs model, and the narratives were analyzed by applying the Listening Guide methodology. The interviewees expressed a need for physical and psychological security in the battle against Covid-19, in addition to the need for attachment and meaning. Importantly, we also found that the interview itself may serve as a therapeutic tool. In light of our findings, we recommended changes in hospital practices, which were subsequently implemented. Further research on HCWs’ traumatic experiences and needs will provide evidence-based knowledge and may enable novel approaches in the battle against Covid-19. To conclude, the knowledge generated by listening to HCWs’ narratives may provide suitable support programs for professionals.

Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women’s rights and religious feminism. The context for analysis of women’s experiences is the “Women of the Wall” who have been struggling for the past 30 years for their right to practice their spiritual rituals (praying at the Western Wall) in a hegemonic and masculine arena. We suggest that the “Women of the Wall” and their battle for spiritual equality threaten the hegemonic masculinity. Moreover, this feminist battle expands the feminist revolution and the fights for women’s equality to the religious arena which is dominated by hegemonic masculinity. The implementation of the Listening Guide, a feminist methodology, assists us in uncovering various voices, representing different aspects of the experiences of the “Women of the Wall” in a conflict zone. These narratives reveal juxtapositions of feelings of competence, determination and vulnerability and shed light on the women’s struggle for gender equality in a hegemonic masculine domain.

Somatic dissociation is known to be associated with childhood abuse, particularly with childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Currently, the diagnosis of CSA is hampered by the lack of a validated questionnaire. While some questionnaires are excellent research tools, there is no suitable applied measure for the assessment of distress due to CSA. The current study’s objective was to validate a novel questionnaire, designated the Medical Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire–MSDQ, for evaluating somatic dissociation in the healthcare system setting. A total of 541 adults, 160 (30%) male and 381 (70%) female, of average age 35 years were recruited from the general population via the Internet. The Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5) was used for screening subjects for reporting a history of CSA. Our examination of the MSDQ indicated powerful internal consistency, reliability, and convergent validity of the instrument, with high correlations between the MSDQ and the SDQ-20 and also between the MSDQ and psychological symptomatology. In addition, there was known-groups validity when differences between adults who experienced CSA and those who did not were compared. Importantly, the MSDQ can be easily integrated into the evaluation process performed by medical professionals in the diagnosis of adult patients with apparently unexplained symptomatology.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a physical assault upon the body and considered to be a complex traumatic experience affecting both body and mind. Growing evidence indicates that long-term effects of CSA include maladies such as chronic pain and fibromyalgia (FMS). The paper examines the links between trauma and its physical manifestations among CSA women from a rarely applied perspective, namely not viewing CSA women as merely victims of abuse, but rather as capable actors often marginalized by both academia and clinicians. The research demonstrates the utility of the Listening Guide method, a method derived from incorporating psychology, music, and poetry and used in uncovering additional information and knowledge regarding CSA and women's perceptions toward their bodies. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 40 CSA women who experienced CSA and diagnosed with chronic pain or fibromyalgia. The results indicate that the Listening Guide helps explore the voices of the self and the body that are created during the abuse and the direct connection to emotional and physical pain. The study contributes to the ongoing debate on CSA by exploring how CSA impacts on women’s bodies and emphasizing women’s experiences, dissociation, body and emotional voices, and silences.