About me
Dr Yael Bendavid
Who I work with
- Young women preparing for marriage, for whom the step weighs heavier than they can say to the people around them
- Married women in the first months, or carrying something about their marriage on their own
- Children and teenagers for whom school, exams or getting on with other people have become hard going
- Women who have already been through a talking therapy and feel that something is still missing
Saying what I do not do seems to me as useful as saying what I do.
For twenty years I have worked with girls and young women before and after their wedding, as a kallah teacher, qualified in France. I am a body-mind psychotherapist, qualified in Israel after three years of training at Machon Aboulafia, where I am still supervised today. I see women, children and teenagers.
I see people in central Jerusalem, in English, French or Hebrew, or by video call, wherever you are.
The title Dr comes from my first profession: dental surgery, at Université Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg. I mention it because you have a right to know where I come from.
I first practised as a dental surgeon, then trained as a primary school teacher. It was in the classroom that things changed. I had bright children in front of me who knew their lesson the night before and could not find a word of it the next morning. Others could not learn at all, because of the fear of a test, an argument at home, or the sheer difficulty of finding their place. The syllabus, meanwhile, carried on. In the end I understood that it was not the lesson that needed going over again; it was whatever was stopping it from going in. So I trained in body-mind work, and today I do what I could not do in a classroom: take the time for what comes before learning.
What this work rests on
- Body-mind psychotherapist
- Qualified in Israel. Machon Aboulafia, Jerusalem, three-year course.
- Kallah teacher (madrikhat kallah)
- Qualified in France.
- Doctor of dental surgery
- Université Louis-Pasteur, Strasbourg.
My work is supervised by my teachers at Machon Aboulafia. It means there are people behind me I answer to for the way I work.
Before that
- Primary school teacher
- David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem.
I do not hang any of this on the wall. It is here because you have a right to know who you are talking to, and because once you know, we can get on with what brought you.
A first message is enough
You do not need to know what to say, or to explain your situation. A simple hello is enough to begin.
The first fifteen-minute call is free, with no obligation.