Attachment and Trauma in Israeli Families

Attachment and Trauma in Palestinian Families

with Raija-Leena Punamäki-Gitai (Finland), Safwat Y. Diab, and Samir R. Qouta (Gaza)

Facilitated by Marinus van IJzendoorn (Holland)

🗓️ Day 9 of an 11-Day Seminar Series:Families in Context of War and Social Conflict: Through the Lens of Attachment

🌍 A Transformational Seminar Series for:

• Therapists
• Mental Health Professionals
• Humanitarian Workers

This powerful series explores how attachment theory provides insight into the impact of war, displacement, and social conflict on individuals and families.

✅ In This Session, You Will:

• Learn trauma-informed, attachment-based frameworks
• Build culturally sensitive tools for high-stress environments
• Understand the effects of displacement, violence, and instability on family dynamics
• Equip yourself to support resilience and connection in the face of crisis

🕒 Schedule:

• 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM: Lecture
• 11:45 AM – 12:00 PM: Break
• 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Facilitated Discussion Group

🎙️ About this lecture:

Affiliations: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland, Al Quds Open University, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar

Survivors process traumatic experiences uniquely according to their attachment style. For example, avoidant/dismissing survivors deactivate, and preoccupied/ambivalent survivors intensify their socio-emotional, neuro-cognitive, and behavioral responses in seeking sense of security. The main topics of the lecture are: (1) How and why do trauma survivors with secure, avoidant, and preoccupied attachment style respond differently to therapy, indicated by therapeutic alliance, memory processing, and posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth. (2) How and why family attachment shapes children’s mental health and social, emotional, and cognitive processing of war trauma (with intervention and without), and (3) How war trauma impacts maternal-fetus attachment, dyadic interaction, and infant development? Topics were analyzed among Palestinians in Gaza Strip under Israeli military occupation and international boycott: Therapy effectiveness study among political prisoners exposed to torture and ill-treatment; Psychosocial intervention study on war-affected children and parents, and Pre- and post-partum study of mother-infant dyads under military operations and war.

🎙️ About the speakers:

Raija-Leena Punamäki, PhD, is a psychologist and professor emerita at Tampere University, Finland, specializing in mental health, trauma and child development. The topics involve impact of war trauma on infant and child socio-emotional and cognitive development, early dyadic interaction, and family attachment. Further studies analyze the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for children and families with refugee backgrounds, and therapeutic treatment effectiveness among torture survivors. The mental health research focuses on therapeutic interventions in families with risks of violence, psychiatric disorders, and substance dependence. https://www.tuni.fi/en/raija-leena-punamaki-gitai

Safwat Y. Diab, PhD, is an educational psychologist and received his master and PhD degrees in University of Oslo, Norway. He has worked as project leader in the GazaCommunity Mental Health Program, psychosocial supervisor at UNRWA and War Child, Holland. He works as rehabilitation, research and evaluation consultant with Palestinian and international organizations. Dr. Diab is active in the development of school-based psychosocial interventions for children affected by war and military violence. He specializes in preconditions of academic achievement, early mother-child psychosocial wellbeing and child development in the context of war and military violence.

Samir Qouta, PhD, is a psychologist and professor Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar. He received his PhD Amsterdam University, the Netherlands and has created research infrastructure in Palestinian non-governmental organizations and universities. His research topics include trauma, mental health, family research and infant and adolescent development, as well as prospects of peace and human right. He is active in developing clinical practices for traumatized people and his current studies deal with interventions among war-affected children.

🔗 Don’t Miss the Rest of the Series!

Check out our upcoming lectures in the series:👉 [www.ian-attachment.org.uk]

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