Bringing Violence Out of the Dark: WIZO Trains Therapists to Recognize Children Exposed to Domestic Abuse

“When a child walks into the room, I don’t always know what they’re carrying with them.”

For Efrat Udassin Ben Saraf, an animal-assisted therapist working with children, this understanding now sits at the heart of her therapeutic work.

A child may arrive for a session carrying fear, confusion, silence, anger, or pain that no one has yet named. Sometimes, what is happening at home remains hidden — not because it is not affecting the child, but because the child does not yet have the words, trust, or readiness to bring it into the room.

This is exactly why WIZO’s advanced professional training on identifying and supporting children and youth exposed to domestic violence is so vital.

The 30-hour advanced training program is designed for therapists working within Israel’s education system, from kindergartens to high schools, including special education frameworks and settings for children and youth at risk. Participants include art therapists, animal-assisted therapists, drama therapists, music therapists, and bibliotherapists who work with children both individually and in groups.

Many of these professionals are already deeply embedded in children’s daily environments. They may be among the first adults to notice that something is wrong. Yet for many, domestic violence is not a subject they were taught in depth during their professional studies. For some, this training is their first structured encounter with domestic abuse as a field of knowledge, practice, and responsibility.

WIZO’s training gives them the tools to recognize signs of exposure to violence at home, understand the complex dynamics involved, and respond with sensitivity, confidence, and care. The course moves beyond theory and into real professional practice: how to work with children in the therapeutic space, how to speak with parents, where to refer families, and how to act responsibly when concern or suspicion arises.

Participants also received practical tools from experts in art therapy, therapeutic play, phototherapy, and work with teenagers. These sessions gave them concrete methods they could take back into their own clinics and educational settings, helping them create safe spaces where children and youth can express what may be too difficult to say directly.

As part of the training, the therapists visited WIZO’s shelter in Jerusalem, where they met with the professional team and heard the testimony of a woman with lived experience of domestic violence. These encounters helped deepen their understanding of the reality behind the cases they may meet in their own clinics and schools.

For Carren Shira Sachar, an art therapist, one sentence captures the urgency of this work:

“Violence happens in the dark.”

Children and teenagers exposed to violence at home do not always speak about it directly. Sometimes, the signs appear through drawings, play, behavior, silence, fear, regression, or emotional withdrawal. The role of the therapist is not to force the story into the open, but to know how to notice, how to listen, and how to create a safe and steady space where trust can slowly grow.

One participant described how deeply the training changed the way she will now approach children and families in her care.

“The shocking realization that I do not know what is happening in the patient’s home fundamentally changes the way I will now approach every child and family,” she shared. “As a professional, I need to hold a position of curiosity, humility, and not-knowing. Instead of rushing to interpret behaviors as lack of motivation, resistance, or lack of cooperation, I need to ask myself what hidden circumstances may explain them.”

For her, the training shifted the clinical lens from a narrow focus on a child’s language, motor, or communication difficulties to a more holistic, emotional, and trauma-sensitive perspective.

“When I treat children who show complex behavioral difficulties, withdrawal, persistent difficulty retrieving words, or certain developmental regression, I will now always take into account the possibility that they may be living in survival mode or witnessing violence outside the therapy room,” she explained. “I will first focus on building a protected and safe space. I will try with all my strength to be that one adult who sees them and creates an anchor of stability.”

That same sensitivity also affects the way therapists understand and work with parents.

The participant reflected that mothers may sometimes appear distant, absent, or uncooperative in the therapeutic process. After the course, and especially after learning more about the survival and recovery journey of women affected by violence, she said she will approach these situations with greater compassion and empathy.

“Behind the difficulty of creating stable contact or bringing a child consistently to therapy, there may be hidden terror at home,” she shared. “I will adapt my clinical expectations and communication to that complex and unknown reality that may be taking place behind closed doors, and work to create a therapeutic environment that does not judge, but extends an open, forgiving, and supportive hand.”

For Efrat, one of the most important lessons of the training was sensitivity.

“I want to feel more grounded and confident as a therapist — to have a little more capacity, and especially more sensitivity,” she shared. “This training helped me understand that everything has its own pace, its own truth, and its own stage.”

That sensitivity is essential. Even when a therapist suspects that a child is being harmed at home, the child cannot be forced to speak before they are ready. What the therapist can do is remain present, available, stable, and consistent, offering the child the experience of an adult who can be trusted.

For art therapists, the practical sessions were especially meaningful.

One participant shared that the meetings on using art and play with children exposed to domestic violence gave her tools she could immediately apply in the therapy room.

“Beyond understanding the effects of trauma on children, I received tools and ideas I can use in treatment,” she said. “I connected especially to the understanding that it is not always right to speak directly about the trauma, but to allow the child to express their inner world through creation.”

She described practical methods such as working with family drawings through animals, using a “secret box,” layered drawings, opening windows in artwork, and materials such as clay, plasticine, collage, and scribbling as tools for emotional regulation before addressing traumatic content.

“I especially loved the idea that ‘the material regulates before the content speaks,’” she said. “Sometimes the body and the creation know how to tell the story before the person is able to give it words.”

The impact of this training is already being felt. Participants have begun reaching out for professional consultation around cases they are encountering in the field: where to refer, who to contact, and how to respond responsibly. This is the purpose of the program — not only to raise awareness, but to strengthen the professional confidence and practical ability of those standing closest to children and youth.

Through donor support, WIZO is able to bring this knowledge to the professionals who need it most. Each therapist who completes the training carries these tools back into schools, kindergartens, special education settings, and therapeutic spaces across Israel.

And the impact does not stop there.

The knowledge they gain strengthens their work as therapists, but it also travels with them as citizens, friends, daughters, sisters, aunts, neighbors, and members of their communities. The circles of awareness expand. More adults learn how to see. More children have a chance to be noticed. More families can be directed toward support.

As one participant put it:

“I am ending this course with a greater sense of responsibility, but also with hope — the knowledge that even one therapeutic encounter, held with sensitivity, empathy, and an understanding of trauma, can become a meaningful turning point for a child or parent on their journey of recovery.”

Because bringing violence out of the dark begins with trained professionals who know how to recognize what others may miss — and who understand that sometimes, the first step in healing is simply being truly seen.