Learning and Therapy Center

Children who fail at school tend to develop emotional problems and behavioral difficulties. We offer a range of therapies to address their problems.

Emotional Therapies

1. Art Therapy
2. Drama Therapy
3. Music Therapy
4. Animal Assisted Therapy (Pet Therapy)
5. Snoezelen Room Therapy (also used for treating of war trauma victims)
6. Dance/Movement Therapy
7. Gardening Therapy
8. Sand Tray
9. Dyad Therapy
10. CBT – Coaching using a CBT model in groups and one-on-one – especially for children suffering from ADD/ADHD and disorders in executive functioning
11. DBT for women and adolescent girls by a clinical social worker with specialization in the area of abuse

Therapeutic Kitchen

Children with learning disabilities experience many failures at school. They are the children who are afraid to show their parents their report card at the end of the school year and might be embarrassed to tell friends their grades after an exam. Their notebooks are often a mess, their handwriting untidy. Homework assignments can be a nightmare for them. In our therapeutic kitchen, children get a chance to bake cookies and take them home to be enjoyed and praised by their families. Here there are only successes. Teachers teach math by dividing a pitta into quarters, and occupational therapists let children knead dough to help with sensory integration. However, the most important part of the work in our kitchen is enabling children to experience success and improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Family Counseling

Helping children is not enough, we provide parental guidance and family counseling services to help families cope with daily difficulties. Co-operation between our staff and parents can do much to empower families.

Center for Women and Adolescent Girls

A new service offering treatment for women and adolescent girls in the local community taking a culturally sensitive approach, in the evening hours at our Center.

Dynamic Group Therapy for Social Skills

Children with learning disabilities are more likely to have difficulty internalizing accepted social skills.They often misinterpret social cues, and are themselves misunderstood by parents, teachers, and peers. We run group workshops for children at our Center to enhance their social skills. The groups take place in an innovative and fun setting. Results have been dramatic!

In addition, we have recently been approached by a number of schools to run Social Skills Groups, on their premises, for pupils who in the past had no social problems but have become Screen Agers (due to overuse of computers and mobile telephones, communicating mainly through the use of email and facebook). In one extreme case, a group of friends had a silent party – all communication took place on their screens and included friends present and those who stayed home and participated virtually.

Dyad Treatments 

Many times, a child with an emotional problem has an effect on his entire family. In other cases, a child develops a problem because of a family situation that he has no control over. In order to reach out and help entire families, we have therapists who engage in Dyad Therapy. When engaging in Dyad Therapy – a pair – the child and one of his parents joins together in therapy. The joint meetings are interspersed with meetings with the child alone. In this way, family issues are addressed. The child is seen within the wider framework of his family. Parents are exposed to the inner world of their child and learn to understand and accept his feelings. In addition, parents receive parental guidance. Training our therapists in this method has been a priority. A unique approach at Arugot, is when a therapist will invite a sibling to a therapy session, and in this way issues are addressed.

Group Therapy for Siblings

Based on our experience working with groups, Arugot therapists treat groups of siblings who are all dealing with the same problem – be that divorce, loss of a parent or trauma. Two therapists, each with a different speciality and perspective work together with groups of 4 – 6 siblings, helping them confront a common problem and face their challenges. The family dynamic is an important component of therapy. Often this therapy takes place in the Snoezelen Room.