Dear esteemed colleagues, peace-builders, and guests,

It is a great pleasure and honor to share this message with you today. Although I am unable to join the conference in person, I feel deeply connected to each of you through our shared commitment to healing and peace. I am grateful for this opportunity to contribute, and I look forward to future moments where I can meet you all face to face.
A Personal Journey Through War and Healing
 I am from Gaza, and I continue to live in Gaza—under tents—after enduring multiple displacements and forced evacuations. It has been a journey marked by pain, loss, and the daily struggle to protect and comfort my children and family amid deep uncertainty.
We lost our home. We lost our sense of safety. My children suffered sleepless nights, trembling at the sound of explosions. My wife and I carried not only physical burdens but deep emotional wounds—fear, helplessness, grief.
As a father, it broke my heart. As a mental health professional, I knew I had to find a way to transform this pain into a path for healing.
EMDR: A Bridge Between Trauma and Peace
That path came through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)—a trauma-focused psychotherapy that helped me reclaim my strength and help others do the same. EMDR allows survivors to reprocess traumatic memories in a way that frees them from the grip of fear.
I am forever thankful to Dorit Segal, Karen Goldberg, and others who guided me with skill, compassion, and dedication through EMDR training. Despite the war, despite the distance, they stood with us—coordinating support, supervision, and knowledge that has empowered therapists like myself to continue our mission. Through this work, I have seen trauma transform—from silent suffering to resilience, from despair to dignity.
Healing Trauma is Building Peace
Trauma is not a private matter. It lives in our communities, in our children, in the spaces between us. Without healing, peace remains fragile—a word, not a reality. With healing, however, peace becomes possible, sustainable, and real. When we treat trauma, we interrupt cycles of violence. We create the inner space for forgiveness, empathy, and coexistence.

A Call to Peace-builders
I call on all humanitarian actors, mental health professionals, educators, and policy-makers to recognize EMDR and trauma therapy as essential tools for peace-building. We must:
1.	Invest in trauma-informed programs across conflict-affected regions.
2.	Support the training of local therapists to continue this healing work.
3.	Elevate psychological recovery as a core pillar of peace processes.
Final Words
As I send you this message from afar, I carry with me a hope stronger than war: that together, we can transform suffering into strength, silence into healing, and trauma into peace.
Thank you for allowing me to share my message. May our collective work continue to bring light into the darkest corners of human experience.

Dr. Salem Eid Suleiman Al-Arjani
PhD in Psychological Counseling
Trainer & Specialist in Psychodynamic psychoanalysis
EMDR and Trauma Therapy