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Chosen Links by Boaz – Ep 13 Resilient: PTSD, Trauma and Healing After October 7th

This episode focuses on the concept of PTSD, and the incredible resilience that the people of Israel have managed to largely have since October 7th. Chava Floryn created her wonderful movie "Resilient," and I gathered the people from the documentary, as well as a few select people who were allowed to screen it and discuss.
[additional-authors]
July 16, 2025
Left to right: Top row – Peter Himmelman, Boaz Hepner, Rona Lalezary, Gil Troy
Middle row – Tehran Von Ghasri, Micki Lavin-Pell, Soraya Deen, Barbara Heller
3rd row – Orli Peter, Chava Floryn, Rabbi YY Jacobson, Howard Rosenman
Bottom row – Maayan Hoffman, Or Ooliel

Time to spill a secret. While I was sleeping at UCLA Hospital with Adi for 13 long nights, getting our daughter Natalia her diagnosis and treatment for PANS, I was keeping myself sane by pouring my energy into my advocacy.

Every day I would speak with documentarian Chava Floryn about the episode of “Chosen Links by Boaz” I was creating around her film. To her credit, even though it would be a tremendous setback to her professionally, each time she would ask if I wanted to postpone things, and focus on my family. But I work the way I work, and diverting a portion of my energy away from the daily stressors and worries, and putting them into this wonderful project, really helped me. And obviously the day I ran home for 3 hours to film this was done with my wonderful wife’s blessing.

This episode focuses on the concept of PTSD, and the incredible resilience that the people of Israel have managed to largely have since October 7th. Chava created her wonderful movie “Resilient,” and I gathered the people from the documentary, as well as a few select people who were allowed to screen it and discuss.

I hope you’ll watch, share and discuss this labor of love.

CORRECTION – In this episode, it was incorrectly stated that Chava Floryn is not a filmmaker. In fact, Chava is an award-winning documentarian with over 100 short films to her name, including a TV pilot and three documentaries. Her most recent film, Resilient, has won 7 awards to date—5 for Best Picture, 1 for Best Musical Score, and 1 for Best Cinematography.

Boaz was joined by:
Soraya Deen – CEO, Muslim Women Speakers

Chava Floryn – Filmmaker, Author, Somatic Healer

Barbara Heller – Actor, Writer, Podcaster

Peter Himmelman – Musician. Author. Visual Artist

Maayan Hoffman – Executive Editor, ILTV News & Correspondent, The Media Line

Rabbi YY Jacobson – World Renowned Speaker

Rona Lalezary – Mindset Trainer and International Public Speaker

Micki Lavin-Pell – Marriage, Family, Sex and Trauma Therapist

Or Meir Ooliel – Musician and October 7 Survivor

Orli Peter – CEO, Israel Healing Initiative

Howard Rosenman – Producer

Gil Troy – Author of ”To Resist the Academic Intifada”

Tehran Von Ghasri – Comedian & Social Commentator

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