The virtual exhibition "Photo Weiss", which will open and be displayed online starting this coming Thursday, will feature the products of the contestants 'families' photographs. The purpose of the exhibition is to provide a tool for changing and playing sound through images where the words are less significant - connecting the worlds of sound and image and enabling the sharing of society
Through the digitalization in the exhibition of the Yahel Center, one crosses the boundaries of the inner world of man from the self to the community and also physically crosses the boundaries of the state .
The exhibition is intended for families of mentally challenged people, the community, policy makers and universities and rehabilitation and health centers in Israel abroad.
The exhibition is led by Hemda Farhi and Yael Feldman - accompaniment through music to the inner world who see text and image .
The exhibition opens an exciting window and window for soul-struggling families - an opportunity for new families to be exposed
In September, the exhibition will be hosted by the Department of Mental Health at Boston University, after which it will be hosted in Canada and among them will be presented in educational and rehabilitation settings.
Photo Weiss is a methodology that provides cameras to participants from disadvantaged or isolated groups so that they can document topics that are important to them through the use of photography. The technique offers participants new and reflective ways of perceiving the world around them as well as a way to explore and represent their environment in order to act for change, as part of a practice of personal and social empowerment.
The exhibition is the result of a workshop led by Hemda Farhi - an art therapist at the Hadera Yahel Center and a facilitator of Photo-Weiss groups and Yael Feldman - a social worker from the Rehabilitation Basket, during which fifteen family members participated.
The workshop sessions dealt with the processing of the family members' experiences for the mental contestants from different angles and using the photo-wise tool, which uses a combination of photography and text. At the meetings, tools for looking at photos, tools for photography and tips for using the smartphone camera were purchased. There was an engagement with different types of text and the possibility of expression and self-observation by visual means.
Group facilitators Hemda Farhi and Yael Feldman: "In the process of processing from the individual to the general, we addressed and dealt with three content circles: personal, family and community. From the process of personal acquaintance and group formation we turned to family coping and aspects of being a family member. We then turned our attention to society and dealt with the social aspects of acceptance versus the lack of acceptance and stigma of mental health contestants and their family members. "
The group served as a mirror for its members, through which their personal experiences were processed and through which the group voice began to be heard which calls for participation in the Israeli society in which we live. ?The discourse in the group dealt with stigma and shame along with the feeling of being a part

The term recovery is taken from the world of rehabilitation and refers to processes of growth and development for a life full of meaning alongside the limitation and difficulty. In the social aspect we mean the processes that society goes through in relation to mental health candidates and their families.
The group chose to build an exhibition from the photographs taken during it and to act towards a dialogue in different groups in the company, as well as to create a virtual local exhibition. Contact was made with mental health centers in various communities abroad in order to resonate and strengthen the voice of the struggling families.
It seems that the concentrated process has contributed to the empowerment of feelings and the use of the Photo Weiss tool has contributed to the sense of familiarity and sharing and that the tool enables the sometimes muted voice to be heard in the community.
The workshop was accompanied and guided by Ayelet Basis, the center's director, and social worker Natalie Levy Harel from Rehabilitation Basket.
Hemda Farhi from the Hadera branch of the Yahel Center, on behalf of the Quality in Rehabilitation Association, is an MA art therapist. We opened the group at the Yahel Center out of a desire to allow active processing and expression for the families going through, both for themselves and for the society we live in. "The workshop was built in Hadera. As facilitators, we saw in this cooperation the full expression of the services of the struggling family in Israel."
The Quality in Rehabilitation Association operates four Yahel family centers throughout the country (Rishon LeZion, Hadera, Kfar Saba and Ashdod) and each branch has an additional branch in the city. The centers are funded and supervised by the Ministry of Health.
The center emphasizes the central place of the family in the rehabilitation process, in joint and collaborative work that includes the candidate, the family and the factors of treatment and rehabilitation, in the spirit of the recovery approach in mental health. Based on the concept of Yahel Centers, the belief in the family's ability to establish its life - to restore the sequence of personal and family life while coping with the disease. Find resilience, meaning and fulfillment. The center provides a respectful, accessible and embracing environment for family members and works with renewal, creativity In the psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation space.
Captions for images in file names
"I'm looking to connect to the rest of the puzzle but the community needs to come towards me and be flexible otherwise I will not be able to adapt and will be left alone." Photographed and wrote the mother of the contestant.
2. On the way to myself looking for meaning. "Dear family and friends, thank you for your efforts" I will return to routine "I will do something with myself" "I will be happy and enjoy your company", "I will function as you expected" I have changed! Right now it hurts and everything is going hard for me, choose the quiet, give me the option to choose When to go out and for what. One request for me to the community - in the meetings, try to talk to me and with me. ".
3. "I feel the contender is treated like the neglected backyard." Photographed and wrote a nurse for the contestant.
4. "My initial encounter with my sister's mental illness was experienced by me like a huge rock that landed on me in mid-life and blocked everything for me. The spaces that were spread out before me. My free breathing. My plans. My aspirations. Everything was crushed under that huge lump that fell Ali and crushed me. " Photographed and wrote a nurse for the contestant.
The photography of Hemda Farhi, an art and photo-weiss therapist, was done by Mor Farhi. Photo by Yael Feldman: Selfie
For those interested in an exhibition meeting, you can contact the secretariat of the Hadera Yahel Center - 04-6367686
To contact the Yahal Center, answer a national phone number - 03-9559596

סמטת פלטרין 6, חדרה