Things to Say and Avoid When Speaking to a Person or Family Struggling with Mental Health Challenges

In December, CST hosted Rabbi Yonatan Rosenzweig, who urged our community to be more aware, inclusive, and supportive of people in our community who might be struggling with mental health issues.

Come join Rabbi Samuels and Julie Goschalk, retired clinical social worker, for a discussion and exploration of ways in which we might respond to this need in the kahal as supportive friends.

Julie Cederbaum Goschalk is a retired clinical social worker and trauma specialist.  She retired in 2018 after having worked for over 40 years as a therapist for individuals and couples. Julie was also trained as a spiritual director, accompanying rabbinical students and rabbis in their own spiritual work.  Julie was a founding member of the Jewish Domestic Violence Coalition of Greater Boston (founded in the late 1980s) , which first began to shine a light on domestic violence in the Jewish community.  Julie also co-led the first German/Jewish dialogue group in the Boston area and later participated in an international dialogue group between children of Holocaust survivors and children of Nazis, which met for more than 10 years.  Julie and her husband Anthony were founding members of Shaarei Tefillah.  She is the mother of 3 daughters and the very proud grandmother of 3 grandchildren.