ATSMHI:
Association of
Israel
Spanish-speaking
Mental Health Workers


This group assembles Spanish and Portuguese speaking mental health workers in Israel, in order to:

  • Constitute a place of encounter for the Spanish-speaking professionals that permits them to discuss mental health related themes employing their mother tongue, a central element in their professional and personal identity.

  • Reaffirm the positive aspects of the identity prior to the immigration, as a condition that eases their integration to Israeli society, relying on the feeling of carring out a specific contribution based on the culture and the professional formation the immigrant brings to the new country.

  • Facilitate the integration of professionals arriving at Israel.

  • Encourage creating awareness of the immigration process with the purpose of understanding immigration processes in other regions of the world, and developing therapeutic knowledge in immigrants' treatment.

  • Maintain and develop professional bonds with the Latin-American countries and with Spain, as well as with Spanish and Portuguese speaking professionals, wherever they be found.

  • Create a network of dialogue and interaction with other countries, generating bridges among the Spanish and Portuguese speaking professionals and the native Israelis, and also among Israel and other countries where the Spanish and Portuguese tongues are used.

This association is pluralist and interdisciplinary, and its activities are open to the public in general.

It is an independent agency that establishes and maintains relations with institutions of the academic world.

Organizer: Dr. Silvio Gutkowski
Webmaster: Carlos Ben-Ari