We all want to heal our IDF soldiers who have witnessed the unspeakable in mind, body, and soul. Chayal’s Angels, a grassroots organization, is doing the work.
Founder Tasha Cohen elaborates on the treatments offered, which include physiotherapy, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic treatment, sound healing, and more.
What started as a small initiative founded by Cohen two weeks following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, in response to the trauma of Oct. 7, has catapulted into a large nonprofit organization which, to date, has provided over 9,000 treatments to soldiers at more than 130 bases throughout Israel.
Physiotherapist Batsheva Brand, who came to Israel for Sukkot 2023 and began volunteering with Chayal’s Angels soon after her arrival, quickly became enthralled with the organization: “I began volunteering on October 22, just a week into my trip,” she told the Magazine. “That day was one of the most rewarding, uplifting, and fulfilling experiences of my life.”
Inspired, Brand, an avid runner, organized a desert marathon in Eilat in support of Chayal’s Angels. “I love being active, especially running. I thought, ‘What better way to give back to an organization that gave me the opportunity to feel so accomplished?’” she said.
Thus, an initiative of fundraising through running marathons was born. Brand completed her first marathon in October 2023 and her first ultra-marathon in June 2024. She intends to return to Israel in the near future to continue volunteering with Chayal’s Angels and organize more marathons.
On the road
Originally from London, England, Chayal’s Angels founder Cohen made aliyah in 2012 and currently resides in Pardess Hanna.
On Oct. 7, she had intended to go to a party (similar to the Supernova music festival) in the South but canceled at the last minute due to a gut feeling. Several hours later, she woke up to the devastating news of the Oct. 7 massacre. Cohen sent messages to everyone she knew, asking how she could help.
The next morning, she was already on the road, driving her friend’s husband to his base. As she drove, she received the devastating news that another friend’s brother, a soldier in Golani, Nathanel Young, had been killed at the Nahal Oz base.
Via social media, Cohen quickly offered to assist in any way she could. The next thing she knew, she was on the road for 12 hours a day (from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m.) transporting soldiers and delivering equipment to bases throughout the country – although primarily focused on the North – and reached about six bases daily.
Her phone number was shared, and she received up to 15 calls a day. Within days, she had left her full-time job, and driving up and down the country became her full-time mission.
Cohen began documenting her experiences, describing the chaos she encountered on her many trips to the North and the many lives she saw upended.
“The roads in the North were lined with tents. Every place suddenly became a base. These guys [IDF reserve soldiers] left their families and often lost their jobs. They didn’t even have mattresses at the beginning. It was absolute chaos,” she recounted.
Two weeks in, she was sitting with reserve soldiers in the North. She recalled: “I could see they needed to talk. They started telling me about their trauma and physical pain.”
This was when Cohen realized she could do something meaningful and impactful to help these soldiers, based on her own experience with chronic pain and trauma.
A story of resilience
One day, at age 15, Cohen bent down, while involved in an activity at a Bnei Akiva camp, and found that she was stuck in that position and couldn’t get back up. This continued to happen to her regularly over the next few years, causing severe back and neck pain. Throughout her teens, she saw many doctors, but no one could give her a diagnosis. Instead, they dismissed her pain as simply “muscle issues.”
At 20 years old, Cohen was involved in a car accident. Three days later, she couldn’t move at all. Her family rushed her to the hospital, and she spent the following 21 months subjected to lengthy tests and consultations, until, finally, a surgeon told her that a disc in her back was so badly positioned that if she didn’t have surgery immediately, she would be paralyzed for life.
Within five days, she underwent surgery. She then had to spend 12 days in recovery due to an adverse reaction to the morphine she had been given as a painkiller.
When Cohen finally got the all-clear, she decided to go to a seminary in Israel in 2008 and quickly realized that she wanted to make aliyah.
However, nine months later she began struggling to walk and had to return to the United Kingdom to undergo 10 hours of surgery. Twelve hours later, her body went into shock. Cohen described how her body was bouncing up and down, and the doctors couldn’t get it to stop. “My mum could hear me screaming from the other end of the ICU,” she said.
Cohen had to be sedated for several weeks, during which time she had to relearn to walk. It took six weeks until she was finally discharged.
As soon as she was cleared to do so, Cohen returned to Israel. By now, it was 2012. Since the surgery, she has had from one to five relapses a year, rendering her bedridden for anything from days to months at a time, and she has struggled with opioid dependency – but is now clean.
Cohen has tried every possible treatment for her chronic pain, including getting four epidural injections each year.
On December 31, 2020, at age 35, Cohen had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. Her friends immediately rushed her to a psychiatric hospital. As a result, she was sent to a Balance House, a live-in treatment center in Caesarea, where she spent six weeks receiving holistic-style therapy for 12 hours a day. She attributes that experience to saving her life.
“It was the best gift I’ve ever been given. It changed my life so much that I have not had a physical relapse since then,” she said.
She described how the center taught her the importance of the mind, body, and soul connection, and the massive impact this insight has had on her. Since then, Cohen has made sure to incorporate all three elements into her daily life, whether through yoga, meditation, dance, or therapy.
Holistic treatment for trauma
As a result of her own traumatic experiences, Cohen understood what the soldiers needed, physically and emotionally, post-Oct. 7. She had been working on incorporating mind, body, and soul for over 20 years, every single day.
She contacted several therapy groups that she heard were helping, telling them: “I know what they need. Let me help you.” But everyone responded with the same mantra: “We’re not going North; they don’t need us. We’re needed in Gaza.”
Cohen refused to take no for an answer.
“I said, ‘Screw this, I’m not someone who waits around.’ I opened WhatsApp and Facebook and posted: ‘I’m looking for therapists who want to help me on a mission to help our soldiers.’”
Although she hadn’t expected her mission to last longer than a few weeks, within days Cohen had accumulated a small group of about 20 volunteers. Just weeks later, the group was volunteering on army bases five to six days a week and providing 50 to 150 treatments every day.
Very quickly, the “mission” transformed from a small group of volunteers to a large nonprofit organization, reaching thousands of soldiers throughout the country.
Cohen attributes the organization’s growth and success to four factors. First, she “picked a lane,” focusing primarily on northern Israel, from Tel Aviv upwards, and on soldiers in reserves. Second, when volunteers leave a base, they inform the soldiers of their return date, which is usually within three to four weeks. Third, Cohen stays in touch with the commanders regularly, who are more than happy to have her and her volunteers come to the bases. And fourth, Cohen had been an operations manager for years (problem solving and systems), and she knows “how to make stuff happen.”
Her approach involves speaking personally to every soldier who receives treatment from Chayal’s Angels, asking them a series of questions aimed at getting to the crux of their problems: “Where does it hurt?” “Where does the stress sit in your body?” “How do you sleep?” “Is there anything that is weighing on you that you can’t get rid of?” “Do you know what trauma looks like and how it manifests in the body?”
She then sends each soldier to multiple holistic treatments based on the issues they have described, telling them that if it one doesn’t work, they can stop it at any time, but to trust her. “I tell them: ‘I know that you’re all big strong men, but I don’t want to hear that you’re okay right now.’”
Cohen emphasized that Chayal’s Angels do not provide any psychological or trauma support at this stage, as it is not appropriate for soldiers who are actively on duty. “Soldiers come out of Lebanon to get treatment, then go straight back in. We can’t risk these guys’ lives by triggering them or by bringing up anything traumatic. Rather, the idea of our organization is to let them rest and reset.”
A mission and a purpose
About a month into establishing Chayal’s Angels, driving on home from a base, Cohen’s car smashed into a van at high speed. By the time she realized what was happening, the whole front of her car was on fire, and she was trapped inside. She was rescued by an Israeli Arab who managed to push her car door open a few inches and pull her out by her shoulder, seconds before the entire vehicle went up in flames. She doesn’t remember anything except for the man shouting, “Move now!”
“We took two steps back, and the car exploded, along with all my possessions,” she told the Magazine.
Having endured chronic pain her whole life, and surviving two car accidents and a suicide attempt, Cohen recounted how she felt following the second accident.
“I kept asking myself: ‘Why am I alive? God, why won’t you let me die? What do you want from me? Just let me go. All these people just died. Why won’t you let me die?’”
It was then that she understood that everything she’d gone through had led her to this moment and to this mission.
“I’d been praying to God for years: ‘Please show me what my mission is. I know what I’m good at, but I don’t know what I’m meant to do. I need to find my purpose in this world.’ It was given to me on that day,” she said.
Cohen emphasized that the mission of Chayal’s Angels is to ease the impact of future PTSD. The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Division estimates that by 2030 in Israel, there will be 100,000 disabled soldiers, 50% of whom will be suffering from PTSD.
“My job is to save as many lives as I can by helping them from now – clearing as much trauma now as possible. The army will not look after you at all unless you’ve had a limb removed or have severe PTSD and can barely leave your house. All other things that are small and don’t have a proper diagnosis – no one is taking care of them,” she said.
Taking control
Despite seeing many doctors throughout her life, Cohen still does not have a diagnosis. She now has seven discs that have bulged and herniated in her neck and spine, causing nerve damage and pain that radiates throughout the left side of her body.
“There is no cure or diagnosis for this. Doctors don’t know what to do with me. I am the one who is taking control of my body.”
She continued, “Doctors don’t understand the connection between mind, body, and soul. They just read scans. People haven’t caught on that our emotional state is highly connected to our physical state – highly.”
Having 25 years of experience with chronic pain, Cohen understands how to address it holistically.
“I’m not a therapist. I’m not an expert. It’s simply my intuition and my experience. I didn’t learn any of this from doctors. I learned it all from holistic practitioners.”
Once a month, Chayal’s Angels runs a free healing event called Rest and Restore for any soldier serving in the war – an evening for soldiers to release as much trauma as they can. Last month’s theme was breath work and sound healing.
Cohen highlighted the profound impact that this initiative has had on the soldiers, as well as the volunteers.
“Soldiers will come out of Lebanon in the morning; they haven’t even been home yet and still go to these events because they know they need it. Their gratitude is unbelievable. They often tell us ‘You are our literal angels. You are keeping us going.’”
The volunteers, in turn, have expressed their gratitude to the soldiers: “We have to thank you because if you’re not out there, we don’t have a country; and you have given us the chance to help you, which has given us the chance to get through this year.”
Cohen described the sense of fulfillment relayed to her by the volunteers: “Every single one of our volunteers has literally held on to happiness and life from doing what we’re doing. Every volunteer who comes from abroad has told me that this is the most profound work they’ve ever done in their life, even after day one.”
Next steps
Cohen spoke passionately of the importance of continuing the mission, even after the war: “It has changed so many people’s lives, but we’re not finished. It’s not just about getting through the war [but also after].”
She believes that by teaching soldiers to understand the mind, body, and soul connection, the risk of severe PTSD can be reduced, and many future suicides can be prevented.
“The amount of trauma and soldiers I see with PTSD is mad. If no one helps them now, we will have mass suicides in a few years,” she said.
“If we don’t look after the trauma of our soldiers – who are literally our husbands, our brothers, our next-door neighbors, our friend’s kids – then the next couple of generations have got no chance because not only will they all grow up with parents with severe trauma – which is proven to deeply affect the next generations – but they will also grow up with pain and misunderstanding.”
The next stage, therefore, is to open a clinic, “a hub,” for soldiers where they can receive heavily subsidized treatments, including everything the organization currently offers, as well as trauma workshops and more.
Cohen said that she dreams of eventually opening up her own Balance House.
“I want this to last well beyond my years – I can’t stop and I won’t stop. If the soldiers are there, we’re there, it’s as simple as that.”
Since Oct. 7, many people worldwide have donated money, but it’s not enough. Keeping a nonprofit going with minimal funding is proving challenging and expensive. Chayal’s Angels, which “started from the road,” operates on a tight budget and costs Cohen about NIS 15,000 monthly just to keep it running.
She and her assistant have worked full time for the organization with no salary since the war began, and Cohen is now trying to raise funds to hire more staff. Currently, the organization is not eligible for government funding. She has to prove that it is a legitimate company.
In order to raise funds and expand its outreach, Chayal’s Angels is designing a line of merchandise and has other money-making projects underway.
In the spring, they will hold a “wellness market” – a big fair – where people can shop, buy gifts, and have a good time. There will be many vendors, and a percentage of the profits will go toward helping soldiers heal.
The future of Israeli medicine
Cohen is convinced that holistic treatment is the way forward.
“I truly believe that we can change the future of medicine in Israel. This is the time to change the way that people utilize medicine,” she said. “You don’t need more pills – you need other forms of help.”
Finally, she emphasized how important it is to keep Jewish homes together, citing this as being “the real revenge” and that the only way to do this is to teach people how to understand trauma.
“The more you know, the more you can prevent and the more you can deal with.”
Cohen commented on the resilience of Israelis: “There is something about Israelis. When they put on that uniform, they stop being themselves. They become soldiers.”
Through Chayal’s Angels’ incredible work, Cohen and her volunteers humanize each soldier by truly taking care of them – mind, body, and soul.
To learn more or volunteer: www.chayalsangels.org/