In contrast to the international escalation in domestic conflict following corona-instigated restrictions and lockdowns, Pele Yoetz Center has marked a different kind of increase: Recent upgrades to our Shalom Bayis Department over the last few years are enabling our faculty to manage many more cases than we were able to handle in the past. Moreover, even with the added challenges and strains of corona, we’re delighted to report that our community has seemed to weather the storm with tremendous success.
Pele Yoetz’s Shalom Bayis Department does not supply the actual treatment or therapy, but engages in the preliminary evaluation stage, precise diagnosis of the problem, and referrals to the proper party or parties for help.
“There are many reasons for this,” explains Rabbi Yaakov Acker shlit”a, director of the Center’s Shalom Bayis Department. “Our chief motives are the need for full discretion, professional, certified counselors, knowledge of both Yiddishkeit and psychology, and long-term accompaniment. Yet the main guarantee of our success is the fact that every counselor and case has someone monitoring their progress—our revered Nasi Hagaon Harav Dovid Levy shlit”a, who oversees every case personally at our weekly faculty conferences, and sometimes more often than that.”
Harav Levy shlit”a’s extensive experience in chinuch and shalom bayis inspired him to delve deeply into these realms and extend vital services to Klal Yisrael. His efforts have earned him the approbation of Gedolei Yisrael across the board who consult him often on these subjects and refer many complex cases to Pele Yoetz.
“Harav Levy’s input is a central link to the success of each case,” says Rabbi Acker, “for the simple reason that domestic conflict evokes a storm of emotions that draws not only the couple, but occasionally even the therapist into the maelstrom. Our faculty, and specifically Rav Levy, evaluates the full picture from the outside and endeavors to help the couple reach safe shores. The Rav’s wealth of experience, close attention to detail, and the brachos that he’s received from Gedolei Yisrael are all ingredients to the extraordinary success that we’ve been blessed to witness.
Another unique facet of Pele Yoetz’s Shalom Bayis Department is its ability to focus each process and direct it to the right parties instead of allowing the counselor to serve in multiple roles of therapist, psychologist and/or psychiatrist along with lawyer or financial advisor. Pele Yoetz strongly believes that each realm of marital strife should be addressed by the professional most suited to the task, an approach that has proven to work wonders in guiding couples to achieve true harmony.
It should be noted that the Shalom Bayis Department provides all of the above completely free of charge, with the premise that the time when a person or couple is drowning is not the right time to demand payment for the service that will save their lives and futures. This approach likewise escorts all of Pele Yoetz’s activities and Departments, and the outstanding results of this inestimable gift of tzedakah when people are in their deepest places of pain are plain to behold.
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