October 7th: Staying Together Through Trauma
By Liz Friedman, Group Peer Support CEO & Co-Founder
Since October 7th, and in the two years that have followed, our hearts have been shattered in countless ways. The grief and despair have torn at the fabric of our communities, leaving deep and lasting trauma. Pain of this magnitude does not stop at borders—it reverberates through families, across generations, and throughout the world. We feel its weight in our own homes and neighborhoods, in the struggle to listen to one another and to hold the pain that exists—even when our grief points in different directions.
The question we face is not only what happened and is still happening— but how do we live with it? How do we handle the trauma that has taken root in our bodies and our hearts? How do we keep from turning away from one another? How do we stay together when grief, rage, and fear threaten to pull us apart?
These questions don’t have easy answers, but they point us toward the path we must take. This is where healing begins: not in isolation, but in connection. We create healing by coming together to tell the truth of what we carry, to be witnessed without judgment, and to remember that even in the darkest moments, we are not alone.
GPS Group Peer Support offers one way forward. In GPS support groups, people have the opportunity to speak what feels unspeakable, to find grounding, and to draw strength from one another. We don’t erase the realities of violence, injustice, or loss. We create a compassionate space to live with them—and, over time, to soften their hold.
In the face of October 7th and all that has followed, we cannot heal the world alone. But we can build places of safety and solidarity where nervous systems settle, where empathy outlasts argument, and where connection itself becomes a quiet act of resistance against despair. This is how we carry trauma without being carried by it. This is how we stay together. This is how healing begins.
If you’re hurting, you’re not alone. You are welcome here at GPS.
