The Arab Counseling Center for Education: Supporting Jerusalem’s Palestinian Community through Challenging Times

Founded in 1983, the Arab Counseling Center for Education (ACCE) has supported Jerusalem’s Palestinian community for about 40 years, giving people of all ages subsidized access to vital psychosocial services from highly qualified psychologists.

When the ACCE opened its doors in Jerusalem in 1983, it became the first Palestinian mental health organization to specialize in counseling services. Before the ACCE, most of the services offered to clients were psychiatric or medical. The founders—a group of activists and psychologists—believed that access to mental health services is a human right.

Forty years later, the ACCE in Jerusalem, together with sister organizations in Ramallah, Nablus, and Qalqilya, has given thousands of Palestinians access to life-affirming psychosocial services.

The ACCE headquarters are tucked away in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, housed in a multistory complex that is around 300 years old. Since October 7, 2023, the Old City has not been its usual bustling self. The war (and specifically Israel’s multitiered closures imposed on the Palestinian community) has squeezed the life out the Old City; many shops are shuttered and only a few locals walk in the alleys. Tourists are nowhere to be seen. Armed Israeli soldiers congregate around the Damascus Gate, checking identification papers and limiting who can go in and out; more soldiers patrol the narrow streets inside, and about seven are stationed on the ACCE’s street alone.

In these unsettling times, it’s encouraging to see an organization like the ACCE in this space. The building houses therapy rooms, classrooms, and a massive shared space that looks out across the entire Old City, with the golden dome of al-Aqsa Mosque glistening in the distance.

Dima Tadros, the ACCE’s public relations officer, says the organization has been located in this building for a while. “It’s part of waqf which means it’s protected,” she says. “It used to be a family home, but we’ve been renting it since the 1990s.”1

They renovated the place but made sure to keep the original features. This building, with its beautifully vaulted ceiling and original tiles, is clearly loved and appreciated.

In this cavernous space, the ACCE hosts networking and therapy events, often working with a group for a year or longer on a range of therapy-based projects aimed at reducing gender-based violence by working with families, improving the psychology of children who may be struggling at school or have been traumatized by detention or house arrests, and providing opportunities for new psychology graduates to volunteer and get work experience.

Like many ACCE employees, Dima first joined the organization as a volunteer. “I started working as a child protection counselor,” she says. “I worked with children in weekly club activities here in this room, then I became a youth empowerment volunteer, and then public relations officer.” The organization has a team of 23 therapists, psychologists, and marketing and administrative support staff.

Dima, who is from Beit Hanina, a suburb of Jerusalem, studied business marketing with a master’s in social work at Bethlehem University. Her main role is to communicate the ACCE’s work to organizations to help raise funds and awareness of their services. “Most of our operations rely on donations, like many organizations here,” Dima says. “We serve normal people who are living in abnormal situations, in need of support in everyday life to deal with the challenges they face.”

Dima explains that in the early days, ACCE began by offering counseling services to schools, which led to a partnership with Palestine’s Ministry of Education. A few years later, it became mandatory to have counselors in schools.

“Counseling in schools is essential for any child,” Dima says. “When psychosocial support services complement the educational services, that has a big impact on the lives of children and helps them succeed in the future and find a sense of well-being.”

Dima explains that the ACCE looks at mental health from a holistic perspective, with three key departments offering a range of services. The Prevention department works on strengthening the capacity of internal service providers in the mental health field to ensure their psycho-social services are at the highest possible standard. This department includes the Child Protection Program, which creates a safe environment for children to learn how to protect themselves from violence and abuse in the home. University students can volunteer to address the needs of these children, receiving first-hand experience and workshop facilitation training as a result. The Women’s Empowerment Program supports marginalized women in Jerusalem and gives women the tools and skills to handle difficult life situations, such as domestic violence, coping with home demolitions, and the stress of being the prison guards of their own children under house arrest. The Youth at Risk Program supports young people who are at risk of developing psychological issues, providing them with skills such as self-expression, time management, problem solving, confidence, and alternatives for violence.

The Clinical Department offers therapeutic services to children, youth, adults, and families with psychological disorders. This department includes a program of educational therapy for children with learning difficulties, an individual learning program, and a program for the chronically mentally ill. “We provide specialized psychotherapy through different disciplines, such as psychodynamic cognitive behavioral therapy,” Dima says. “We also have a program that focuses on learning difficulties that stem from emotional causes and another that focuses on intervention for people who have developed psychological problems.”

Each year, more than 900 clients are served by these programs, staffed with highly qualified counselors and psychologists. “Our methodologies focus on child protection and positive discipline for parents and teachers, rather than punishment,” Dima says. “We work with women to empower them with social and life skills mainly focused on combating gender-based violence or violence in the community in general, and empower women as agents of change.”

The Capacity Building and Consultation Department coordinates delivery of the tools needed to provide the general population with quality mental health services, upgrading the capacities and performances of individuals and institutions across Palestine. This department serves two populations: community people and service providers. Capacity building on the grassroots level for communities involves a partnership between the ACCE and community-based organizations to develop mental health and psychosocial support programs targeting the sectors of the community most in need, such as children, women, and youth. The aim is to reduce the danger of individuals and groups developing psychosocial problems.

These interventions include the Child Protection Program, which creates a safe environment for children to learn how to protect themselves from violence and abuse. The Women’s Empowerment Program supports Palestinian women in Jerusalem, giving them the tools and skills to handle difficult life situations. The Youth Empowerment Program supports young people with social and life skills such as self-expression, time management, problem solving, confidence building, and alternatives to violence.

The second focus of the department, capacity building for service providers and institutions in the mental health field, is a crucial element of the ACCE’s work. The organization develops and passes on the tools needed to provide the general population with quality mental health services, works on upgrading the capacities and performances of individuals and institutions through training, and offers on-the-job coaching and professional supervision programs.

“We also have our Advocacy Program,” Dima explains. “We advocate for Palestinians’ rights to mental health and mental well-being. We also have emergency interventions, where we work with the community to enhance emergency preparedness and response capacities, and we provide psychological first aid to help people who are affected by crises or emergency situations.” Those services are for people suffering from stress as a result of home demolition orders, families with loved ones in police custody or prison, and parents with children under house arrest.

The ACCE provides a one-year internship program for undergraduates and graduating university students majoring in psychology, social work, and education. The program places them in the ACCE’s departments.

The ACCE operates in Palestinian communities across Jerusalem including Silwan, al-Tur, al-Ram, Jabal Mukabbir, and the Old City, working across the entirety of the Jerusalem governorate, both inside and outside the Separation Wall. Although the last several months have been particularly stressful for the Palestinian Jerusalemite community due to the war, Dima says the center staff has been dealing with the same issues for decades.

Palestinian residents of Jerusalem visit the center with different types of issues, ranging from stress induced by measures taken by the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem, such as child incarcerations, to familial and developmental challenges, such as bullying in schools, domestic violence, and gender-based violence.

“Since the start of the occupation, Jerusalemites have been subject to a lot of political violence designed to forcibly displace them or make them leave Jerusalem,” Dima says. “This includes home demolitions, poor infrastructure, detention, house arrests, harassment from settlers, and denial of building permits. The political environment has gotten much worse in the last few months, which makes things more extreme.”

Dima says that families are under immense pressure as a result of the deteriorating economic situation in Jerusalem. Without footfall from tourists, families are less able to support themselves, which results in interfamilial pressures, leading to increased stress, anxiety, and more psychological challenges, only worsened by the ongoing war. “Our therapy is not free, but it is subsidized, so instead of costing between NIS 200 and 400, it costs 50 shekels. This allows access for less well-off groups.”

Dima believes that the mental health fallout from the war in Gaza will likely only become apparent once it is over. “We’re still in it,” she says. “The pressure has increased, and we are experiencing more violence in general. The political situation has affected Jerusalem a lot. You cannot access the Old City easily without having to be checked at the gates by Israeli soldiers; you can’t access the al-Aqsa Mosque. You have a lot of daily arrests in communities like Silwan. In al-‘Izariyya, there are house incursions, arrests, or demolitions almost daily, and it’s not reported as much because the media is focused on Gaza.”

In the wake of October 7, the ACCE has experienced the same challenges as many other NGOs—namely, the withdrawing of funding. “We have a lot of restrictions on funding from donor organizations in the EU,” Dima says. “So we mainly rely on funding from UN agencies, church-based organizations, and NGOs, as we cannot get EU government funding.”

It takes a long time to apply for funding for a program, and a program needs to continue for a while to have a significant and long-lasting impact. However, many of the projects are of short duration as a result of budget limitations, and Dima says that often, just as they are starting to scratch the surface, the program ends. The long-term projects that last three years or more are limited and very competitive.

Despite all these difficulties, team members are committed to their mission and feel the community gives them a strong sense of purpose. “The culture here and the sense of family and the support we have for one another keeps us motivated,” Dima says. “We constantly improve our services through supervision and training, and our mission is inspiring, purposeful, and meaningful. The organization has its heart in the right place: It’s driven by the people for the people, and we get to see the impact on the ground.”

Ultimately, the ACCE’s vision is to give Palestinian Jerusalemites access to world-class, holistic mental health care and services to help them live in harmony with their environment. The ACCE believes mental well-being is a right, not a privilege, and providing mental health care on a grassroots level allows the community to be their own agents of change.

“Palestinians are very resilient people,” Dima says. “But we need to fix the root causes that affect the mental health of the community, and that is political violence. There is an occupation, and basic human rights aren’t being met.”