Every biological impulse wired into your nervous system over millions of years is screaming a single, unambiguous instruction: Do not step there.
Yet, that is precisely what Liat is about to do.
Liat is gearing up to take on a barefoot firewalk—an ancient, heart-pounding test of mind over matter. But this isn't an exercise in personal vanity or an extreme dare for social media clout. Liat is stepping onto those glowing embers to confront fear head-on for a deeply personal, urgent cause: raising vital funds for Peace of Mind, an extraordinary programme run through Metiv: The Israel Psychotrauma Center at Herzog Hospital.
Its mission? Rescuing the young men and women who have walked through the literal fires of battle from being consumed by the invisible fires of post-traumatic stress.
If you’ve ever wondered what drives someone to do something so daring—and why this particular charity is transforming lives at a pivotal moment in Jewish history—pull up a chair. Here is the story behind Liat’s firewalk, the science of stepping across coals, and why the journey from trauma to healing matters to every single one of us.
1. Walking Through Fire: The Ultimate Metaphor
To understand why a firewalk feels so appropriate for this cause, you have to look at what combat veterans experience when their uniforms come off and the guns go silent.
When soldiers deploy to the front lines, they endure things that human beings were never designed to see or hear. They experience the concussive shock of explosions, the chaos of urban combat, the terror of ambush, and the devastating, gut-wrenching grief of holding a dying friend.
"Combat doesn't end when the battlefield goes quiet. For many, the hardest battle begins the moment they try to walk back into normal life."
In Israel, a nation surrounded by existential threats where military service is a shared civic duty, the medical response to physical injuries is world-class. If a soldier loses a limb or takes shrapnel, top-tier surgical teams and state-of-the-art rehabilitation centres step in immediately.
But what about the wounds you can’t see on an X-ray?
What happens to the young reservist who wakes up sweating at 3:00 AM because an exhaust backfire on the street sounded like an RPG? What happens to the university student who stares blankly at their textbook, trapped in a flashback of an alleyway in Gaza or a border outpost on October 7?
Trauma, moral injury, and severe grief are invisible fires. Left untreated, they smoulder beneath the surface, burning away marriages, alienating friendships, shattering careers, and silently eating away at a person’s spirit.
When Liat decided to raise money for these veterans, a standard sponsored 5K run simply didn’t feel commensurate with the scale of the challenge. A firewalk is raw, visceral, and intense. It is a deliberate choice to confront fear, walk through the flames, and emerge on the other side unbroken. It is a living, breathing message of solidarity: “You walked through fire for us. The least I can do is walk through fire for you.”
2. What Is Peace of Mind? Healing the Invisible Wounds
So, where does the money raised by Liat’s courage actually go?
Peace of Mind (POM) is one of the most innovative and profoundly effective trauma-intervention programmes in the world. Developed by Metiv—the world-renowned Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma affiliated with Jerusalem’s Herzog Medical Center—and supported in the UK by the registered charity UK Friends of Herzog Hospital (Charity No. 1024814), the programme tackles psychological trauma using a methodology that is as compassionate as it is clinically rigorous.
Rather than waiting for soldiers to hit rock bottom years down the line, Peace of Mind steps in proactively, using two critical pillars:
Pillar 1: The Unit-Based Model
Most veteran mental health programmes treat people in isolation. A veteran goes to a clinic alone, sits in a room with a therapist who has never heard a bullet crack, and struggles to bridge the immense cultural chasm between military reality and civilian clinical language.
Peace of Mind turns that approach on its head. They treat entire organic combat units—the exact squads, platoons, and teams who served side-by-side.
Why? Because trauma thrives in isolation, but healing happens in community. The men and women in that unit already share an ironclad bond of trust and mutual survival. They know who froze, who was brave, who held whose hand, and who cried when the helicopter landed. By bringing the unit together, the wall of silence collapses. Veterans don't have to explain the unexplainable; everyone in the room was there. Under the guidance of two senior licensed trauma psychotherapists, they can finally unpack what happened without fear of judgement.
Pillar 2: The Diaspora Haven
The second genius of Peace of Mind is geographical and emotional dislocation. The programme takes the unit completely out of Israel for an intensive 7- to 9-day workshop hosted by a diaspora Jewish community—in cities across the UK, North America, and Australia.
Why take them thousands of miles away?
- Breaking the Hypervigilance Cycle: In Israel, the atmosphere is saturated with reminders of conflict—news alerts on phones every ten minutes, sirens, military uniforms at bus stops. In a quiet diaspora neighborhood in London, Manchester, Toronto, or New York, the ambient anxiety drops. The nervous system can finally downshift from "threat mode" to "safety mode."
- 40 Hours of Intensive Therapy: Over the course of the week, the unit undergoes approximately 40 hours of structured, rigorous clinical debriefing and psychotrauma processing.
- The Warmth of Host Families: The soldiers don’t stay in clinical dorms or sterile hotels; they are paired up and hosted in the homes of local families. For an entire week, these young veterans are enveloped in unconditional warmth, home-cooked meals, quiet gardens, and heartfelt gratitude.
For many soldiers, this hospitality is revolutionary. After months of feeling hardened, suspicious, and emotionally numb, being welcomed by strangers who treat them like family softens something inside them. It reminds them of what they were fighting to protect in the first place: human kindness, normal life, and community.
3. The Science and Psychology of Firewalking
If you’ve never seen a firewalk in person, it sounds like an impossible magic trick or sheer reckless madness. How does a person walk barefoot over wood embers burning at 1,000°F (537°C) to 1,200°F without ending up in an emergency burns unit?
The answer lies at the intersection of classical physics and human neurobiology—both of which offer fascinating parallels to mental health recovery.
[ Burning Embers ] --> Low Thermal Conductivity (Wood/Charcoal)+ [ Light Ash Layer ] --> Insulative Barrier + [ Brisk Cadence ] --> Foot-to-Coal Contact Time < 0.5 seconds = Intact Soles & Conquered Fear!
The Physics: Low Conductivity and Thermal Inertia
As explained in classic physics studies documented by institutions like the American Association of Physics Teachers and Encyclopaedia Britannica, firewalking works because of the thermal properties of wood and charcoal:
- Low Thermal Conductivity: While charcoal burns extremely hot, it is a remarkably poor conductor of heat. Unlike a metal pan, which instantly transfers heat into your skin upon the slightest contact, wood charcoal transfers its thermal energy slowly.
- The Ash Layer: The glowing coals are covered with a fine layer of gray ash, which acts as an insulative buffer between the skin and the core ember.
- Contact Time: When walking briskly and deliberately, each foot touches the embers for only a fraction of a second (typically under 400 milliseconds)—not long enough for significant heat to penetrate the tough epidermis of the sole.
The Psychology: Rewiring the Brain's Alarm
While physics makes the walk physically survivable, your brain doesn’t care about physics when it looks at red-hot coals.
The human amygdala—the ancient alarm centre that detects threats and triggers fight-or-flight hormones—registers glowing embers as immediate danger. Standing at the edge of the pit, your heart races, adrenaline surges, and your instincts scream to back away.
Stepping forward anyway requires a profound act of mental reframing. You have to breathe through panic, quiet the catastrophic chatter, anchor yourself in your purpose, and take a deliberate, committed step forward.
That mental shift is identical to the journey combat veterans face in trauma therapy. Trauma teaches the brain that the world is permanently dangerous. Recovery doesn’t mean pretending the fire wasn't hot; it means learning that you can walk through the memory of the fire without being destroyed by it.
When Liat steps onto the coals, she is acting out that psychological triumph in real time.
4. Why This Moment Matters More Than Ever
We cannot talk about Peace of Mind today without acknowledging the unprecedented reality Israel has faced since October 7, 2023.
The atrocities of that day, followed by months of brutal, grinding warfare on multiple fronts, have produced a mental health crisis of historic proportions. Tens of thousands of young men and women—reservists who are software developers, schoolteachers, baristas, fathers, and mothers—were pulled from everyday life and thrust into horrific combat conditions.
According to trauma researchers cited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and reporting from health organizations worldwide:
- The risk of developing chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) spikes drastically when traumatic events are compounded by prolonged operational stress and severe loss of comrades.
- Early, structured psychological intervention is the single most effective factor in preventing acute stress from hardening into lifelong, disabling psychological illness.
In Israel right now, civilian trauma clinics and national healthcare services are operating at over-capacity. The waiting lists for psychological support are overwhelming. If units do not receive structured debriefing and reintegration support early, the social and personal costs will echo for decades—in fractured families, substance abuse, lost livelihoods, and tragic suicides.
Peace of Mind is an antidote to that tragedy. It catches units while they are still connected, giving them the tools to process the shock before it permanently calcifies. But running these week-long overseas retreats—with travel, accommodation, intensive clinical hours, and long-term follow-up back home in Israel—requires substantial funding.
That is where grassroots champions like Liat step in.
5. How You Can Stand With Liat and Support Peace of Mind
It takes immense guts to take off your shoes and march across glowing embers. But the real firewalk is the one fought by veterans every day as they try to reclaim their joy, their families, and their futures.
Liat is doing the heavy lifting—and taking the physical heat. But a campaign like this is only as powerful as the community that rallies behind it.
Here is how you can make a tangible difference right now:
- DONATE: Visit the campaign page at fundnation.org/peaceofmind and sponsor Liat's firewalk directly.
- SHARE: Post Liat's fundraising link to your WhatsApp groups, Facebook feeds, and LinkedIn network to amplify the reach.
- HOST: If your synagogue or local diaspora community is in a position to host a Peace of Mind unit, reach out and start a conversation.
Every Contribution Has a Direct Impact:
- Gift Aid for UK Donors: If you are a UK taxpayer donating through FundNation, your contribution qualifies for Gift Aid, boosting your donation by 25% at no extra cost to you.
- Sponsoring Crucial Therapy Hours: Your money directly funds licensed clinical therapists, trauma processing sessions, and follow-up care for combat veterans who gave everything for their people.
- Sending an Unmistakable Message: When a soldier sits in a therapy circle in a quiet diaspora living room, knowing that people halfway across the world raised money and opened their hearts so they could heal, they realize they are not alone. That realization in itself is medicine.
The Step That Changes Everything
In life, we often find ourselves standing at the edge of things that scare us. We look at the challenges ahead, the brokenness in the world, the sheer scale of human suffering, and we feel paralyzed. It often feels easier to step back, look away, and stay on the safe, cool grass.
Liat’s firewalk is a reminder that healing always requires taking the first step.
It requires leaning into discomfort, confronting fear, and trusting that when we move forward with purpose and love, we have the strength to cross the coals.
To Liat: as you stand at the edge of the pit and feel the heat rising, know that an entire community is standing behind you in awe and solidarity.
And to everyone reading: let’s make sure Liat’s courage counts. Head over to https://fundnation.org/peaceofmind/liatfirewalk, make a donation, and help give Israel’s brave defenders the peace of mind they so richly deserve.
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