Batya Gugenheim Jaffe

• Comment: Far too much unreferenced content.
  And please dial down the 'pioneering' etc. You're meant to describe, not praise. (More to the point, you're meant to summarise what reliable and independent secondary sources have said about this person, and very little else besides.) DoubleGrazing (talk) 07:23, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

---

==Batya Gugenheim Jaffe==

Batya Gugenheim Jaffe (July 27, 1988) is a Mexican-Israeli clinical social worker, psycotherapist, trauma specialist and academic researcher with clinical, academic, and field experience. Jaffe is known for her work on animal-assisted crisis response (AACR), integrating trained canine-handler teams into psychological first aid in Israel.

Education and academic career

Jaffe was born in Mexico and pursued her higher education in Israel and the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Education in Special Education from Bar-Ilan University in 2010 and completed a postgraduate diploma in Animal-Assisted Therapy at the Maggid Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2016.

Between 2019 and 2022, she completed a clinical Master of Social Work at Yeshiva University, and earned a PhD in Social Work from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Her doctoral dissertation, “Animal-Assisted Crisis Response in Israel”, investigated the use of animal-assisted interventions in emergency and crisis settings.

Since 2019, Jaffe has held an adjunct teaching appointment at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, teaching graduate courses in trauma, loss, child welfare, human behavior, and social work practice. In 2025, she joined Geha Mental Health Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, as an associate investigator in trauma and animal-assisted interventions. Her research there includes the application of animal-assisted approaches to mental health and acute psychological distress. She is also a postdoctoral researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev under Prof. Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri. Her research focuses on AI-supported psychological first aid applications, extending her work in trauma and crisis intervention into digital mental health technologies.

Animal-assisted crisis response

A central focus of Jaffe’s professional work has been the application of animal-assisted interventions to severe psychological crises. Animal-assisted crisis response involves trained canine-handler teams providing immediate psychosocial support following traumatic incidents, disasters, and other emergencies. The approach facilitates interpersonal engagement, emotional grounding, and communication at times when individuals are experiencing strong distress.

In 2016, Jaffe founded the K-9 unit within United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit, incorporating animal-assisted intervention into the organization’s emergency psychological first aid activities. Working alongside trained psychotrauma responders, she helped introduce canine-assisted support into emergency scenes involving bereavement, sudden medical emergencies, and other traumatic events. Her work emphasized the interaction between the professional handler, the dog, and the individual receiving assistance, as well as the importance of evaluating whether a canine intervention is appropriate to the circumstances.

For approximately eleven years, Jaffe worked with Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel trained for animal-assisted interventions and crisis response. Lucy became the first therapy dog to operate within United Hatzalah’s psychotrauma response unit. Together, Jaffe and Lucy participated in emergency interventions involving individuals, families, bystanders, and first responders affected by traumatic incidents. Their deployments included the aftermath of 2021 Mount Meron crowd crush, the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse in Florida and 2025 missile impact in Beer Sheva. At Surfside, Jaffe and Lucy provided psychological first aid and emotional support to families of missing and deceased residents, displaced individuals, members of the surrounding community, and emergency responders. Lucy passed away in 2026.

Professional activities and research

Jaffe’s academic research builds on her experience in emergency crisis intervention and examines the practical, relational, and ethical dimensions of animal-assisted crisis response, complying all this work with animal welfare ethics. Her research addresses how trained canine-handler teams function during traumatic events, how crisis responders perceive these interventions, and the conditions under which animal-assisted support may be appropriate. She has participated in animal-assisted crisis response activities and professional collaborations involving United Hatzalah and HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response. Her professional service includes membership on the ethical board of United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma Unit and participation in academic mentorship activities.

Her collaborative research has also addressed the experiences of canine-handler teams responding to disasters, the characteristics of animal-assisted crisis response teams, and animal-assisted support for veterinary professionals. Her work has earned her media recognition in the United States, Mexico and Israel.

In addition to her academic and emergency-response work, Jaffe practices psychotherapy, with a clinical focus on psychological trauma, grief, and resilience. Her professional training includes Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), psychological first aid, and animal-assisted therapy.

Jaffe has presented her research and professional work at international conferences, including the 2023 National Association of Social Workers Annual Conference, the 2026 ISAZ Conference (organized by the International Society for Anthrozoology), the 2026 9th International Association of Veterinary Social Work (IAVSW) Summit, the 2025 Society for the Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations.

Awards and recognition

In 2024, Jaffe received the Faculty Award from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

In 2025, she received an Outstanding Research Award associated with Geha Mental Health Center’s annual psychiatry conference.

In 2026, she received research funding from the Israel Healthcare Foundation for a study of animal-assisted crisis response, supporting physiological monitoring equipment and research assistance.

Publications

• Jaffe, B. G. (2022). “Challenging the Assumption of Who Needs Help.” In: The Gifts We Receive from Animals: Stories to Warm the Heart, edited by Lori R. Kogan. Routledge.
• Jaffe, B. G. (2023). “Animal-Assisted Crisis Response: The Balance Between Work and Welfare.” In: Animal-Assisted Interventions: Recognizing and Mitigating Potential Welfare Challenges, edited by Lori R. Kogan. CABI.
• Eaton-Stull, Y. M, Jaffe, B., Scott, K., Shiller, M. (2023). “Animal-assisted crisis response: Characteristics of canine handlers and their canine partners”. Human-Animal Interactions.
• Eaton-Stull, Y. M., Streidl, C., Jaffe B. G., Kuehn S., Kaufman, A. (2024). “Animal-Assisted Stress Management for Veterinary Staff”. Health & Social Work, Volume 49, Issue 4, Pages 219–226.
• Eaton-Stull, Y. M., Jaffe, B. G., Scott, K., Shiller, M. (2024). “Challenges, Coping Strategies, and Benefits of Animal-Assisted Crisis Response Following Disasters and Traumatic Events”. People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 19.
• Jaffe, B. G. (2026). “Reaching Out of the Abyss: A Reflection on an Animal-Assisted Crisis Response Deployment”. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 32(1), 47-56.
• Jaffe B. G. (2026) “The Human-Canine Partnership in Animal-Assisted Crisis Response: A Welfare-Centered Perspective”. Animals (Basel);16(18):2857. PMID: 42791714; PMCID: PMC13603382.
• Jaffe, B. G. (2026). “Crisis responders’ perspectives on animal-assisted crisis response in acute trauma settings: a qualitative study”. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 21(1).

References

This article "Batya Gugenheim Jaffe" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Batya Gugenheim Jaffe. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---