From victim to victor: The development of the BASIC PH model of coping and resiliency.

This article summarizes my personal journey in the field of trauma starting in 1975 and tries to trace its “origin” in my early life experiences. It mostly focuses on my field experience as a pioneer professional (academician and practitioner) in a rural area of Israel in the late 70s and early 80s. In this personal and professional encounter with the harsh reality of a community living under constant threat of shelling and of terrorists’ infiltration, I realized there was a huge gap between my clinical training and the real life of these people who were forced to cope with this situation for years. This has led to one of the first attempts worldwide to research and develop an integrative model of coping and resiliency. The results yielded a new model: the BASIC Ph Model. This model builds on an understanding of the community impacted and the ability of the inhabitants to withstand disasters and crisis and led to the development of one of the first comprehensive resiliency programs. Among other things, the program using the BASIC Ph Model ensured that there would be a professional role of Emergency Behavioral Officer(s) with the job of enhancing trauma resilience city-wide. A diagram and table are presented and discussed to help to explain the elements and approaches covered in the BASIC Ph Model. The latter section of the article discusses the cross-sectional studies of the model and recent developments in its many uses.