In Palestine, trauma-informed care misses the mark. Liberation psychology is needed to address neo-colonialism.

Rights-based approaches to mental healthcare are needed in occupied Palestine territory (oPt) to combat the deleterious mental health impacts of human rights violations and neo-colonialism.

Palestinian-based mental healthcare professionals Maria Heilbach (psychotherapist) and Samah Jabr (psychiatrist) argue that purely biomedical understandings of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and well-intentioned trauma theory cannot capture the extent of suffering that occurs in and around the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

They then argue that to alleviate both the suffering of Palestinians and their victimization, mental healthcare professionals must promote rights-based, liberatory understandings of mental illness and trauma.