“Despite this, life is beautiful,” are the words that haunted Guy. They were spoken by a friend at the Nova festival as the rockets began to fly overhead and people were ordered to disperse. They went separate ways.
She was later kidnapped and murdered by Hamas on October 7. Guy survived the next six hours. He and his friends were surrounded by Hamas terrorists who were slaughtering anyone they saw.
They moved between trees and bushes, trying to find cover from endless incoming fire. Terrorists blew up Guy’s car with an RPG. In a prefiguring of the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, at one point Guy felt that he had to move.
Just as he did so, a bullet passed so close he could feel it on his cheek, through the spot where his head had just been. Guy encountered a terrified man with bulging eyes who could barely speak but managed to warn him that he had witnessed a beheading and other unspeakable atrocities. As with so many other survivors of the Nova Festival, Guy has suffered painful and enduring Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – and one person who has helped him is Los Angeles-based neuro-clinical psychologist Dr Orli Peter.
In the aftermath of October 7, Dr Peter has been giving pioneering treatment to survivors of the massacre. She has almost 30 years of clinical experience and three post-doctoral fellowships under her belt. She has helped restabilise survivors and witnesses of 9/11, Iranian refugees, Israeli victims of terrorist attacks and famili.