For some students, the pivotal seminary year is their best opportunity to work through issues and return home with a fresh slate
Before Suri headed to seminary in Israel her life seemed under control.
Burdened with a complex family situation she’d been urged by her sisters for years to seek therapy. “I insisted they were being overdramatic” Suri recalls. “But then I noticed a recurring theme in my classes: the value of sorting out one’s issues before dating and marriage. I decided to test the waters.”
Suri sought out her seminary’s therapist. “It was as if the floodgates opened” she says of beginning therapy. “My protective bubble popped and I realized ‘Boy do I need help. How did I think I could handle this myself?!’ ”
For a growing number of seminary girls their seminary year has an additional chavayah: therapy. With “real life” postponed for another nine months this time away from home seems opportune for finally hashing out difficult issues brewing beneath the surface before they impact key future decisions — shidduchim career decisions parenthood.
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