Opening the Door to Sunrise: A Pediatric Integrative Chinese Medicine Approach to War-Related Trauma and Resilience

Background: Armed conflict exposes children to trauma and continuous threat, leading to high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints. Following the October 7, 2023, attacks and subsequent multi-front conflict in Israel, demand for mental health services increased substantially, highlighting the need for scalable supportive interventions. Pediatric complementary and integrative medicine (CIM), including Chinese medicine (CM) and mind–body approaches, may provide adjunctive tools for addressing trauma-related symptoms and promoting resilience in war-exposed children. Objective: To respond to the rising need for CIM treatment for pediatric emotional distress, addressing both emotional and somatic manifestations of trauma and supporting resilience and post-traumatic recovery. Design: A protocol, integrating principles of CM Five-Element theory with various pediatric CIM modalities, was developed during the acute phase of the conflict. Setting: The protocol was initially implemented in the emergency department of Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital located near the Israeli-Gaza border, for children presenting with acute stress reactions and later disseminated to practitioners across Israel. Results: The Five-Element theory-based framework enables practitioners to address trauma-related emotional and somatic manifestations through targeted therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring regulation, stability, and adaptive functioning. Conclusion: The Five-Element model may provide a structured approach for addressing trauma-related symptoms in war-exposed children and may support resilience and recovery when conventional mental health services are limited. Additional studies are required to explore the generalizability of this model in varied international settings where children are challenged by war-related concerns.