Keren Barzilay Shechter, M.A. is an expressive therapist specializing in psychodrama who has worked with children and adults in different setting such as community clinics and psychiatric hospitals in Israel. She is currently a doctoral candidate in expressive therapy at Lesley University, where she is researching the role of the defenses in the Israeli psyche within the context of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. She has a special interest in the possible contribution of expressive therapy to enhancing and processing these defenses.