NEFESH was founded in 1992, to bring Orthodox Jewish professionals and rabbis together to address mental health issues that we deal with daily on a professional and communal level. We have since grown to over 750 members worldwide, including United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Israel, Brazil, Belgium and Argentina. Between three and four hundred people have attended each of our fourteen annual conferences, which have taken place in New York, Miami, Baltimore, Norfolk and Israel. Our rabbinic advisors, led by Rav Dovid Cohen, Moreh D'Asrah, and Rabbi Abraham Twerski, M.D., and our rabbinic liaison, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Ph.D., provide guidance on issues that affect us as mental health professionals.

NEFESH-International is an interdisciplinary organization of Orthodox Jewish mental health professionals providing leadership and interdisciplinary education in the field of personal, family, and community mental health. Our diverse members are psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, psychiatric nurses, chemical dependency counselors, psychotherapists, guidance and pastoral counselors, and graduate students. Affiliate members include Clergy, Jewish educators, attorneys, and allied professionals.

NEFESH provides an opportunity and vehicle for mental health professionals, clergy, and educators to network and collaborate in meeting our common challenge - to enhance the emotional well being of the community. Together we are developing timely and effective approaches that are based on widely accepted mental health principles, within a perspective and framework of Jewish values and ethics. We address critical issues facing us as professionals and confronting Jewish families and communities.