Are Michal Neria’s False OneTaste Allegations a Disservice to Her Father and His Work on PTSD Research?

Michal Neria participated in OneTaste for nine months, from October 2014 to August 2015. 

She made her story public, first in 2018 with Bloomberg News, then with the BBC in 2020, and now with a federal lawsuit in 2024. 

She told BBC: “I had full blown PTSD when I left OneTaste. I came out very scared and very afraid. I was for about two years suffering from nightmares, a deep sense of depression and loneliness and low self-esteem.” 

According to her lawsuit, long before Michal discovered OneTaste, she had been “struggling” with “mental health issues.” 

“I started taking antidepressants at the age of 15,” she told the BBC.

 She says her nine months with OneTatse at the age of 29 caused her PTSD for nine years and running. 

 Nowhere does she mention her father is one of the world’s leading experts on PTSD. 

Father’s Expertise and Contributions

Her father, Dr. Yuval Neria, is the Director of Trauma and PTSD at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. 

 He is also a professor of clinical medical psychology at Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry and Epidemiology and has led studies on PTSD at Columbia University Medical Center. 

He has studied PTSD in prisoners of war, war veterans, civilians exposed to terrorism and disasters, and people who experienced real tragedies. 

He founded the Columbia-NYP Military Family Wellness Center, where veterans can receive free care to address their PTSD.  He tested horse therapy and Transcendental Meditation for PTSD relief and wrote hundreds of articles on PTSD. 

 If Michal Neria’s story is genuine and not a money grab, could her famous father do something to help her? 

 Ironically, her father experienced events that could cause PTSD. 

 His daughter’s PTSD comes from her adult-age decisions to try sex, which she now regrets. She was not physically injured. 

 Forget the fact that she had been under psychiatric care for more than a decade before she took her first class at OneTaste and was on antidepressant medications. She blames all her troubles on OneTaste. 

 Her father was cut from a different cloth. 

 He tells his story: 

 “I was born and raised in Israel to a family who were basically founders of the state. My parents were in the precursor to the modern Israeli army; they were both combatants and my mother was a medic, so I was exposed to the effects of stress and trauma from a very young age. “

 While Michal had some unhappy orgasms and married a man for money that she met at One Taste, she was not permanently injured. 

 Not so her father. He won Israel’s highest military award, the Medal of Valor. 

 He writes: “I’ve been through two wars myself, the first as a young 21-year-old lieutenant in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, where I fought alongside friends and colleagues and where I was eventually injured. The war changed my life in so many ways. It was a tragic event and I lost my best friends, but the experience also contributed to the way I look at my life: From a very young age, I valued the opportunity I’d been given to live, to enjoy life, and to maximize my contribution to humanity. “

Father Never Had PTSD

 It is too bad Michal cannot learn to value the opportunity she has been given to live, to enjoy life, and to maximize her contribution to humanity.

 Instead, she goes to the media, gives interviews, and tries to capitalize on her failures in life by blaming others.

Her father writes:

“After 9/11, Columbia University Medical Center invited me to join its Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Program in the department of psychiatry. It was an opportunity to follow what I’d felt was my destiny from an early age because of my experience in war. 

 “I never had PTSD, but I wanted to help those who were not able to recover or live a normal life after their military experience. What I carry with me, in addition to the horror and the fear of war, is an understanding of what patients are going through and a commitment to their treatment.” 

Real Trauma vs. Alleged Trauma

The people Dr. Neria tries to help have experienced real trauma: War, 9-11, loss of limbs. Destruction of the fabric of their life. 

 Michal had some sex and met a man and divorced him, and in her scorn and rage, she has been vindictive through the years.

 Her dad writes: “Many people with PTSD are constantly on alert; they see the world as a dangerous place. “

 Michal wants to make the world a dangerous place for others by suing, going to the media, spreading falsehoods and half-truths, and alleging crimes that did not happen. Ironically, her conduct is exactly the opposite of what OneTaste preached from the day she walked in their doors—the doctrine of being an adult and taking responsibility for your adult decisions.

Her dad writes:

“Not only was I lucky enough to survive war trauma, but then I was given a rare opportunity to lead a lab in one of the best medical centers in the world, and to focus on the question of what went wrong in the brain of patients with PTSD and whether we, as scientists, can reverse it. This is very exciting and very personal for me. I am convinced the brain is plastic enough to go both ways, meaning that PTSD can be one day preventable, and even if developed, it can be effectively treated and normalized.” 

Truth and Lies

 One day, perhaps Michal will sit down with her father and tell him the truth about what happened, including how she lied to him about getting married to Misha Safyan, her husband of four months, how she hid her marriage from her parents and then faked a public ceremony afterward to mislead them into believing she married that day.

You may think this is rough on a woman who tried so hard to remain anonymous.  I don’t think so. When a woman or a man comes out with lies publicly hiding behind anonymity, she must be called out. 

Michal Neria put a package of lies, distortions, half-truths, lies by omissions, and unnecessary details to color her “victims” dirty in her lawsuit.  She wanted to tell the whole world how bad Nicole Daedone and Rachael Cherwitz were to try to put them in prison and take their money, anything to satisfy her blood lust. 

The glass house she built by this, and the stones beside it, and the boomerang, these she created by a foundation of lies. Michal Neria began a war with people who the record shows did her no harm. Nothing she did as an adult she did not consent to. 

Maybe she will learn from her courageous father, who went through harrowing experiences to fight for his country, came out stronger, and then dedicated his life to helping others.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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