“Olenaof Baymoutha city that no longer exists,” says a woman by way of presentation at an event held in Kievone of the many psychological support meetings for displaced people and other people affected by war organized by volunteers and NGOs in towns and cities throughout Ukraine.
After Olena women and men take the floor to give their name and place of origin. Luhansk, Mariupol, Melitopol and other towns conquered by the Russian Army and often devastated during months of siege that have left indelible scars in the minds of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
‘Tapping’, one of the methods used by Scott Fox
Together with the displaced people they sit in the circle they form to listen to the American therapist Scott Foxwho has come to Ukraine as a volunteer to teach the so-called Emotional Freedom Techniques that he practices to soldiers, children and adult civilians affected by war, psychologists and therapists from different disciplines.
They come to know new methods, such as the technique based on acupuncture and the modern psychology that practices Foxknown as ‘tapping’ and consisting of repeatedly tapping different parts of the body with the fingers while formulating the reasons for anxiety, to use with their patients or to achieve serenity themselves in moments of torment due to bombings or worries associated with war .
“This technique helps reset the nervous system so that people can get out of the constant state of fight or flight,” he explains to EFE Foxwho has extensive experience using this method to reduce pressure in elite athletes, and has also offered workshops in person and online to war veterans and Ukrainian children.
Without enough professionals
Descendant of Ukrainians who emigrated to USA a century ago, Fox started working with Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion.
“There are not and cannot be enough professionals in any country to deal with what is happening, and we have to give people opportunities so that the problems can also be dealt with in each neighborhood, in each community,” he says about the idea that promotes this and other of the many meetings of this type that take place daily throughout Ukraine.
The goal of this type of talks is to equip the greatest number of individuals and professionals, explains Foxwith the basic knowledge of this technique so that they can expand its use to as many people as possible, promoting, in the therapist’s words, a “snowball effect” that responds to part of the psychological urgencies of more people.
The importance of helping each other
One of the attendees – among whom there are also relatives of soldiers fighting on the front or prisoners of war – is Tetiana Okrushnáa displaced person from the occupied city of Melitopol who was a successful taekwondo practitioner in her youth, who acts as a coach and is a history teacher.
Okrushna provides psychological help to other displaced people and tries to calm the anxieties and improve the emotional health of people who have stayed in occupied areas in sessions that he offers remotely from Kiev.
This woman with an active attitude and optimistic speech hopes to be able to transmit the techniques taught by the teacher. Fox the people you help to show interest.
“It is very important that we give strength to each other and that we support the greatest number of people,” he says. Okrushna.
15 million people with psychological problems
The presentation of Fox is organized by the Coaching Association of Ukraine with the support of the city council of Kiev and from the NGO VCentersat whose headquarters in the center of kyiv the event takes place.
“At the beginning of the war, the Ministry of Health estimated at 15 million the number of Ukrainians who would need psychological support during the war,” he tells EFE Nadia Kopanitsiadirector of the Coaching Association that periodically organizes talks like today’s.
Ways to treat anxiety
In addition to teaching attendees new ways to deal with anxiety, these events allow people particularly affected by war who often do not have work and have seen the social fabric they had destroyed by having to emigrate to new cities to cultivate relationships and Find support from other people in the same situation.
“Many times it is a way to share what we feel with people who are going through the same thing and to remember that we are not alone,” he tells EFE Maria Soldatovaa refugee from Mariupol who regularly attends psychological support workshops organized by different NGOs in Kiev.
Conventional psychological therapy
In addition to the ‘tapping’ that teaches Foxother initiatives offer conventional psychological therapy, practical classes based on role exchanges between participants, methods of stimulating awareness of one’s own body such as Feldenkrais or the expression of trauma and anguish through theater or dance.
“Not all techniques work for everyone, but it is always better not to face them alone and to look for ways to deal with psychological problems than to ignore them until it becomes impossible to live with them,” he says. Soldatova about their experience in this type of events. EFE
#Ukrainians #seek #psychological #support #face #war #traumas
