On November 29, 2024, at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, the team of the "Yarmiz" Readaptation and Rehabilitation Center presented the results of six months of work as part of the project "A stable family is a strong country", implemented with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
The project is directed on strengthening the capacity of communities, systematic and continuous psychosocial support of servicemen, veterans, as well as their family members. Formation of standards for providing high-quality services to families of servicemen and veterans and prevention of emotional burnout among specialists in helping professions by strengthening competence and awareness in family counseling topics.
Boiko Svitlana, project manager, noted that the project is focused on supporting couples of military personnel and veterans, improving the competencies of family psychologists and developing methodical materials. "I want to thank the project team for such great and important work, thank the partners and the International Renaissance Foundation for their trust and support."
Olga Galchenko, representative of the International Renaissance Foundation noted that the state and society should understand how lucky they are that there are such public organizations as the YARMIZ Center in Ukraine, ready to provide support to military families. "It is a pride and honor for the Foundation to have the opportunity to help you in what you do," said Ms. Olga. - We don't talk enough about families, we don't pay enough attention to the issues of families who are waiting, families who have lost, families who worry every day and every minute and are waiting for news. And there are many such families. If reintegration, the return of veterans, women veterans are already being talked about in full voice, however, the main work in this matter falls on the shoulders of families - very often they are left alone. Families need support, solutions and understanding from society.
The Ukrainian state is very lucky that there are such organizations as "Yarmiz" in the society, that there is a civil society that is ready to take on difficult issues, pick up these families, help, advise, provide psychological and other services that the family needs. As a Foundation, we plan to support such projects."
invited guest Oleksandr Chamorsov, veteran, chief psychologist of the Crisis Support Hotline of the Ukrainian Veteran Fund of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, confirmed that after the return of a military man from the front, the first challenges for his adaptation to civilian life fall on those closest to him - his partner, his wife. The protector returns first of all to the family or to his or her partner and this is the first place where they are received and the first challenges that the spouses receive. "I see calls to the support line, from wives or defenders and I see the number of problems they face. Our line works around the clock, 14 psychologists accept applications. Some of them underwent training at the YARMIZ Center, and I hope that as many specialists as possible will be able to undergo such training, including me."
Natalia Martirosova, psychologist, manager of the YARMIZ Center spoke in more detail about the training of psychologists:
"This direction exceeded our expectations, because in the first week of registration for the training, we received more than 200 applications from 21 regions of Ukraine, both from cities with millions and from small towns, there were also requests from European countries. This clearly demonstrated how great the demand for such specialized training is and there are still many specialists who need access to this knowledge."
Sofia Terlez, clinical psychologist, couple and family therapist, co-author of the training and manual emphasized in her video speech:
"If there is an opportunity to make sure that any individual family begins to understand each other better, so that people can come out of quarrels as winners with two sides that understand and support each other, it seems to me that then we can really say that we won."
Maria Oliynyk, psychologist, co-author and training leader, told how the supervisory support of psychologists took place after the completion of training.
"During the training, we tried to consider all typical cases and give psychologists plenty of practical tasks, but their personal experience working "in the fields" is extremely important. That's why we added supervision to prolong the educational process already on personal cases of specialists."
Alyona Sydorenko, senior officer of the department of psychological support of the State Department of the State Department of the State Department of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - a participant in the training: "It was a very powerful training, very cool speakers, whom I highly respect for their professionalism and competence. I talked to colleagues and they all confirmed that this training provided extremely valuable knowledge in family counseling, which is just not enough. After all, most of the problems of a psychological nature in the army are exactly conflicts due to the fact that people do not see each other for a long time and move away from each other. As a therapist, the training gave me a greater understanding of these issues, powerful tools and cool techniques to successfully work with them."
At the conference, the results of a study showing the professional level of psychologists before training and after training were presented.
Maryana Mykolaichuk, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy of the Ukrainian Catholic University, family systemic therapist and Maryana Stulkivska, psychologist, doctoral student of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome noted that the results demonstrated high learning efficiency. After the training, the specialists' willingness and enthusiasm to work with couples of military and veterans increased, anxiety about working with escalated couples decreased, the ability to diagnose, do psychoeducation, etc. increased.
Syrytsia Marina, psychotherapist, director of the YARMIZ Center presented a developed methodical guide on the peculiarities of couple counseling of families of military personnel and veterans:
"I am sincerely glad that we managed to implement this project, thanks to our great team that believed in this idea. It is no secret that for a long time from the beginning of the war to the moment of its full-scale deployment, psychologists worked almost intuitively on the knowledge they had, because neither we nor other countries had clear and specific recommendations. We studied the literature on our own, gathered our own experience and the experience of fellow experts, and were able to create programs for effective counseling and support, specifically for couples and families of military personnel and veterans, that do not exist to this day."
Natalia Umerenkova, psychotherapist, co-author of the training and manual, head of the NGO "Public Movement "Women's Power of Ukraine", supplemented the presentation of the manual with her comment: "We have an unusual relationship at a distance and an atypical loss of closeness, we work with the so-called effect of the combat mind, when the military, for the sake of survival, conditionally turns off a certain emotional sensitivity and at the same time increases attention to external threats. This leads to tremendous changes in the communication of the couple, and if neither partner is aware of what is happening, then they will naturally feel pain in the relationship. It is important for every specialist who works with military families to know these nuances. That is why the educational points in the manual are so step-by-step. Our entire team of experts worked to make it as concrete, applied and, I would say, multifunctional as possible, a tool not only for couple counseling, but also for conducting groups and individual counseling."
Psychologist Oleksandr Ryazanova at first, she herself was a member of a support group for wives who are waiting for loved ones from the war, and then worked in these groups as a presenter, becoming the embodiment of the "equal to equal" principle.
"60% participants reported that working in a group had a positive effect on the state of their partner, which means that they were able to successfully implement new knowledge and skills in communicating with their loved one. 100% participants noted that they began to better understand their needs in a relationship. 90% participants confirmed that working in a group had a positive effect on their relationship with their partner. One of the greatest values of the participants was the atmosphere of invaluable support in the group. They felt "their own among their own", and the fact that they were not alone with their problem, but found partners, had a therapeutic effect. The participants supported each other and continued to communicate after the meetings ended."
In the final word, the director of the YARMIZ Center Syrytsia Marina noted that she hopes to make the Center's projects more accessible, build an effective system, partner with organizations and do this work professionally, because our defenders and their families should receive qualified assistance and feel that they are understood, valued and cared for.
Press conference broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQoOMXnEBKk
As part of the project:
- Methodical guide "Communication through distance" has been developed on the features of couple counseling of families of military personnel and veterans.
- For the first time in Ukraine, trainings on the peculiarities of couple counseling of families of servicemen and veterans were held for civilian and military psychologists, 26 hours of supervisory support were provided, and research work was carried out on the effectiveness of trainings.
- 2 support groups for women were held and 85 couples and 52 individual psychological consultations were provided.
The material was prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
The material reflects the position of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the position of the International Revival Foundation.