Ukraine: Psychologist Nadiia Lokot for trauma work

With every day of the war in Ukraine, psychological stress for children and families is also increasing. Grenades and air strikes, family separations and displacements have become part of life for many. Almost every second child shows signs of mental injuries and trauma.

The Terre of the Hommes partner organization "Libereco-Partnership for Human Rights" provides dream asshilves and psychosocial support for children, young people and families in various regions of the country. Nadiia Lokot works as a psychologist and project coordinator for the Terre of the Hommes partner organization Libereco, who performs psychosocial support projects for children, adolescents and families in Ukraine. Since 2019, Nadia has mainly been working with victims of violence. In the interview, she explains the organization's approach and how he can help the many affected children and adolescents.

Nadiia, even after years of war: you provide psychological support in a continuing state of emergency. Where do you come in, what does your work look like?

First and foremost, we try to help children, adolescents and families, especially those who are directly affected by the war and had to leave their homes. In addition, supervisors and educators who work with children.

We offer direct psychological and psychosocial support, but the focus is on conveying simple, effective methods for self -help and increasing resilience. We teach people to deal with the situation in which they are. And we train them to pass on the methods so that, for example, parents can help their children in the future.

What is the psychological support especially for children?

When we talk about working with children, it is often not just about individual, but also about group work or mobile ad hoc help-for example through dream-related games or art therapeutic courses. For this we have mobile helpers that drive directly to the cities and villages in Kharkiw, Donetsk and Dnipro. We also carry out winter and summer vacation camps.

A dream help event usually begins with the fact that we post an announcement on social media, sometimes with a local, friendly organization. Then we check the applications, prioritize, for example, internal displaced people in the area or children separated from their parents. Afterwards we try to stay in touch with the trainees on site. For example, you can take part in online courses.

Why does this form of mobile therapy help? Especially in the endangered regions near the front?

People who stay with children near the front often do this because they have no other choice. Some have physical impairments. Sometimes it is just large families who have no other income opportunities. Apart from sporadic humanitarian aid, which rarely comes due to the broken streets and the high risks, people do not receive any further form of support.

I have remained a comparison of one of our mobile helpers in the memorial: If you carry out a game or event with children, then you do it so that these children can keep this beautiful memory and later call your "Patronus".

Do you know Harry Potter? A Patronus is a kind of protective spirit that can be conjured up if you remember something good, despite the bad around you. So if a child has this memory, a moment when it could simply be a child without solving problems without being afraid, especially in which it could simply play, then it is invaluable.

How would you explain the approach of your trauma therapy in this context?

Trauma itself is very difficult to define. Basically, it is the impression of an overwhelming experience in which someone had no support. A trauma is like a splitter or a piece of glass that remains after an event that is actually over. It is something painful that prevents you from leading a fulfilling life here and now because something hurt you at the time.

A warrior trauma is about taking control of me. We help people overcome the resulting situations by using somatic practices and a body -centered approach. That can be a long process. We support people in regaining control, understanding their own body. The whole thing is based on a precise understanding of the nervous system.

We often also use dream -related training and play. The support, especially in children, can consist of simple, varied activities - starting with painting, followed by a more active exercise. At some point the activities alternate. Children who have experienced crew or fire are sometimes in a kind of emotional "petrification". Our approach helps to gently get you out of her.

 

Has you remembered a special case, especially in your memory?

I just have so many of them. For example, I remember a girl from Mariupol. Today you can no longer live there. And she moved to Dnipro, where it is also very dangerous.

She took part in one of the holiday camps that we carried out as part of an earlier project. Her mental state was very sad. At first she wasn't really interested in the camp. I think her mother had suggested. She agreed without great interest.

What she had experienced before is unimaginable. She had - and I know that this is terrible to say - obviously lost the will to live. But after a few days at the camp, she smiled again, laughed with other children and found it back to life, so to speak. She has made friends, did little hikes near the camp.

Maybe that's not a big, fantastic story now, but in such moments I see again and again that there is hope. Actually, this shouldn't be that children have to find back into life. Children should be children. Her only job is to grow, be happy, paint pictures, maybe get a roll in the shop. They do terrible things that are difficult to endure even for adults. And when you find your way back to life, it is an incredible event for me.

 

When we talk about childhood in Ukraine as a whole: Is there something that connects everyone in the experience of war?

The loss of security, especially for children, may be omnipresent. It is the loss of parents, the loss of the apartment, the loss of stability. Experience not to know what tomorrow is not being able to rely on the future.

Now one could object that no child planned their own future for a long time. But there is a difference whether you are afraid that you could be killed tomorrow. If we plan [as an organization, i.e. Red.] For example, we are aware that one of us could die. And that is not an exaggerated concern, but reality. Because I am here in my country, there is war, and the only way I can help is to provide support. But unfortunately I can't stop rockets. And this constant feeling of uncertainty and danger that surrounds us completely affects practically all people.

 

It has been eleven years since Russia occupied the Crimea; Three years since it started the attack on the entire Ukraine. How do children in particular react to the persistent reality of the war?

As far as foreseeable, the war unfortunately does not end. The tension remains. This expectation that everything will be over at any moment and we will breathe a sigh of relief ... it is more and more the realization that this will not happen. There will not be peace immediately, and nobody can restore the joy of those who have lost their beloved people, their home or their hope. It is all the more important to develop resilience now.

Children suffer from the length of the war because they are more susceptible to this ongoing feeling of danger. At the same time, however, they are more flexible towards changes and can adapt. The psyche of children is very flexible. And that is an incredibly important gift.

If we do not let you down if we support you when we give you security, give you a little childhood and help you to understand that this is not forever ... Maybe I will not experience the end of the war anymore, although I really want it, but the children will definitely live. You are the future. Today's children will be those who one day rebuild everything.
 

How do you see the future of Ukraine as a psychologist?

[Considered] "We are all traumatized." "We will have all PTBs [post -traumatic stress disorders]." I don't like such statements at all. When we talk like this, we somehow program ourselves for it. As if we were entanglement and say: "Well, we will all be in this state."

I am confident. That we can adapt if we continue the fight and if we continue to react to the existing challenges. I have hope. And even if this war does not end quickly, I am ready to continue to hold on to it because I want to live. I know that children are born. I really want to have children. In Ukraine.

Yes, healing will take time, pulling out the splinters will take time. But if we continue and believe in what we do, it will be better sooner or later.