In October 2023, the authors of the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program and members of the “Children and War” Foundation held a supervisory meeting for the team members of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project.
The meeting was attended by: William Yule, author and co-founder of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program, professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, Laura Tomlinson (Timms), clinical psychologist and trainer at the “Children and War” Foundation, and Melinda Edwards, international trainer of the “Children and Grief: Learning Life Skills” project.
The participants discussed the Ukrainian experience of using the “Children and War” program and the rehabilitation of children with war trauma. They also talked about the introduction of a new methodology – the “Children and Grief: Learning Life Skills” program, which is aimed at processing the loss of a loved/close one. Today, this is a very relevant topic that causes a lot of pain and a strong response from children (group participants).
As noted by the trainers from Ukraine present at the meeting, despite the difficulties and tears, children are interested in this topic and are happy to learn the skills of healthy “proper” grieving during the sessions. Thus they receive support and significant emotional relief. The project team is sincerely grateful to their British colleagues who are carefully studying the Ukrainian experience to improve the psychological assistance tools they share.
