Almost all the participants of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions have one thing in common – everyone has been traumatized by war in one way or another. But groups are always different. There was a 15-year-old boy Vladyslav from Khmelnytsky in one of the therapy groups at the children camp. He engaged in activities actively, quickly got to know everyone, listened to their stories, tried to carefully ask questions. However, almost until the end of the therapy course he kept saying that he had no traumatic memories and participated only out of curiosity and a desire to learn healing techniques for the future.
When the group worked on fears, one girl said that she was afraid to return to Kherson, where she saw how her house was flooded. Then Vladyslav said that he understood the girl, because he was also afraid to return to the village to his grandmother. And without hesitating he told his story:
“In summer, I always went to my grandmother’s village, where I had my best friend, Anton. We had fun and every day was interesting and exciting. Two years ago, we went to the pond, caught some fish, we were so happy. After fishing, we were walking through the forest, talking, and suddenly we heard a sound. It was loud and seemed to be approaching us. Everything happened very quickly, maybe in a couple of seconds… I looked around and saw that a tree was falling on us. Anton somehow pushed me off the path, and the tree fell right on him…
He died on the spot. I was very scared, as if I were paralyzed. Then I started to pull him out and saw that he was not breathing, and his whole head was covered in blood. It was terrifying, I ran down the road and screamed, calling for help. He was buried, and I can no longer go to the village, I have never been there since that incident.”
Vladyslav covered his face with his hands and cried. He explained that after that incident he often has the same dream of a tree falling on Anton. And when he wakes up, he often sees his friend before his eyes and smells blood and hears the sound of a tree falling. Two years have passed, but it seems to the boy that it happened yesterday. He stopped going to the forest and fishing.
Continuing the sessions, the trainers stimulated the group to talk about useful and useless avoidance. They also asked Vladyslav what techniques he could use in such cases. The boy shared that he already uses breathing, listening and smelling exercises and carries an aromatic oil with him. He noted that techniques helped him relieve tension, so he plans to keep using them in the future. At the next session he brought a completed task on overcoming fear. He decided that he needed to resume his to trips to the village, step by step. On each step, he wrote what he had to do and drew Anton as his superhero with wings who would help him in everything.
On the photo, group therapy sessions “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” conducted in March-April 2024 in Lyceum #93 in Kyiv by the trainers of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, Alevtyna Hurska and Maryna Pavlus.
We are grateful to our partner, Canada-Ukraine Foundation, for the financial support.
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