Ukrainians seek to heal war trauma at mental health clinic – Times of India

KYIV, UKRAINE: After the Russian invasion of UkraineYuriy Makeyev found himself homeless and jobless: a combination of circumstances that brought him to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Now the 48-year-old, who has fled his home in the war-torn east, believes he can return to normal life thanks to a special course of psychological rehabilitation he is going through a Kyiv clinic.
At least 5,000 civilians have been killed and as many wounded since the Russian president Vladimir Putin he ordered his troops to enter Ukraine on February 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations.
But many more have survived devastating bombings across the country, which have left them with mental scars and psychological trauma.
Psychologists say that spending weeks in bomb shelters, as well as losing your job and being forced to leave your home, can create stress and frustration that can become impossible to handle on your own.
“After the war broke out, I was left homeless and jobless at the same time,” said Makeyev, who worked as an editor at a Kyiv-based magazine.
His ordeal began in 2014, when he was forced to leave his hometown of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine after Russian-backed separatists took it over.
“What is happening in and around Kyiv, I have already seen in Donetsk. I didn’t want to experience it again, but I did,” he said.
A Russian missile attack in a residential building in Kyiv last month left one person dead.
After Russia invaded UkraineMakeyev’s news outlet closed and he lost his job.
The hostel where she lived also closed and financial difficulties meant she couldn’t afford to rent elsewhere.
“Various factors became an ongoing stress and something urgently needed to be done to address it,” he said.
Makeyev told his story to AFP, sitting on a bench in the quiet courtyard of the psychological rehabilitation clinic called Sociotherapy.
“There are a lot of people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD,” says Denys Starkov, a psychologist at the crisis center, which opened last month.
“There is demand (for the clinic) from society. Psychologists are overloaded with these types of clients, which is why this idea came about,” Starkov said of the facility.
It offers a special three-week course, focused mainly on group sessions for people who suffer from anxiety, panic attacks or painful memories.
Some, like Makeyev, go directly to the clinic, others call a helpline and talk to specialists, who determine if they are suitable for therapy.
Treatment is free. The course includes 15 thematic sessions aimed at understanding one’s experience of trauma and learning ways to cope with it.
Currently, the course is available only to civilians. Neither the soldiers nor the children are hospitalized patients at this time.
“If (PTSD) isn’t treated early, then it takes on more severe forms,” ​​Starkov said, sitting in a spacious, light-filled group study room, with rows of chairs and a flipchart of multi-colored markers in front of him. to them.
The three-story building on the outskirts of town served as a hospital for drug and alcohol addicts before Russia invaded.
Now a team of seven psychologists conduct sessions with patients several times a day, both in groups and individually, says Oleg Olishevsky, director of the therapy program.
He adds that currently ten patients are taking the course, but the center plans to increase this number to 30 people.
“For the next 10 to 15 years, this will be the main area of ​​work, because all the inhabitants of our country are living through this traumatic situation,” he told AFP.
However, Olishevsky and his team are optimistic.
“We are already seeing results. People can feel that they are safe here, that they are being taken care of,” she says.
The Makeyev patient seems ready to accept, even after only four days in the clinic.
“I was inspired here. They gave me hope that I had already lost,” he said, dressed in bright blue pants and a white T-shirt, his voice sounding confident.
The first thing he plans to do after finishing therapy is look for a job, Makeyev says.
“I hope to leave here fully developed and emotionally balanced, I’m not even afraid of this word ‘happy,'” Makeyev says, a faint smile visible on his face.