In Uzhhorod, the “Tree of Life” space provides psychological assistance to volunteers and not only that

Lyubov Mykhailiuk and Ksenia Tereza Tarnavska felt the need to be useful to the country from the beginning of the full-scale war. But attention was focused not on those who were directly affected, but on those who help. They saw how Zakarpattians rushed to volunteer. Non-stop, without sleep or rest, they registered, accommodated, fed, comforted everyone who was fleeing the bombings. Having experience in psychological counseling, the specialists understood that the volunteers themselves would soon run out of energy and fatigue would lead to burnout. Lyubov Mykhailiuk already went through all this in Kyiv during the Maidan and the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014. At that time, the Ukrainians also rescued forced migrants from Donbas, but within a few months the internal resources were exhausted and devastation ensued.

Therefore, already on March 1, 2022, Lyubov, together with Ksenia Teresa, founded the project, which later grew into the “Tree of Life” charitable foundation, the main task of which was to provide psychological assistance to volunteers. And they were not mistaken – such support turned out to be necessary, and group counseling was effective.

Today, the project team, consisting of 15 specialists, continues to help volunteers, provides free psychological support to military families, elderly people, works with children, forcibly displaced persons, as well as morally exhausted citizens who seek solace in communication. Work in groups in other areas is carried out for a nominal fee. How it all started and how it works now – we asked in more detail.

We meet the co-founders of the “Tree of Life” project on a Saturday autumn rainy day. In contrast to the wet, gloomy weather outside the window, the rooms of the foundation are quiet and cozy. This space sets the mood for peace as much as possible. Guests are invited to put on slippers, tea is brewed on the table, the hostesses cut the Uzhgorod cake. The ashen cat Dymko, who is affectionately called “our cat therapist”, lazily wags his tail, perched on the cabinet.

We have one hour to talk – after that the counseling will begin. The fact that psychological group meetings take place here is indicated by the chairs arranged in a circle. But in addition to dialogues and group conversations with psychologists, clients of the psychological-resource, educational-cultural space have various activities: they engage in art therapy, dancing, and even beadwork. There is also a psychological film club in the space, master classes are held by famous cultural figures of Zakarpattia and Ukraine.

Direct speech further.

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Lyubov Mykhailiuk is the head of the BF “Tree of My Life”, co-founder of the project of psychological and resource support “Tree of My Life”.

The first profession is a journalist, later she received a master’s degree in religious sciences in the field of catechism and theology, and is currently receiving a professional psychological education in the direction of resource-oriented counseling.

Originally from Halychyna, lived in Uzhhorod for 2 years.

Ksenia Tereza Tarnavska is a co-founder of the project, an analytically oriented psychologist, a candidate for psychotherapists in the symbol-drama method, an active member of the Institute for the Development of Symbol Drama and Deep Psychology, the author of training programs.

VOLUNTEERS ARE LIVING PEOPLE

Lyubov: The “Tree of Life” Charitable Foundation was an answer to the challenge of the times. With the beginning of the war, we all wanted to help, to be needed, we were directed as much as possible to help forcibly resettled fellow citizens, to support the Armed Forces and territorial defense. Assessing the situation, analyzing what and how it is happening, I understood from my own bitter life experience: if the volunteers and active local population burn out, everyone will be in trouble.

When volunteers do not notice and do not provide themselves with vital needs – food, rest and sleep, forgetting about their families, work non-stop on the wave of raised adrenaline caused by stress – over time, a person becomes exhausted, burns out, and this results in psychosomatic manifestations, exacerbation of chronic diseases, the appearance of new ones, which ultimately leads to a hospital bed.

In 2014-2015, I myself was a volunteer and know from the inside how everything happens. Professional-volunteer burnout also happened to me. Faith, communication with a spiritual mentor, support of parents, friends helped, in the end, it caused a desire to get a second higher education.

I got to Zakarpattia at the invitation of Ksenia Tereza, with whom I worked together in one of the social humanitarian projects of the family home for youth. I worked for a year and a half and then the war caught me…

February 24, Thursday morning. Dymko woke up at 4:20 a.m. and demanded let him go out. When I came back after the walk and read the news, my first decision was to go to the Military Commissariat. I can shoot well, I went through military training at school, but I was not hired – they said that there was no position.

I’m a person who doesn’t just sit around like that and who needs to do something. My great-grandfathers defended the independence of Ukraine, it is in my blood, so I decided to combine all my 3 professions into one and try to create something useful for people. We met with Ksenia Teresa, discussed, came to the decision that very soon there will be a need for psychological help specifically for volunteers and decided: we need to effectively use our knowledge, resources, and work experience.

Ksenia Tereza: Before the war, I practiced individual counseling, group psychotherapy, worked in the social center named after Maria Ward for students from low-income families and orphans. On February 24, everything changed. We discussed the possibilities with Lyubov, how and with what to help, and immediately decided to direct the work to volunteers. I contacted my colleagues from Uzhgorod, Mukachevo and Svaliava, they also supported and agreed to such work. Lyubov began to deal with organizational aspects, me – program development. After all, it was a new situation for us, no one was preparing for war, we all found ourselves in a new reality.

Lyubov: Since the beginning of the war, most of my fellow psychologists have focused on the crisis direction. This is urgent help for people who are in a state of shock. Ksenia Teresa and I understood that we need to respond to challenges, but at the same time we need to think about the future. Therefore, the vision of our project was directed to the future. And the works are here, unfortunately, for decades. I thank my friends for supporting the project since the first days of the war.

FIRST WEEKS

Lyubov: At the beginning, it was quite difficult, we were looking for a place to hold groups of psychological and resource support. Bishop Mykola Luchak and Father Nilo Lushchak were asked for help. With their permission, the team worked for the first 1.5 months in the space belonging to the parishes of the RCC and MGCE in three cities: Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, Svaliava.

Thanks to announcements, posts on social networks, personal contacts, people gradually learned about us, volunteers began to come, forcibly resettled citizens also began to apply for psychological support.

Ksenia Teresa: Our task was to balance what is happening. Volunteers, like all ordinary people in a state of stress and physical exhaustion, lost their bearings due to a violation of the life balance. We analyzed how the spheres of their lives look now. For example, in the family, at work. Together we came to an understanding of what needs to be done to find yourself and stabilize yourself.

KEEP BALANCE

Ksenia Teresa: Balance between all spheres of life is a very important thing. Burnout begins when skew occurs. This can happen at any time, even when the work inspires you, you completely immerse yourself in it and do not notice how other areas begin to suffer. It is about contacts (relationships), physical (rest, sleep, self-care, hygiene, sports), activities (work, study), spiritual inner world (religion, philosophy of life). If any of these areas are neglected, the body sends SOS signals. I give an example of a round wheel: imagine that some part of it is cut off – the uniformity will be disturbed. The wheel simply will not roll and will slow down the movement.

Another important phenomenon that clearly comes to the surface during burnout is anger at the world around you, at everything that surrounds you.

Lyubov: Another effective example that we gave to our group participants is a car and fuel. Or a phone and a charging source. No devices work without them. Likewise, a person must understand that he must rest, eat, and devote time to himself and his development. If the body constantly engages in one thing without respite, without rest, it will simply get exhausted.

WE ARE FOR YOU

Lyubov: It is important for each of us to know that what you do is not in vain. If no one thanks a person for his work, then the thought comes – does anyone need this job? The person himself, his relatives, then his close environment and so on suffer from such rejection. This is how the slogan that we use in our work was born: “WE ARE for YOU”.

Ksenia Tereza: As of today, together with colleagues in Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, and Svaliva, we have provided consultative psychological assistance to more than 170 people of various status and age categories. In every city, our priority remains volunteers and citizens, in particular, families of military personnel (children, spouses, parents, sisters/brothers). The main task is to provide support to as many people as possible.

Very often people just need to release their emotions. Therefore, in our work, we use various areas of psychological assistance and offer our participants various types of classes. For example, there are group body-oriented activities. They relax muscles through exercise and release emotions. These are dances, physical exercises on mats. There are communication groups, behavioral groups, self-regulation classes, etc. Participants come once a week, group work lasts an hour, an hour and a half. The number of such meetings can be from 5 to 15, depending on the dynamics of the group. Colleagues also provide individual consultations when a participant wishes to work alone with a psychologist.

We conduct various types of art therapy classes. For example, during right-hemisphere drawing, internal calming processes take place, the head “turns off”. Every meeting in every group has a very effective result.

A migrant from Kyiv, a member of the first group of psychological support for forcibly resettled fellow citizens, now our colleague, a psychologist-analyst by profession, leads a neurographic group. This is a method thanks to which neural connections are worked out. The participant performs the presenter’s task – draws according to a certain algorithm. During the session, blocks are removed, there is a support, an internal resource.

Children’s groups include art therapy, fairy tale therapy, music therapy, and play practice. In parallel, we work with parents – the result of such work is very powerful. Most importantly, the interaction between parents and children continues beyond our space.

We named the older age group “Time for yourself – seniors 60+”. For them, we organize excursions, educational events, psychological film clubs, thematic meetings, invite writers, specialists of various fields. For example, recently there was a meeting on the topic of financial literacy.

We are currently discussing cooperation with the Mariupol Theater. We have a lot of interesting ideas in work. We are open to everyone, especially now to the families of servicemen and to the servicemen themselves who are on rotation or commissioned. We cover different age categories, we approach from different sides, we work comprehensively. We have many good reviews and it inspires us to “BE for YOU”.

Lyubov: Each person is individual. There are participants who have been with us for 8 months. There are also those who are starting to need psychological support and communication right now. There are those who received help and are in a stable condition. There is another category – compatriots who were forcibly resettled, who returned home and continue to contact us online.

Ksenia Teresa: I call our space a “concentrate” because a person does not have to run around in search of various help. Here, everyone can find something for themselves for free or for a nominal fee, set aside an hour or a half a week to take a break from the minute-by-minute news from the front or other moments that destabilize psycho-emotional state, get resource support, etc. It is very important to protect yourself and your resource. Know, if you are having a hard time, feeling depressed and burnt out – WE ARE FOR YOU!

Lyubov: We really want to thank all the benefactors who made this project possible and actively working, thank you to everyone who has supported us from the first day until today, thank you for appreciating our work, understanding its importance, especially in the present time. We would like to thank the Mukachevo Roman Catholic Diocese for its partner support, in particular, Bishop Mykola Luchok for the help and support of the entire team.

You can learn more about the “Tree of my Life” and register for the group on the pages of the center:

Facebook: Tree of My Life | Facebook

Instagram: The Tree of My Life (@the.tree.of.my.life)

Phone: +380503317354

Larisa Lypkan, Varosh

Photo by Karina Asad and from the “Tree of my Life” Facebook page