The Russian-Ukrainian team of the project: ‘Psychological Support for Victims of War in Ukraine’, consisting of a married couple of doctors, Russian political immigrants Alexander and Galina Goncharenko and Ukrainian psychologists, conducted another psychological training seminar with Ukrainian women in Germany.

The aim of the workshops is to help Ukrainian women overcome post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and refugee adjustment syndrome.

The next seminar, as well as the previous ones, was held in Hamburg on 29 - 30 March 2025 on the basis of the ASB Foundation ‘Samaritan Workers’ of Germany.

The seminar was attended by women from Zhytomyr, Odessa, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts who had fled the so-called special military operation (SMO) of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine to Germany.

The workshop was conducted by Natalia Stepanenko, a psychologist from Chernihiv, who successfully combined the presentation of theoretical knowledge with practical skills. On the first day of the seminar, which is more difficult in moral and psychological terms, the women shared their personal stories.

Click on the link to read the video story told by Nadezhda Nikishina.

Unfortunately, this is in many ways a typical life story in the current atypical time in modern Europe, which the project team members heard from Ukrainian refugees during the nine workshops.

On Saturday and Sunday, the participants learnt about the concepts of feelings, emotions, anxiety, fear, self-esteem, ‘anchors’, the pyramid of needs and ways of finding inner resources.

In addition, under the guidance of a psychologist, the women learnt various psychological exercises and meditation practices.

It has already become a tradition at seminars-trainings not only to take a collective photo, but also to summarise the results at the end of the event.

 Many warm and heartfelt words were said by the participants not only to the project organisers and the psychologist, but also to the organisation that provided the premises and delicious lunches with Ukrainian cuisine.

The event was financially sponsored by the Sebastian Kobler Foundation (Sebastian Cobler –Stiftung )    and the Hamburg branch of the German Samaritan Workers Foundation (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, Mitte ).

At the end of the event, Alexander Goncharenko, on behalf of the project team and the seminar participants, thanked the sponsors of the seminar and the Managing Director of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted Persons   , Martina Baeurle, for their assistance to the project.

All the participants of the seminar joined a group on WhatsApp: ‘Psychological help for victims of war in Ukraine’, where they will continue their further communication.

 

Photo 1. Collective photo of the ninth seminar-training;

Photo 2. Oleksandr Goncharenko with an introductory speech before the beginning of the seminar;

Photo 3-4. Psychologist Natalia Stepanenko at work;

Photo 5-6. At the lunch table on the first and second day;

Photo 7. Exercise ‘round dance’;

Photo 8. Exercise ‘hands to the sun’;

Photo 9. Exercise with a hand;

Photo 10. Work in pairs;

Photo 11. Deep meditation.