Creating Safe Spaces: How Art Therapy Offers Emotional Refuge for War-Affected Women in Ukraine

“I do not understand what is going on with me” is the most frequent response psychologists hear from women who, during the war, are forced to manage their household and raise children alone while their husbands are on the front line or killed in action.

Being face-to-face with the bulk of responsibilities, trying to fit them in all in a 24-hour day and serving as the primary support system for children and elderly family members, Ukrainian women are struggling to manage emotions that have come up during this yearslong conflict — exhaustion, apathy and overwhelm being at the top of the list. 

Olena and Eugenia are two psychologists who were hired by Civic Initiatives of Ukraine (CIU) to provide training in art therapy techniques for working with this specific population. CIU is a local civil society organization that partnered with Global Communities to implement the Community-Led Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR) 2 program funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA) in Chernihiv oblast.