Ukrainian art therapist helps people traumatized by the war that took her son

PITTSBURGH (OSV News) — Artist and psychologist Tetiana Myalkovska of Ukraine used her art therapy techniques to work with children who have special needs and with her country’s traumatized soldiers returning from the conflict when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

More recently, she is working with Ukraine’s war widows, soldiers who fought in the current war with Russia and children who have been traumatized by the war.

They face deep wounds that can cause them to shut down and silently avoid dealing with stress, anxiety and fear.

Myalkovska came to Pittsburgh in October through the sponsorship of the Ukrainian Cultural and Humanitarian Institute, or UCHI, to educate people about the work she’s doing in Ukraine and to teach the techniques to professionals and students.

She also came because it was her son’s dream to come to the United States.

“Everything I do, every single moment is dedicated to his memory,” Myalkovska told OSV News. “I take his pictures with me because he is with me in my heart and my spirit.”

Mykola, her only child, was killed in action Dec. 4, 2023. He was 28. While in Pennsylvania, she received word that her nephew also was killed in the war.

The war has touched everyone in Ukraine, even if they are in relatively safe areas that could be attacked at any time.

“It’s been almost three years and the suffering continues from unrelenting unprovoked attacks,” said Stephen Haluszczak, UCHI founder and director, who went to Ukraine earlier this year to witness the programs. “So many people have left Ukraine or have been displaced. Millions of people are suffering great trauma.”

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is nearing the three-year mark. Launched Feb. 24, 2022, the invasion continues attacks initiated in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursions into Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights have determined Russia’s invasion constitutes genocide, with Ukraine reporting close to 147,000 war crimes committed by Russia to date in Ukraine since February 2022.

In Pittsburgh, Myalkovska was accompanied by both Anna Lysakova, who developed several psychosocial programs, and student psychologist Viktoriia Parkhomenko. They presented programs and demonstrations in the Pittsburgh region and Ohio, at camps, churches, museums, Ukrainian centers and universities, including Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa.

UCHI was founded in 2002 to develop relationships between the U.S. and Ukraine on cultural, educational and humanitarian levels. The institute also supports Warm Hands, the art therapy rehabilitation project launched by Myalkovska, who has been involved in other programs.

In 2014, Lysakova brought her aboard for the Healing the Soul project that serves veterans and military personnel and their families, and families of fallen heroes.

“It was very helpful to provide the soldiers with psychological programs and we are now using all this experience … for children and widows,” Lysakova said.

Myalkovska directs the Warm Hands camp for children held at a retreat center for Polish Catholic priests in northwestern Ukraine.

Father Yan Buras, a Catholic priest, runs the center. The day for the campers begins with a half hour of prayer for the children who are from many different faiths, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and even Islam.

“The communists and Russians destroyed the church and killed many of the priests or sent them to Siberia in the past,” said Myalkovska, who is Ukrainian Greek Catholic. “Many of the children have come through the generations and don’t have the exposure to faith and an understanding of God. In a video, Father Buras says that the children hunger to know God and to know their Creator.”

The program also affirms ancient Ukrainian traditions and customs that for many people have been lost over the ages. But the main focus is always on healing from trauma.

“The children don’t want to speak about their experiences,” Parkhomenko said. “They want to act like nothing happened. They have lived through horrible stuff, and most of them have closed up.”

It may take days in therapy for them to understand that something happened and feel comfortable enough to share their experiences.

“The process of using art therapy is very structured,” Myalkovska said. “It’s guided very carefully according to very strict protocols and it must be controlled at every step. It’s not free-form expression. If it were, it would cause damage because participants could fall into a very traumatic event and become so traumatized that it would not be easy to get them out of it. Every step is guided.”

Participants draw themselves — but not representative portraits — in order to externalize discussions that are in the third person.

“There are often events so traumatic that they can’t be spoken, so talking about yourself can be so challenging,” Myalkovska said. “The object is to allow the person to reach inside and divulge and deal with the trauma.”

There are many heartbreaking stories from Ukrainian children. Take Dmytro: He and his mother suffered abuse from the father, then the Russians took his mother and hanged her from a tree. He ended up in an orphanage, but the program helped find him a home. Another orphan named Vlad created a coloring book that’s being used in the therapy program.

He, too, is now living with a family.

“It’s really important to help these children,” Parkhomenko said. “They will become the future of Ukraine.”

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