Today, many Ukrainians are doing extraordinary things: they volunteer, they help, they save. People put all their efforts for the sake of others. It certainly exhausts people. In order to remain effective and motivated, care of yourself and recovery are crucial.

Olena Pasichnyk, a psychologist, arranges meetings for volunteers in order to help them recover and to support them. Olena shared her experience and her story of volunteering, the importance of self-care in the hard times in an interview.

Olena, how did you start your career as a psychologist?

I’ve been into psychology since 1992, when there was no such profession [in this country].

Having graduated from school, I was willing to enter the pedagogical university and was exploring the majors. However, I wouldn’t be taken with anything. And, at some point, I encountered the major of age-based psychology: I found this title very attractive. It was the first enrolment in that year. I am an age-based psychologist, so I work with clients of various categories. I work with both children and adults as a psychologist applying a therapy technique of guided imagery*. It is quite a soft therapy, and I respect it.

What is your experience with military personnel?

I have been working with military people, including those undergoing rehabilitation, since 2022.

It is quite difficult, in terms of the mental impact. You have to put yourself in the person’s shoes in order to understand them. You have to sincerely perceive their state and needs, and not to merely say “I understand you”.

The military people find it hard to consult civilian psychologists because they believe that the civilians would not understand them. And you have to put a lot of efforts so that the military person would start trusting you.

Why did you decide to become a support for the volunteers?

I know people who volunteer in the clinic for wounded-in-action military personnel. Like many volunteers, they can experience a burnout because, here, you only give without taking. The person to be cared is not in the state to give as he or she requires assistance and help. Which is why volunteers usually burn out very quickly. Yet, if the volunteer finds a support, he/she will be able to do a lot more, will have resources and strengths.

What this team [volunteers for wounded-in-action military personnel] does is a genuine accomplishment for me. Many people now help our defenders, hold fundraisers, give away vehicles and do many other things. And this is not that easy, yet the most difficult is to give care to unknown people. And this is what these people do. Everyone has their own schedule; they find time, they take care of others and, most importantly, they are trusted. And I understand that people can’t stand it for long.

For my part, it was a desire to support people who do a challenging psychological work. It is a calling of mine. Which is why I’m here, which is why people are here. And I’m happy that they were not disappointed after the first meeting, and we continue meetings of this group. I am confident that our cooperation would be fruitful, and we will meet and work as long as they need it.

Is it your first volunteering experience?

Psychologists usually have a number of hours for pro bono counselling. Our psychological unit started counselling on the hotline from the third day of the war. Kharkiv unit of guided imagery practitioners established a platform, on which we published our phone numbers for contacts for anyone needing the psychological support.

Despite that I live near the airport and the first 2 weeks were very scary, I knew for sure that for my 2 hours on duty I had to be collected, I had to say that I was not afraid, I had to give the person such primary psychological care, which they needed then. There were different cases. For example, a man from a region called and said that their whole community was sitting in the basement of the school, he was the only one having a phone, and people asked him to call me. And I talked to them, and at that time it was a support for those people.

How do you yourself recover?

Supervision is a must for a psychological practitioner. It is like drinking water for a person. I have counselling from a psychotherapist. Collegiality also exists, and we can contact our colleagues for help. After all, the situation when you have to keep other people’s secrets is not that simple and easy.

If you could “open” my mind and look into it, you would find lots of things there. A psychologist must withstand a strong emotional load and be capable to manage a container of emotions and subsequently hide them. When working with a person, you must remain integral, learn not to take on their trauma and vice versa not to retraumatize the person with your personal trauma.

What general advice can you give to those who volunteer? How can people take care of themselves?

The most important thing is not to forget about yourself. Volunteering is effective and devoted when you are in a proper physical and mental health state. This is why it is important to take care of the essential needs, such as sleep, nutrition, rest, and health. You can’t give help when you need it yourself. You should rest, you should meet friends. Since the full-scale war unleashed, there has been an unspoken prohibition to rest, laugh, visit friends, go to the theatre. Yet, no matter how atrocious the war is, the people in the land of the ongoing war should be a solid rear for the front. And to be this rear, people should be integral. I’m not speaking about lavish celebrations or mass events, I’m speaking about social interactions. Today I do the volunteering job, tomorrow I invite a nice person to a café so that to have an emotional rest. I might go to the theatre so that to experience a bit of positive vibes and feel more enthusiastic.

You know, some may see the glass half full, others will see it half empty. Yet, no matter what, it should be filled. Otherwise, you will not be able to drink from an empty glass. People should fill themselves. When you give a lot, you need to have much more inside of yourself. You need to fill yourself with resources. An example of such filling is being to the forest. I have a patient who says, “For me personally, a resource is the nature, an opportunity to stand, embrace a tree, to breath.”   It is incredibly important for each person to understand what brings them pleasure. There is an exercise I practice with my clients, when I ask them to write down 100 things that make them happy. The smell of lavender, lying in the bathroom, drinking coffee by the window, it can be anything. Writing all this make them recollect such things that fill them.

What is a signal for a person to understand that they need counselling?

A person must admit “I can’t cope with it myself”, “I need help”. It can manifest itself as panic attacks for some or increased anxiety for others. It may be that a person feels constant fear, insomnia or, on the contrary, sleepiness, some unusual responses to ordinary situations. As if they live, but do not perceive the essence, the zest for life.

A person has already signed up for gym exercises and gone to the theatre, but this condition persists.

It is important to understand that a psychologist, psychotherapist, and psychiatrist are all different professionals. It is good to start counselling with a psychologist. If a need arises, the practitioner will advise counselling with a different expert.

(*Note. Guided imagery is one of areas of psychotherapy based on the principles of deep psychology, which uses a special technique of working with the imagination in order to visualize person’s unconscious desires, fantasies, conflicts and defence mechanisms.)

The Zhebrivsky Family Charitable Foundation is financing the Program “Rehabilitation of Patients with Severe Physical Challengers” for the military in one of Kyiv private clinics. Farmak’s employees and their friends also joined the voluntary assistance to these military people – they visit the guys, talk to them, help them during walks and leisure time.