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Results of our work in 2023
Friends, we want to share with you the results of our work in 2023, as well as sincerely thank you for your support and professional involvement! This year has been busy and difficult, but thanks to each of you, it has become productive and full of important events and successes.
In 2023, the Center provided more than 10,000 hours of therapy!In particular, for 2377 people, which constitutes 6620 hours of therapy.For 919 internally displaced persons and for people from the frontline territories who suffered from the war, a psychological screening was conducted.And during this time, 3,040 hours of psychological assistance were provided to military personnel and patients at the Cancer Institute.
During this year, in our center “Open Doors” in Kyiv 35 psychologists worked for the center, and already in November 2023 there was 65 of them!
Overall, up to 200 psychologists and supervisors are practicing under our supervision, who are studying or have completed our postgraduate program with an internship according to the American standard.
In addition, 1,650 participants listened to and received certificates from therapy and counseling courses:
- Fundamentals of trauma therapy – 743 participants, as well as 391 chaplains and 150 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The course includes topics in psychological first aid, grief and loss, compassion fatigue, and the ISP Immediate Stabilization Protocol.
- Basics of child counseling and trauma therapy – 228 participants. The course includes topics: review of child trauma, child grief, work with temporarily displaced families, stabilization protocol.
- Theory and practice of family counseling – 138 participants. The course includes topics such as working with families, family dynamics, blended families, divorce counseling and sexual difficulties.
All of these foundational courses included a stabilization component for the students themselves, who reported that practicing stabilization protocols helped them reduce their own anxiety levels and overcome reactions to traumatic events.
During this year, a number of projects and studies on the effectiveness of assistance were conducted and launched. The main focus was the ISP Immediate Stabilization Protocol. Here are some of them:
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Articles:
- Beatty, S., Moore-Felton, M., Zaporozhets, O., & Quinn, G. (2024). Effectiveness of Immediate Stabilization Procedure (ISP®) Associated with Wartime Events. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 46, 40–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-023-09531-2
- Narouze, M., Smithbauer, S., Quaranta-Leech, A., & Zaporozhets, O. (2023). Rising above the battle scars: Integrating trauma-focused concepts into clinical supervision using the discrimination model in ukraine. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-023-09529-w
- Beatty, S., Stachelski, L., Moore-Felton, M., Zaporozhets, O., & Quinn, G. (In review). Evaluation of Group Immediate Stabilization Procedure (G-ISP®) During Wartime Events. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling.
- Moore-Felton, M., Tatum, M. (In progress). Experiences of Ukrainian Mental Health Professionals Implementing Trauma Course Training During Wartime.
- Kaufmans, N., Moore-Felton, M. (In progress). ISP as a component in an Integrative Trauma-Informed Supervision model.
- Behne, J. , Moore-Felton, M., Zaporozhets, O. (In progress). The Relationship between Amygdala Hijacking Theory and Cognitive Effects of Stress. Inoculation in Military Training Environments.
- Tatum, M. (In progress). ISP as a protocol to calm drug cravings.
- Guan, J., Fisher, C., Smithbauer, S., & Zaporozhets, O. (In progress) Cross-Cultural Supervision: American Supervisors' Experience and Management of Trauma Responses During Ukraine War.
- Fisher, C., Guan, J., Smithbauer, S., & Zaporozhets, O. (In progress). Ukrainian Counselors in Training: Strategies Supervisors Developed to Enhance Counseling Competencies During The Outbreak of War.
- Barron, H. (In progress). A Transcultural Trauma-Informed Ethical Decision-Making Model for Counselor Supervisors in Ukraine.
- Guan, J., Yoon, D., Behne, M., Lovanice, K., Beatty, S., & Zaporozhets, O. (In progress). The Effectiveness of Integrative Trauma Informed Supervision (ITIS) Model.
Dissertations:
- Palen, C. (2023). The efficacy of EMDR Group Traumatic Episode Protocol in Ukraine.
- Beatty, S. (In progress). The measurements and efficacy of ISP training.
- Guan, J. (In progress). Ukrainian Supervisors' Experience and Management of Trauma Responses During War.
- Quaranta-Leech A. (In progress). The use of EMDR-IGTP-OTS-R for reduction of trauma symptomatology with mental health.
- Kaufmans, N. (In progress). Effectiveness of ISP in outpatient therapy setting.
- Smithbauer, S. (In progress). Trauma-Informed Supervision Impact on Counselor Wellness and Supervision during War.
Presentations:
- Beatty, S., Moore-Felton, M., Zaporozhets, O., & Quinn, G. (2023,April 1). Stabilization without Retraumatization: ISP® in the Ukraine-Russian War. American Counseling Association (ACA) 2023 Conference and Expo: Expert Session, Toronto, Canada.
- Kaufmans N., Palen C., Quaranta-Leech A. (2023, June 23-25). Effectiveness of the Use of EMDR Derived Protocols for Stabilization and Early Intervention during Wartime in Ukraine. EMDR Europe 2023 Research & Practice Conferention, Bologna, Italy.
- Guan, J., Fisher, C., Smithbauer, S., & Zaporozhets, O. (2023, March). Supervisors Experience: Cross Cultural Supervision with Ukrainian Supervisees in War. Presented at the American Counseling Association, Toronto, Canada.
- Fisher, C., Guan, J., & Zaporozhets, O. (2022, November). Supervising Ukrainian Counselors in a War Zone. Presented at NARCES, Pittsburgh, PA.
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Moreover, thanks to your support, in 2023, 8 iPads were purchased for child psychologists, on which the virtual security program was installed. Psychologists spoke very positively and gratefully about them.
Among them, 52 power banks were purchased, 30 of which were given to the military on the front lines, 4 power banks for laptops for office use and 13 tapers for working with the military, 2 of which were given to Lisova Polyana and 1 to the Cancer Institute.
Lisova Polyana Mental Health and Rehabilitation Center noted that tapers provide an opportunity to use audio and tactile bilateral stimulation for more effective and ecological therapeutic work with patients.
Thank you so much for your support that made this all possible. Despite the full-scale war in Ukraine, our psychologists continue to help clients, as well as conduct educational lectures, both online and offline in Kyiv and abroad.
📄 More information about our services can be found on the website: www.odukraine.com, www.americanprogram.net
🔔 Anyone who needs psychological help can contact us directly through the Telegram chatbot: https://t.me/odukraine_https://t.me/odukraine_bot
Results of our work in 2022
​First Monday after invasion (February 28, 2022) we started support groups for psychologists as we believed that we needed Ukrainian psychologists resourced so that they could do their vital job with people around them as they accepted the challenge to fight and were evacuating many women and children from the areas that were under the attack. Our approach yielded a good fruit. In Spring and Summer with the help of EMDR Europe and EMDR International community we were able to support 208 psychologists in 143 group sessions totalling 780 visits. That not only supported multiple professional organizations, but modeled this approach for other professional associations that successfully replicated this approach. It is not possible to count how many clients these 208 psychologists were able to serve in return.
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In addition 1,987 Ukrainian clients came to our Open Doors Center in Ukraine alone to receive help (face-to-face and online). As of now we continue to receive about 10 new requests for help daily. About 90% of them are females, 2/3 of these females are currently reside in Ukraine and 1/3 evacuated (often with children) to European countries. These clients received 2,860 hours of therapy in 2022 from 20 therapists that worked at our center in Kyiv. In addition, we have supervised the work of about 180 clinicians last year (weekly or biweekly) that also worked outside of our clinical center and were part of our postgraduate program.
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We also continue to provide psychological services to war trauma patients and supervise clinicians that work with wounded soldiers and members of their families in 15 different hospitals. It’s hard to estimate the number of patients we helped, it was 780 hours of direct client service in just one of them. This work is vital as early trauma intervention prevents further development of trauma symptomology into PTSD. These services support soldiers in their rehabilitation and help them return back to service.
Further, our course in Foundations of Traumatherapy was in high demand by psychologists, teachers, first responders, chaplains, and volunteers. This course included the following topics: foundations of trauma, first psychological aid, grief and loss, quick evidence based stabilization techniques, compassion fatigue and compassion fatigue stress management. We are now offering this course 5 times a month, 913 people took this course in 2022, out of which about 300 were chaplains.
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We have also conducted a special training and educational groups with 202 teachers (13 cohorts) who had 8 consecutive group sessions with our child and adolescent psychologists. They discussed and learned how to stabilize children when they experience acute traumatic event (e.g. air alert or missile attack), discuss and process grief and loss reactions with children, and how to talk to them about war. All of these were teachers who are currently teaching in Ukrainian public schools. We are sharing some feedback about these group sessions next:
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"During the trainings, communication approaches and techniques were systematized, and my knowledge was expanded. We felt more ready for the challenges that we will face in the future communication with students. It helped me understand myself, learn to manage my emotions, analyze my condition and calm down. Use breathing techniques and attention switching techniques to relieve tension.
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"After our meetings, We feel restored. Each meeting gave me the opportunity to learn how to calm down, to come to a resourced state. We used to want to just feel pity for a child who went through so much. And now We understand that the child needs support. We will definitely use all exercises with children and parents. We became more confident that, if necessary, We will be able to provide psychological aid to children and people who need it.”
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"Very informative and structured material, a lot of practical exercises, interesting recommendations, taking into account the age of children. Interesting materials on emotional stabilization, body exercises, grounding, breathing, stress relief according to Jacobson were provided. To overcome the stage anxiety with students, We will use Jacobson-style tension relief techniques and breathing exercises.”
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"[This class] really helped me stabilize my emotional condition. We will definitely use therapy fairy tales for children.”
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We have also conducted multiple special topics seminars for psychologists educating them to work with children at the time of war and neurosequential psychology.
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In addition, we have purchased some equipment that was necessary to enhance work of our psychologists online:
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8 Ipads for our child and adolescent psychologists so that they could install the virtual sand tray and work with children online;
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13 theratappers with headphones, so that psychologists could have additional way of bilateral stimulation with clients, including wounded soldiers who may be limited in their ability to move eyes due to brain injury.
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48 pairs of rechargable white/red lights for safety of our psychologists and some military that we are supporting.
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4 large laptop power banks and 52 solar power banks for psychologists and some military use.
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Purchasing equipment was not the focus of our helping effort. With that, this equipment was necessary to make our psychologists more productive and adoptive to the war situation.
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We are grateful for each one of you who helped and supported our effort. My special thanks goes to European and US EMDR community who reached out first to us (Feb 25 asking how they could support and help us). Thank you everyone who donated money and prayed for Ukrainians. We were able to make a difference.
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And we are not going to stop…
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If you’d like to donate towards our efforts this year, you may do so via our US non-profit IMHC,Inc. https://www.imhcinc.com/ or Paypal: imhcinc@gmail.com
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All of the money go directly to client services, student scholarships or may be designated by you to a specific project within our mental health activities. All donations done through IMHC,Inc are tax deductible for US tax payers. Thank you for your support!
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More information about services can be found: www.odukraine.com www.americanprogram.net ON FB: https://www.facebook.com/OdukraineCenterOpenDoors/ People, who need psychhttps://www.facebook.com/CenterOpenDoorshrough chat bot: https://t.me/odukraine_bot
Find below an article published by EMDR-HAP USA about our Counselor Education program in Kyiv, Ukraine!
IMHC Board Member David Daulton shares about his experience raising children with down syndrome at the Open Doors Center in Kyiv, Ukraine
Ukraine War Response
Due to the current war in Ukraine, stabilization and counseling services are in high demand and will be needed for years to come. International Mental Health Consulting, Inc. (IMHC) currently has Ukraine and US-based teams of qualified psychological counselors providing immediate, short-term, and long-term mental health services to those emotionally and psychologically affected by war's undeniable disruption of human wellbeing.
All of our Ukraine-based teams have been impacted personally by the current war. Yet, they continue to provide mental health services to their communities both in-person and through telehealth. Our US-based team is providing ongoing supervision, consultation, and training for our Ukraine-based teams. Our US team is partnering with experts in the field, and our Ukraine team, to develop culturally relevant, trauma-informed resources to facilitate daily stabilization groups, child and adolescent programming, and support groups for parents and children. If you are interested in supporting our current response, please consider donating to our current fundraising campaign.