Here we want to give you an update on the involvement of the IAAP in Ukraine and also to mention projects organised by colleagues.
Updates from Ukraine
Here we want to give you an update on the involvement of the IAAP in Ukraine and also to mention projects organised by colleagues.
Updated Statement
The day after the invasion on February 24, we posted a statement on the IAAP website where we expressed our deep concern and wrote that we could not accept the military invasion. We expressed our hope that the situation would not get any worse, and that the peace of land and soul would return to the region very soon.
Our hopes have tragically turned out not to be fulfilled at all. On the contrary, the situation has become much worse than we first thought it would be. We have therefore updated our statement on the website and bring it here as well:
Updated statement about the war in Ukraine
We continue to express our serious concerns regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, which since February 24, has been causing immense suffering and destruction and has brought about disastrous conditions for our Ukrainian Jungian colleagues. We strongly condemn the aggressive military invasion by Russia and extend our deeply felt sympathy and solidarity to all Group Members, members of the Developing Groups, their families, friends, and fellow citizens in the Eastern and Central European region who are affected by the war and who suffer because of political decisions they do not have the power to influence. We strongly support the many projects of psychological care for the affected and hurt people in the region and wholeheartedly appreciate all the voluntary help offered by a large number of our members. The members of the IAAP from all over the world have clearly expressed their support by writing letters and statements, by organising fund-raising events, as well as by generously donating via the donation button (at the bottom of this page) for psychological care in the region. https://iaap.org/
Donations from the membership
Members of the IAAP, routers, candidates and others have via the IAAP website donated a remarkable sum of money to support our Ukrainian colleagues. Together with the funds from the IAAP and the FAJP (Fund for the Advancement of Jungian Psychoanalysis, a charitable fund, registered in the UK, which was established to assist the IAAP Developing Groups and Router Programmes worldwide), this has supported crisis programmes and other programmes of Psychological care for our colleagues in Ukraine. There is still a substantial amount of the donations left, which is really good because, contrary to our hopes of some months ago, the war has not ended. Furthermore, we know that when peace returns to Ukraine, there will be a high need for crisis help as we have already seen in the Kyiv area, where many cases of rape of women and children came to the surface after the Russian army withdrew from the area.
Special event on May 21.
The event was in support of our Ukrainian colleagues and it turned out to be an extraordinary experience. Please read the report written by Catherine Cox and Catherine Hinds on behalf of the organising committee.
Report on the event on May 21
Psychological care for and by colleagues in Ukraine
Our colleagues from Ukraine, the neighbouring countries and further afield, started remarkable psychological relief work already a few days after the war broke out. You can find a description of their work on the IAAP website https://iaap.org/psychological-care-for-colleagues-in-ukraine/.
We do not have the full overview of all the work that is being done, so in case you are offering assistance and are not mentioned on the webpage, please send an email to misser.berg@gmail.com so you can be included on the page.
As an example, we bring here a report by Teodora Taneva from the Bulgarian Developing Group who describes the activities the Bulgarian Developing Group has been organizing ever since the outbreak of the war. A part of the report describes how the group worked in cooperation with Monica Luci on designing a Jungian event focused on the work with refugees and war traumas. The seminar aimed to elaborate on some specifics of the therapeutic work with refugees in a situation where the therapists are living under potential danger of war such as in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine. Report about the work done by the Bulgarian Developing Group
Here we would like to draw our readers’ attention to the very relevant Masters and PhD Programmes in Refugee Care at the University of Essex, strongly recommended by Monica Luci, who has herself completed the course.
Upcoming conference organised by the Ukrainian Developing Group, UDG
The X Conference of the Ukrainian Developing Group of IAAP ‘To Be at Home in Oneself and in the World’ will take place online on June 25-26, 2022. We will reflect on narratives about home, wanting to understand more about the way home structures our identity. With the loss or gain of homes, we discover that our sense of self is continually changing.
We would like to discuss different dimensions of the concept of home: the experience of home in the analysts’ practice; home in wartime: migration, loss of home and overcoming humanitarian catastrophe; planet as a home: ecopsychology, pandemic and globalization, virtualization of life. We will include reflections on John Hill’s book ‘At Home in the World: Sounds and Symmetries of Belonging’.
Invited speakers: John Hill (Switzerland), Batya Brosh Palmoni (Israel), Sophie Braun (France), Tine Papić (Slovenia), Maria-Giovanna Bianchi (Switzerland), Dmytro Zalesskyi (Ukraine).
https://tobeathome.jungians.kiev.ua
Valentina Samus, President of UDG
June 25 – 26, 2022,
Kyiv, Ukraine,
