Art therapy work of master’s students of the Department of Psychology with children of IDPs in the project «Art helps» from the BF «Friends of Children»

From February to May 2024, the art therapy project «Art helps» by the «Friends of the Children» BF (pryyateliditey) with the sponsorship of the Charity Organization UCARE, Inc., took place in Zaporizhzhia. (groups/UCAREInc) and with the organizational and methodical support of the psychology department of Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic University. The project involved conducting group art therapy classes for children from forcibly displaced families and was implemented by teams of trained psychologists and scholarship holders of the «Friends of the Children» BF in Zaporizhzhia, Bila Tserkva, Sumy, Poltava, and Berezhany. The psychologists of the «Art helps» project in Zaporizhzhia were Kateryna Filonenko and Sofiya Cherednychenko, 1st-year master’s students majoring in «Psychology» at Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic University (group SN-113m).

Within the scope of the project, several classes were held on the basis of dormitory No. 3 of Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic University. The main program was implemented on the basis of the communal institution «Zaporizhzhia Specialized Boarding School II-III degrees »Sichovy Collegium”. The participants were children aged from 5 to 12 years old with IDP status (Orikhiv, Pology, Gulyaipole and Tokmak).

Group classes were held by psychologists once a week and were aimed at relaxation, reduction of anxiety and stress, psychological support, enjoyment of creative exercises and communication with peers, expression through creativity, development of the emotional-volitional sphere, emotional intelligence, communication and creative skills, understanding of one’s own emotions and feelings. As a result of the classes, the children’s psychological condition improved, they established friendly relations and began to show their emotions more openly.

The Department of Psychology was glad to participate in the implementation of such a socially and psychologically useful project aimed at supporting the children of IDPs who suffered as a result of military operations in Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia team expresses its gratitude to Maryna Krysa, the president of the «Friends of the Children» BF, and the project coordinator of the «Friends of the Children» BF, Dmytro Samarskyi, to the sponsors from the UCARE, Inc. charity organization, to the head of the dormitory No. 3 Nataliia Bozhko, to Valentina Yershova, the director of the Zaporizhzhia Specialized Boarding School II-III grades «Sichovy Collegium» and to the pedagogical staff of the collegium for fruitful cooperation in the implementation of this project at all stages.