The Trauma Support Ukraine team is a coalition between Safe & Sound, Sounds of Change and Trauma International.When Ukrainian psychologists reached out for help and support, a collaboration between 3 Dutch based organizations, who have over a decade of experience in trauma-sensitive support in war and conflict areas, was created right away: Trauma Support Ukraine (TSU). On Friday 4 March, TSU provided an online training on trauma-sensitive support in acute crisis situations to these 125 Ukrainian psychologists. Since then, the online training continue weekly, with more and more Ukrainian mental health professionals getting connected. 

This project provides:

1. Direct, long-term and specialized training in trauma-sensitive supportto Ukrainian, Dutch and German professionals involved in the care and support of Ukrainian people during and after the war with Russia. Goal: to equip these professionals in order for them to support the Ukrainian people trauma-sensitively, and by doing so build their resilience and prevent the possible

2. Direct, long-term and specialized care to Ukrainian refugeesin The Netherlands and Germany. Its goal is to give the right care to Ukrainian children, youngsters and adults, in order to strengthen their resilience, prevent them from developing post-traumatic stress disorder or other trauma-related symptoms, and continue their development in a safe and healthy way. 

The current acute crisis in Ukraine is dangerous, unpredictable, insecure, and stressful. Over 1.7 million people have fled the country as of March 7 (UNHCR), with many families facing separation as some members remain left behind. With the precarious situation in Ukraine and the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, the mental health professionals responding to the psychosocial needs of the people affected are facing many stressors. In addition to being tasked to support others who have experienced severe stress and in some cases trauma, they are also experiencing the same stressors and insecurities. This means that psychological and mental health professionals are potentially facing a heavy burden of severe mental health and traumatic stress symptoms that they may not have dealt with in their previous work (Medair). Furthermore, it (sadly) needs no further elaboration to understand that the current crisis, with daily bombings and attacks of civil targets, will leave children, youngsters and adults traumatized and in need of specialized care. 

The training contains psycho-education (based on the most recent neuro-scientifical knowledge, but given in a very practical and clear way) on how to support children, youngsters and adults who are in an acute crisis situation or who just left from an acute crisis. It goes into all necessary topics related to stabilization and in-crisis support, combined with strong (breathing, body, cognitive and non-verbal) techniques and practical tools to support people who are overwhelmed from all experiences and the current situation. Important in these training is also the selfcare exercises for all participants, in order to prevent secondary traumatization and/or burnout. Furthermore, part of the training consists of continuous supervision for participants who have joined the training programs. All participants receive short videos and audios of (those parts of) the webinars with practical exercises and information, in order for them to also re-view this afterwards and possibly share it with other colleagues in the field. 

The trauma-sensitive support contains psycho-education and stabilization of Ukrainian refugees by accompanying them (and their (foster)families, health professionals, teachers, employees and others in their close surroundings) in a structured way, learning them skills to stabilize, strengthening their resilience and, if needed, being referred to well-trained trauma-therapists. 

The specialization in psychotrauma-therapy offers the change to train Ukrainian psychotrauma-therapists, who are educated according to the most recent neuro-scientifical knowledge and practices. They can offer direct trauma-treatment to traumatized Ukrainian children, youngsters and adults. 

 (All above-mentioned parts of our support are always tailored to the specific needs, time-frame and possibilities of the target groups)

The Trauma Sensitive Ukraine team exists of experienced trainers and therapists Anne van de Ouwelant, Sander van Goor and Lucas Dols and will be extended, if needed, with professionals from our international network.

• Anne van den Ouwelant (Trauma Company & Trauma International) is international trauma expert, trainer in trauma sensitive support in war and conflict areas, with over 12 years of field experience training local professionals who work in war and (post)conflict areas with traumatized children, young people and adults. She is a psycho trauma therapist, art therapist, TRE provider (tension and trauma releasing exercises) and cultural anthropologist. She has been working in (amongst others) the Yazidi refugee camps in Iraq (during IS occupation), the violent slums of Brazil (ruled by violent drug gangs and police squats), Palestine, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece and Germany. Since 2018 she has also been training professionals in The Netherlands: psychiatrists, psychologists, refugee work, police, army, firemen, youth protection, trauma-sensitive coaches etc. Trauma Company has currently 4 trainers and has a close collaboration with Youth Company, where 25 trained and supervised trauma-sensitive coaches are giving group and individual trauma-sensitive guidance to traumatized children, youngsters and adults. 
  

• Sander van Goor (Safe & Sound) is music therapist, working with traumatized refugees, children and youngsters, trainer for SoC, developer of the Safe & Sound program (an intervention in which music therapy is used in a solution-focused and culture-sensitive way for children and youth with a refugee background, in order to strengthen their resilience) and founder and director of S&S. Sander has been working for more than 8 years in (post)conflict areas like Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Brazil, and also Turkey, Greece and The Netherlands.
  

• Lucas Dols (Sounds of Change) is musician, music education trainer, developer of psychosocial support programs and founder and director of SoC. He has been training various organizations and professionals in (post)conflict areas in the Middle East (Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq), Ruanda, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Greece and The Netherlands, for more than 10 years. SoC has 6 trainers currently deployed. 
  

On the website of Sounds of Change you can fill in a form with your request.

On the website of Sounds of Change you can donate to support us. Thanks!

The Trauma Support Ukraine team is (partly) financially supported by MEDAIR