For several years now, professional and experienced psychologists have been providing free counseling to military personnel and their families at the Lviv Center for Services to Combatants and helping them overcome crisis situations. In the first seven months of 2024, almost 1,500 such services were provided here, most of them to the military who returned from the war.
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Among those who counsel veterans and their families is psychologist Sister Anysia. She used to be a military officer herself and already has considerable experience as a psychologist – she has been working with combatants for about 10 years.
“Most of the patients are combatants, as well as their family members and family members of the deceased. The military mostly come with sleep disturbances, aggression, stupor, and various symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder – everyone has different manifestations. And family members of the military come to us because they do not understand what is happening and how to behave, because they cannot bear the fact that the person has changed so much after returning from the war,” explains Sister Anysia, a psychologist at the Lviv Center for Services to Combatants.
Consultations are mostly individual. In general, it takes at least 10-12 sessions to achieve results.
The psychologist emphasizes that both the military and their closest people have to live with combat trauma on a psychological level. And they need to learn to overcome this trauma with the help of specialists and not be afraid of it.
“The experience of war is mostly not remembered favorably, at the level of the body and emotions. And it’s impossible to process it on our own, just like we can’t see with our own eyes what is happening behind us,” says Sister Anysia.
The easiest way to seek help from the Lviv Center for Services to Combatants is to call the call center at 073 962 83 25, and a specialist will offer to choose a convenient day and time for a consultation.
You can also write to the center’s social networks – Facebook and Instagram. Or you can visit the center in person – the center operates at two addresses: 41 Pekarska St. and 85 Gen. Chuprynky Street, 85.
The Lviv Center for Services to Combatants has been operating for 8 years. This is one of the first centers in Ukraine to be created for soldiers and their families, where they receive all assistance on a peer-to-peer basis. This includes various consultations, free legal and psychological support, courses and training, such as English, various crafts and recreation for children of defenders. The center also accepts documents for city benefits for the families of defenders.