Doctoral student Natalia Rakevich Ganchina left her family and friends in Ukraine to come to Lesley and study educational leadership after the Russian invasion. When the war broke out, Natalia reached out to Sal Terrasi at the Lesley Institute for Trauma Sensitivity to develop a series of zoom sessions to support educators, art therapists, and psychologists currently working throughout the crisis.

Several ongoing series of online workshops were created to meet the most urgent needs of Ukrainian professionals. Joining Natalia, Sal Terassi, Joe Ristuccia, Diana Direiter, and Joe Mageary have designed weekly sessions to build a community of practitioners working in the midst of loss, displacement, and violence. Their ongoing sessions give a space to connect, comfort, and share tools to support their clients in crisis. 

As issues and questions arose, the LIfTS team responded with support. Alicia Gray, the LIfTS research fellow, shared a series of art lessons for educators over zoom to nurture children in crisis. The educators found these sessions useful and a peaceful reprieve from the harsh context of war. 

The practitioners faced traumatic situations that they felt unprepared for and specifically asked for tools to work with children with disabilities. Beverly Cush Evans, Nadege Tessono Okotie, and Patricia Crain de Galarce developed workshops that focused on children with (and without) disabilities impacted by trauma. Each workshop acknowledged the trauma of the professionals, the children they worked with, and their families. Strategies were shared to gather children’s voices, express strong emotions, and create a sense of ‘safety.’ Art elicitation tools like mark making, zine, and storytelling were modeled with differentiation suggestions to meet the needs of all students. Resources included emotional continuums, ‘what I need’ buttons, social stories, silent play, and many more.

Check out the Vela Project here.