Bathed in the scorching summer sun on July 2, 2025, the walls of the Centre for Contemporary Art were transformed into a space of quiet wonder. Here took place the art therapy journey “Path of Unity”, a profound immersion into the metaphor of a shared road designed to melt the ice of isolation and weave individual lives into a single, supportive tapestry.
The task involved creating a collaborative image – a path that runs continuously through each participant’s individual sheet of paper. The process was divided into several stages. First, all the sheets were placed side by side in a long row. Each participant began by drawing a fragment of the path on their own sheet so that it logically continued onto the neighboring sheets. This could be a road, river, trail, or any other unifying line. This stage required cooperation, visual synchronization, and a willingness to trust that the next person would extend your line. It was the first step toward nonverbal agreement – a quiet act of trust and visual harmony in which each person learned to let go of control and rely on another.
Once the continuous path had been drawn across all the sheets, each participant depicted themselves on their fragment of the shared route. This might take the form of a symbolic figure, footprint, or any other image representing themselves. Then came the key stage: the sheets were passed around in a circle from one participant to the next. As the single, uninterrupted path stretched through all the drawings, it was time for each person to find their place on it. Receiving someone else’s sheet, each participant added their own contribution to the collective work, illustrating their part of the journey or how they saw their connection to others. This could involve adding landscape elements around the path, symbols of interaction, emotional responses to the previous image, or simply extending the interwoven line. Symbolic figures, delicate handprints, and metaphorical images emerged on this shared canvas, affirming each person’s uniqueness within the collective narrative.
Then came the most moving moment – a silent dance of exchange, as the sheets journeyed hand to hand around the circle. Receiving another’s world, each person became its careful co-creator. It was a moment of pure empathy: adding a sun over a stranger’s path, planting flowers along someone else’s riverbank, or building a bridge between two shores – each touch a visible act of support and understanding. Through this process, participants cultivated mental flexibility, the ability to adapt and integrate their ideas into the evolving whole. Watching their paths merge into one cohesive design, they realised their experiences, hopes, and struggles were not unique but part of a grand, shared story.
Thus, the art therapy session “Path of Unity” became not just an artistic experiment but a powerful healing ritual. It created a tangible symbol of togetherness, strengthened trust, and offered each participant a deep sense of belonging to a community where every path matters and every road ultimately leads to unity.
Moderators:
Olena Ostrohlyad, Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine Arts;
Olena Kryvenko, Assistant, Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, Practical Psychologist.
The event formed part of the international, large-scale EU-funded Erasmus+ KA220-ADU project “TRUST” – Trauma of refugees in Europe: An approach through art therapy as a solidarity program for Ukraine war victims (Grant No. 2024-BE01-KA220-ADU-000257527).
The project title is decoded as follows:
TRUST
T – Trauma
R – Refugees
U – Ukraine
S – Solidarity
T – Therapy
The project is co-funded by the EU and led by the Centre Neuro Psychiatrique St-Martin from Belgium, in partnership with the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” (Ukraine), Greek Carers Network EPIONI (Greece), Fondazione Don Luigi Di Liegro (Italy), Lekama Foundation (Luxembourg), EuroPlural Project (Portugal).
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