On June 18, 2025, the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” hosted a profoundly emotional and transformative event entitled “My Inner Child. Every tear is a truth seeking a way out. Every stroke is a step toward relief”.
This art therapy session focused on healing the inner child – the vulnerable part of ourselves that holds our earliest wounds, dreams, and unmet emotional needs. It was a touching journey inward, inviting participants to explore personal pain, childhood trauma, and loss – topics we often avoid confronting.
The session was part of a series of art therapy practices within the framework 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).
The session was moderated by Olena Kryvenko, a practical psychologist and assistant professor at the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy at Poltava Polytechnic.
In this context, art therapy became a gentle yet powerful tool for emotional exploration. It allowed participants to connect with repressed emotions, unresolved grief, and unmet needs through creative expression in a safe, supportive environment. Symbolic artistic language helped unlock feelings that had long remained silent.
Participants – mainly students – reflected on five core psychological wounds (rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, and injustice), explored the stages of experiencing love and loss, examined childhood photographs, and engaged in a meditative exercise to establish contact with their inner child. They also worked with metaphorical associative cards titled “The Big Me, the Little Me”.
One of the most potent practices was looking into one's own childhood eyes in a photograph. This exercise revealed how seldom we speak to ourselves with tenderness, how often the inner child is still waiting for the support it never received. Many participants were moved to tears, experiencing profound emotional insight and release.
The metaphorical cards became a bridge between the past and present, between vulnerability and strength, between pain and care. Through colour, shape, symbols, and words, participants expressed what is often difficult to verbalise. The session reactivated internal healing mechanisms and promoted integration, reconnecting fragmented parts of the self that had been divided by painful experiences.
The environment of safety, empathy, and non-judgment enabled authentic self-expression. This is particularly important for young people living under the prolonged stress of war, displacement, and uncertainty, where emotional, physical, and creative resources are crucial for recovery.
This event became more than a therapeutic session – it was an act of self-compassion. A reminder that our inner child still longs for love, recognition, and warmth – and that we have the power to give that to ourselves.
More sessions, deeper practices, and new realisations lie ahead. We sincerely thank all participants for their courage, trust, and openness. Together, we continue creating a space where art becomes a path to healing.
Within the TRUST project, a series of psychotherapeutic initiatives have already been carried out, significantly improving the mental well-being of participants who have experienced displacement, separation from loved ones, prolonged stress, and anxiety. Art therapy has helped reduce emotional tension, foster self-awareness, and reconnect individuals with their inner selves and the world around them.
The TRUST project continues – bringing new tools, deeper methodologies, and, most importantly, the support so needed by Ukrainians today, as nearly everyone continues to feel the impact of war.
The previous sessions included symbolic activities such as designing personal coats of arms to represent inner values, sources of strength and hope; associative drawing exercises; the “Relationships” activity aimed at reflecting on personal connections with loved ones, community, and country; discussions around “What does mental health mean to me?”; neurographic drawing; and immersion in body-oriented therapy where movement, dance, and physical expression become key tools for emotional release and recovery, worked with metaphorical associative cards, practiced associative reflection of thoughts on paper and explored the symbolism of the elements of nature and their direct impact on the human psyche and emotional state, plunged into music and daram therapy and took part in a unique art therapy session on neurography titled “My Tree of Life”, worked with metaphorical cards and the Nossrat Pezeshkian psychotherapeutic model, сreated drawings depicting a personal “Tree of Power”, did the art therapy exercise “My superpower”, were given tools for deeper self-understanding by transforming pain into art, and art into a path to healing; helped children recognise and understand their emotions, learn self-soothing techniques, and restore their emotional resilience, helped adult IDPs gain a deep understanding of their emotions, release internal tension, and harmonise their psycho-emotional state.
Media Centre of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
