On July 1, 2025, the “Circle of Goodness” art therapy session took place at the Centre for Contemporary Art of Poltava Polytechnic. This workshop was designed to activate positive emotions, strengthen feelings of community and mutual support, and bolster participants’ internal resources by collectively visualising the concept of goodness. Each participant took turns contributing a visual element to a shared illustration, choosing symbols, colours, or abstract forms that represented qualities associated with goodness. Working in a circle symbolised the wholeness, cyclicality, and continuity of goodness, as well as the equality of all contributors.
The session was co-facilitated by Olena Ostrohlyad, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts, and Olena Kryvenko, Assistant in the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy and Practical Psychologist at Poltava Polytechnic. Before beginning, the facilitators read aloud a list of virtues linked to goodness – compassion, generosity, support, mercy, care, assistance, humanity, empathy, kindness, sensitivity, magnanimity, tenderness, sincerity, benevolence, altruism, and more – to inspire the participants’ creations.
The collaborative process unfolded in a true circle. Each person received one virtue and drew its visual representation on a large sheet of paper before passing it on to the next person. The next participant built on what came before, intuitively interpreting and extending prior ideas to create a unified, harmonious “canvas of goodness”. This nonverbal exchange invited deep connection, as each new contribution dialoged with the last.
As the artwork evolved, attention shifted away from traumatic memories toward hopeful images infused with a belief in goodness, enabling participants to access their positive inner resources. By externalising concepts like compassion, care, mercy, and support, individuals both recognised these qualities within themselves and observed them in their peers, fostering empathy and understanding across the group. The shared creative act instilled a powerful sense of belonging to a caring community, a crucial source of psychological well-being for those who often feel isolated. Moreover, expressing abstract ideals through simple graphic forms made them more tangible and easier to integrate.
Above all, the “Circle of Goodness” renewed faith in the power and vitality of goodness itself, even amid war and loss, providing visible proof that kindness endures and unites us. This art therapy practice proved remarkably effective, as it not only redirected focus from painful memories to life-affirming perspectives but also left participants with a lasting sense of unity, mutual support, and connection to something greater than themselves.
Art therapy initiatives, such as “Circle of Goodness”, are powerful tools for emotional restoration, social skill development, and community building. By harnessing the universal language of visual art, they help individuals heal, connect, and flourish together.
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).
Looking ahead, further art therapy events under the TRUST initiative will unveil new trauma-focused techniques and deepen self-help practices. After all, art is not only about beauty – it is about the power to live, even when life shifts. It is about the inner resource that sustains us when the ground seems to slip away beneath our feet.
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National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
