When war attempts to sever connections, sow anxiety, and erode feelings of safety, art becomes the tool that helps to heal and unite. This was the aim of the art-therapy session “My Heart in Your Hands”, held on July 29, 2025, at the Centre for Education and Care of Preschool Children of Poltava Polytechnic. Under the careful guidance of experienced trainers, children learned to express love, strengthen their bond with loved ones, and restore inner harmony through creativity. Using simple materials and a fairytale narrative, the session brought children joy and an opportunity to express their feelings, which is especially important in the conditions of war. For a preschool child, whose world is built on a sense of love and stability, war becomes an incomprehensible chaos that shatters the basic feeling of security. Therefore, this meeting was not just a creative pastime but a deep therapeutic work aimed at reminding children that love exists, it is real, and it can be felt, given, and received in return.
The session combined elements of group interaction, storytelling therapy, and craft activities to help children feel warmth and support, and it consisted of five stages, each activating kinesthetic (tactile, motor) and visual (imagistic) experiences.
This art-therapy meeting was organised and conducted by Lesia Klevaka, Ph.D. in Pedagogy, Associate Professor, and Acting Head of the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, and Viktoriia Shevchuk, Ph.D. in Psychology and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy. This event took place within the framework of the large-scale international 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 meticulously planned as a coherent story that combined storytelling therapy, group interaction, and a creative craft activity to activate a child's tactile, motor, and imagistic experiences. It all began with a warm welcome circle where children learned to trust and share thoughts about their dearest ones, creating an atmosphere of safety and unity. Next was the mini-story “My Heart Lives in Love”. To make the abstract concept of love tangible, trainer Viktoriia Shevchuk told a short fairytale about a little Heart that travels from a child to their relatives: “One day, the little Heart woke up and wanted to say, “I love you”. It jumped into mommy's palm, and then into daddy's pocket...”. The story helped the children to imagine love as something warm and alive that is always with them. For preschoolers, such an image is understandable and calming, as it connects them with their loved ones, even if they are far away. This simple metaphor helped children envision love as something living and inseparably linked to their family, even when loved ones are not physically present.
The culmination of the meeting was the creative process, the creation of a “Flower of Hearts” craft. Using coloured paper, glue, and scissors, the children created a flower where each petal was a small heart dedicated to a specific person. This process had a dual therapeutic effect: the kinesthetic experience of cutting and pasting calmed the nervous system and developed fine motor skills. At the same time, the bright, positive colours lifted their spirits. Each cutout heart filled the creative process with deep personal meaning, becoming a material expression of love. However, creating a gift is only half the battle. In the next step, the children learned to give: they imagined handing their flower to their loved ones and spoke warm words, feeling the joy of giving and strengthening their faith in the reciprocity of feelings.
The session concluded with a final circle of gratitude, where the children shared their impressions, reinforcing the positive experience. They did not just create a beautiful craft; they also learned to notice kindness and express their love. This meeting is a vivid example of how art therapy can become a powerful tool for healing. The symbolism of hearts and flowers – love, care, hope – helps children associate their loved ones with safety and warmth. According to trainer Lesia Klevaka, the effect was immediate, as “after the session, the children become more open, they smile and want to hug everyone around them”. This is not just creativity; it is an act of creating safety, mending the torn threads of trust in the world, and strengthening the most critical foundation in a child's life – their connection with family.
Conducting art-therapy sessions like “My Heart in Your Hands” is not just a local initiative but an integral part of a large-scale international mission within the Erasmus+ “TRUST” project. It is thanks to the close collaboration with our European partners, led by the Centre Neuro Psychiatrique St-Martin from Belgium, that we have the unique opportunity to combine advanced European experience in the field of mental health with a deep understanding of the specific needs of Ukrainians experiencing the trauma of war. This synergy allows us not only to adapt but also to create new, culturally sensitive, and effective therapeutic tools that enrich both Ukrainian and European practices. Thus, the “TRUST” project is a clear testament to true European solidarity in action, where joint efforts are directed at what matters most – protecting childhood and building a resilient future for a generation that has faced the trials of war.
As a reminder, the faculty of Poltava Polytechnic can participate in academic mobility and internship programs. Students can study abroad through Erasmus+ credit academic mobility grant programs for a semester or a full academic year at leading universities in Austria, Greenland, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
For more detailed information on current internship, teaching, and academic mobility programs abroad, please get in touch with the International Relations Office (office 213-C, interoffice@nupp.edu.ua) or the coordinator of international activities at the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” – Anna Pavelieva, Ph.D. in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation (email: kunsite.zi@gmail.com, phone: +38-(095)-91-08-192).
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