From Trauma to Identity: Sociocultural Distancing as a Psychological Response to War

Professional literature and official reports on the war in Ukraine provide a detailed description of the typical spectrum of psychological consequences, including post-traumatic reactions, intrusive memories, anxiety and depressive states, sleep disturbances, emotional instability, and experiences of loss. These manifestations largely correspond to universal models of responses to extreme stress.
At the same time, official statistics and public reports do not fully capture the entire range of psychological difficulties faced by the population of Ukraine. One of the key, yet insufficiently explored, aspects is the crisis of personal and cultural identity. For some individuals, the traumatic experience of war is accompanied by a transfer of feelings of pain, loss, and threat into the domain of sociocultural identification. In private therapeutic practice, this is manifested in a pronounced rejection of Russian culture, language, and associated symbolic markers, which, in the subjective experience of clients, become linked to the traumatic wartime context.
The present study was aimed at examining the transformation of identity under the impact of war-related events. The research was conducted using a cross-sectional design with elements of retrospective-reflexive analysis (2023-2025, n = 62). Empirical data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and the analysis of therapeutic case materials from clients in private psychological practice. This approach made it possible to reconstruct subjectively experienced changes in identity and to identify underlying intrapsychic processes. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, followed by the typologization of identity forms.
The analysis revealed a pronounced intrapsychic conflict between sociocultural values internalized in early childhood and their transformation under the influence of recent traumatic events. This conflict is reflected in different identity types: stable identity (preservation of identity integrity despite traumatic experience) - 18.68%; identity transformation (redefinition of sociocultural belonging while maintaining internal coherence of the self) - 12.32%; identity splitting (coexistence of incompatible identifications accompanied by a pronounced internal conflict) - 36.43%; and identity uncertainty (diffusion of self-definition and loss of a clear sense of “who I am”) - 32.57%.
The findings indicate that processes of personal and sociocultural self-determination in the context of war-related trauma remain far from stabilization in the present-day situation.

CONSULTATIVE PARADIGMS AND METHODS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICE IN UKRAINE

The article presents the results of a study of the latest trends characteristic of modern processes of providing psychological care in Ukraine, both in terms of paradigms and methods preferred by Ukrainian psychologists. This was facilitated by the study of specialized Facebook groups, such as "Psychologists of Ukraine", "Psychologists and Psychotherapists", "Clinical Psychologists and Psychotherapists of Ukraine", "Psychology.Ukraine / Event Calendar", other professional communities that unite specialists in psychological care, as well as specialized popular sites such as: "Rozmova" (rozmova.me), "Hedepy" (app.hedepy.com.ua), "Mysense" (mysense.care/psychologists), and "Pleso" (pleso.me), which present over 1,000 counseling offers in various approaches and methods. The study goes beyond simple statistical analysis, offering a deeper understanding of the evolution of psychological practice in the complex socio-political conditions of modern Ukraine, revealing a complex picture of professional adaptation and transformation of psychological care. The study reveals a unique picture of the professional evolution of Ukrainian psychologists. 25% consciously change their professional trajectory, choosing psychology as a vocation. The predominance of specialists with one to five years of experience indicates an active young generation of psychologists. The increasing use of the online format (65%) is not just a technological innovation, but an existentially important format of consultative communication in conditions when it is necessary to ensure the accessibility of psychological care.Martial law and hostilities increased the volume of crisis assistance by 40%, 30% of psychologists joined volunteer activities. Along with this, new challenges and barriers appeared. This is the high cost of training and certification, which 65% of respondents complained about. High level of professional stress (50% of respondents). Policy in the field of higher education, which prioritizes the financing of higher education institutions at the expense of the impoverished population, and not professional criteria and requirements for the selection of future specialists of such a variety of helping professions as practical psychologists.

STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MODERN WORLD AND UKRAINE

The article is devoted to the current state, problems and opportunities for the development of counseling psychology in Ukraine based on a comparative analysis of the functioning of this field in other countries of the world. An analysis of the current state of counseling psychology in countries with a developed tradition in this field belonging to different cultural and civilizational contexts was carried out. On the basis of the Cochrane methodology with the application of SWOT analysis, the results of the study of strengths and weaknesses, potential threats and prospects for the development of counseling psychology in eight countries of the world: Austria, India, Israel, Canada, France, the Republic of South Africa, Japan and Ukraine are summarized. It was established that counseling psychology in Ukraine not only does not lag behind other countries in terms of the number of practices and qualifications of specialists, but also has a number of advantages, such as the presence of a network of psychological consultations and higher educational institutions that train psychologists, the functioning of professional associations and periodicals, review Law on Psychological Assistance, etc. The growth in demand for the services of counseling psychologists in Ukraine in connection with military actions, as well as the expansion of the possibilities of conducting consultations in the online format, is analyzed. However, the problem of financing higher education was revealed, which leads to a decrease in the quality of professional training of psychologists; the problem of contradiction between consultative approaches and mental, religious and behavioral traditions of society is discussed; political and socio-economic factors are analyzed, such as impoverishment of the population, a decrease in its cultural level, which complicates the work of psychologists and limits access to psychological help.

Science, Ideology and Practice in Post-Soviet Psychology: An Attempt of Introspection

The purpose of this article is to analyze the dynamics of the relationship between psychological science and practice in post-Soviet psychology, taking into account both global and local trends and influences. In the process of considering the stages of approaching psychology to solving applied problems and problems of psychological practice proper, special attention is paid to the problem of the relationship between the natural-scientific and socio-philosophical aspects of the existence of modern psychology. The article emphasizes the position that, having separated from philosophy almost 140 years ago, the current psychological science turned out to be entangled in various ideologies - from panpsychologization and antipsychiatry to the ideology of constructivism. In conclusion, it is stated that the narcissistic attempts of modern psychological practice to reduce the polysyllabic phenomenology of real human problems, about which people turn to a psychologist, exclusively to their mental manifestations - there is no more, no less, a substitution of the true meanings of the profession. In place of defending the interests of the patient (client), modern psychology, put their own interests, including purely shop and commercial. The article defends the idea that the true solution to the problem of the development of modern psychological practice lies in the synthesis of the humanistic potential of psychology with a fundamental natural scientific basis, and not in the imposition of far-fetched ideological schemes, shamefacedly referred to as the “methodology of constructivism”.

Theological Origins of the KYIV Psychological School