Features of psychoterapeutic work with psychoemitional states of children of war

Abstract

This article describes the psycho-emotional states of children affected by the war (anxiety, fear, stress, traumatic stress, psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder) and the psycho-traumatic events that led to the emergence of these states; the main features of the traumatic situation are determind; the peculiarities of psychotherapeutic assistance to children of war are analyzed: psychotherapeutic life-changing technologies and techniques of working with the psycho-emotional states of children of war in the psychotherapeutic process are described.
The peculiarities of organization of the technology of emotionally supportive communication with children of war are characterized. Within the framework of this technology, the concept of effective listening skills (reflective, non-reflective, empathetic) is revealed. The main methods of effective listening are defind: silent listening, clarification, retelling, paraphrasing, further development of thoughts, generalization and summarization.
Also within of framework of the mentioned technology, speech expression of agreement, encouragement, approval, and positive anticipatory assessment are used; emotional, spatial, speech and interactional contact; optical-kinetic means of communication: facial mimicry (smile, expression and control of emotions), gaze («eye to eye» and «face to face»), posture (openness, trust, readiness to communicate), gestures and touches (stroking, shaking hands, patting, hugs, kisses).
The article describes the technology of using different areas of art therapy in psychotherapeutic work with children: play therapy, art therapy, fairy-tale therapy, puppet therapy, drawing therapy. The structure of a fairy-tale therapy session is outlined, recommended childrens ukrainian and foreign for fairy tales psychotherapeutic work with children are given. Examples of creative use of song fairy-tale therapy in audio format though the use of innovative digital technologies are also given. Anti-stress stabilizing art therapy, breathing, meditative techniques for working with children of war are given.