Mythodrama – educational project

Brief overview of the method.

Psychosocial support and psychotherapeutic assistance have been relevant in Ukraine since 2014. Already in March 2015, at the forum “Between Peace and War” organized by PAChAP, the first results of work in a crisis caused by the military actions of the Russian Federation in Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions were presented. Since then, we have been working to develop and search for effective methods to help children and adults affected by the consequences of war. During this time, we have implemented and continue to use both original Ukrainian methods of assistance and international programs, initially in frontline territories and now throughout Ukraine: the psychosocial support program “Safe Space,” “Serial Drawing,” Expressive work with sand (you can see the results of the work presented at the PAChAP conference:

Conference “Traveling Through Worlds. Child Psychotherapy During War”

Another method we began implementing in April 2022 is Mythodrama.

Mythodrama is a method derived from psychodrama and Jungian analytical psychology.

The author of the method is Allan Guggenbuhl, a Jungian analyst, individual member of the IAAP, professor, Doctor of Psychology, psychotherapist, and director of the IKM Institute for Conflict Management in Zurich. He introduced and supports a project to help children and adolescents affected by the Russian-Georgian war, using the “Mythodrama” method. Oksana Zaleska was introduced to the method at a conference in Tbilisi in 2011. The conference featured presentations by Allan Guggenbuhl and colleagues from Georgia, who shared their experiences working with children and adolescents affected by war. In 2019, when the war was already underway in Ukraine, the organizing committee of the joint conference of the Ukrainian Developing Group of IAAP and the Professional Association Children`s Analytical Psychologists, “Between Two Worlds: The Phenomenon of Play in Child and Adult Analysis,” invited Allan Guggenbuhl to present the method to a Ukrainian audience. In April 2022, a month after the start of the full-scale invasion, a project with Mitodrama began under the leadership of Allan Guggenbuhl. For which we are sincerely grateful.

The main element of Mythodrama is storytelling in a special way, which serves as a starting point for real therapeutic work. Stories are a means of expressing the feelings and anxieties of group members, revealing imagination and creative potential through their creation. Difficult experiences find symbolic expression. The method has proven to be effective in working with war trauma in children, adolescents, and adults. The advantages of the method include its reliance on creative resources, the safety of the intervention, and the use of a group format, which allows for helping a larger number of beneficiaries. Additionally, group interaction enhances the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic influence. We anticipate that the method will be helpful and effective in processing traumatic experiences.

The mythodrama method enables children to join their community and gain resources from communicating with their peers. It is a creative space where children can play, draw, create stories, and act them out. It stimulates children’s imagination, helps them process traumatic experiences and complex emotions, and helps them overcome the consequences of war, thereby maintaining the mental health of children and adolescents.

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