Hope and Healing for Ukraine
The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) is collaborating with Pact and local Ukrainian partners to create and facilitate a Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) training program that teaches a comprehensive, evidence-based trauma-relief and resiliency-building model. Together, we are working to build the capacity for Ukrainian health and service providers to support healing in their communities.
The time to begin healing is now.
The Center for Mind-Body Medicine is working with Pact, through a grant funded by USAID, to design and facilitate an intensive trauma relief program for 150 Ukrainian clinicians, physicians, educators, faith leaders, and others serving their communities. Training participants will be identified and recruited from eight regions including: Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Chernihiv. This program is intended to help the people of Ukraine address the intense grief and trauma being experienced as a result of the Russian full-scale military aggression begun in February 2022.
CMBM’s comprehensive training program will consist of several stages that began with a 90-minute virtual engagement workshop held on April 20, 2023 for Pact staff and regional coordinators from the eight participating oblasts. During this training, CMBM Founder and CEO James S. Gordon, MD, Clinical Director Lynda Richtsmeier Cyr, PhD, LP, and Senior International Program Manager Andrew Leone, MA, provided some background to the work, introduced the program and its logistical components, and conducted some experiential exercises.
This first engagement will be followed by an in-person exploratory trip in May, where Dr. Gordon, Faculty Member Mindy Milam, LCSW, Andrew Leone, and videographer John Phaneuf will participate in engagement workshops across western Ukraine, meeting with coordinators, community members and Pact staff to build buzz around the program and help recruit up to 150 participants for a Professional Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine and an Advanced Training Program in Mind-Body Medicine scheduled from July 12-20, 2023.
Learn more
For more information about this program, please contact Senior International Program Manager Andrew Leone at aleone@cmbm.org.
This program is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
