Collective Resilience vs. Collective Trauma: The Role of Leaders in Confrontation
Leaders bear responsibility not only for their mental health but also for navigating the daily challenges their subordinates face. Where do solutions lie? How can we overcome traumas that affect not just one individual, but everyone within their sphere of interaction?
The Institute of Mental Health of UCU and the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program, initiated by Olena Zelenska’s “How Are You?” campaign, organized the forum “Collective Resilience, Healing, and Growth in Response to Collective Trauma”. Participants included representatives from diverse fields: psychologists, cultural experts, human rights defenders, artists, educators, public health officials, and administrators. The common issue brought these individuals together in search of solutions, encompassing rational, emotional, and practical aspects within a single event.
The event commenced with words of hope from the President of UCU Bishop Borys Gudziak:
“Clergymen are not mental health experts, but we are called to be spiritual guides. Therapy combined with our work yields significantly better results.
We are moving forward. We have begun to recognize the problem, to fear less, to stigmatize less, and to avoid turning our gaze away, but we still have a long road ahead of us.
This happens, in part, because in anthropology, much is divided – there are specialists for physical health, those who work with the mental component, but unfortunately, issues of the human spirit are often excluded from discussions.
Even in the Church, there is a tendency that when someone has a mental issue, no one takes responsibility for resolving it, passing it on to doctors instead. The other extreme is when we think we can fix everything through sacraments, blessings, and prayers.
Finally, we are beginning to mutually share responsibilities. Both medicine and religion agree that a person who is in a network of good relationships and feels loved thrives and has resilience and strength. Such a person can withstand many trials.
This is Ukraine today. We have shown and experienced something different from what the whole world expected of us:
1. Solidarity.
2. Subsidiarity.
3. Dignity.
4. Common Good.
These four elements constitute the foundation of Catholic social doctrine. Ukrainians who have come out to the squares throughout our independence history are people consciously or unconsciously shaped by these values, influencing the entire country. This is not something confessional; it is deeply human.
We are called to live on. And here at this university, you can ask any student what they like most here – 9 out of 10 will answer: ‘Community’.
My great hope is that communicators in our society today, especially public intellectuals, help us all open our eyes to reality and realize that only with a holistic approach to the individual can we create resilience and avoid cracks in the foundation”.
First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska continued the discussion on the foundations of national resilience:
Resilience cannot be injected like a vaccine or handed out like a pill. But resilience can be developed, supported, and ‘pumped up’. A resilient nation starts with individual people. Therefore, our task is to create conditions for their development and to realize all potential talents and opportunities. Services must reach every Ukrainian, every community. It is important not just to create services but also to invest in education, to overcome stigma. So that shame or any fears are not barriers separating people from services.
Among the event’s speakers was Olha Serhiienko, a psychotherapist, who discussed the components of resilience in both individual and collective dimensions:
“A person needs things that no one can take away: gratitude, courage, freedom, generosity…
Resilience involves useful short thoughts in complex situations, and the ability to manage critical thinking. We need to learn to choose realistic thoughts from those that arise in our heads.
Resilience means realizing what is best and most important that I can do in my place right now.
Resilience means regulating the level of one’s energy – recovering and recharging whenever possible, because tomorrow may require a lot of strength.
Resilience means relationships. Nurturing them, investing time in them, safeguarding relationships – this is crucial. In the context of the collective, we all feel how our relationships with one another make us stronger”.
Many speakers expressed their views on resilience and healing from the perspective of their fields of expertise, and the final segment on growth belonged to Myroslav Marynovych and Oleksandra Matviichuk.
Myroslav Marynovych, a dissident, publicist, and civic activist, exemplifies leadership and resilience. His thoughts on post-crisis growth are educational for us:
“You don’t always win all battles with values – but only with them can you ultimately achieve victory.
Today’s world is globalized, meaning our heroism and moral statements are on display. They are visible, and our partners make decisions based on what specifically falls within their field of vision. Defenders’ heroism is transforming into increasing military, financial, and moral support. Our internal ‘timidity’, on the contrary, erodes trust in us and slows or stops support.
Today, it’s not enough to be important cells of a new social organism – we must become its backbone.
So let’s watch events closely, not fall into despair, resist the temptation of hatred and simple radical solutions, and most importantly, keep our spiritual antennas ready to receive signals from Heaven. And everything will be fine – believe it!”
Oleksandra Matviichuk, a human rights activist working with war crime survivors, shared her perspective on at least three directions for growth:
- Creating meanings.
- Moving forward. Focusing on trauma is dangerous. The victim’s position is dangerous for us ourselves because we did not choose this experience, but we can choose to move forward.
- Sewing our country together. Building bridges, seeking understanding.
These are complex tasks, but we have something to rely on – those people who survived all previous trials. Those who experienced and preserved for us what is now our culture”.
Thanks to the organizers for such a powerful event for leaders of Ukraine, who are ready to confront collective traumas, contributing efforts to collective recovery.
