Features of Thematic Trends in Client Inquiries During Martial Law: Therapy Experiences in CCT

Abstract

Eight years of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, the Joint Forces Operation, and more than three years of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine are the complex realities in which the Ukrainian people live. This article describes some topics of client requests in psychotherapeutic practice that arose as a result of people's long stay in these realities and the features of psychotherapeutic work with them in client-centered psychotherapy (CCT) by C.R. Rogers. The topics include: working with military personnel, uncertain loss, the effect of delayed life, forced distance between family members, and secondary traumatization in loved ones and relatives of military personnel.

When working with military personnel, it is important to take into account their orientation towards statutory relationships with their environment, which determines the importance of forming an expert position in the psychotherapist and establishing contact for a longer period of time, during which it is not recommended to focus on emotions and feelings, as is commonly understood in the classical understanding of working in the CCT. It is important to take into account the time for therapy, which is often limited, and to take into account certain features of using classical techniques of the method, and the "metaphor" technique is not recommended at all. In working with uncertain loss, the use of the idea of ​​therapist accompaniment and minimal "interference" in decision-making and choices regarding loss is described, which does not traditionally have a single solution to the problem. In working with the topic of forced separation of family members, ideas for working with spouses and families in general, proposed by C.R. Rogers, are used. Work on preventing secondary trauma in family members of military personnel is associated with expanding the spectrum of ego-syntonic personality structures and forming a mature position. Using the resourcefulness of "specific" relationships described by C.R. Rogers, the idea of "here and now", non-interference in the client's conscious search for himself, a fully functioning personality, are used when working with the effect of deferred life. The idea of complementarity between the concepts of "fully functioning personality" and "post-traumatic growth" is also mentioned.