| SPEAKERS OF THE 8TH SYMPOSIUM
Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Director of the Katowice Institute of Psychotherapy
MARIA MARQUARDT
Lecture “Untold Stories: Trauma, Hope, and Intergenerational Responsibility”
At a time when Europe and the world face the tragedy of the war in Ukraine, questions of truth, humanity, and responsibility become not only ethical but profoundly therapeutic. Our daily work as psychotherapists becomes a place of encounter — with human suffering, but also with hope and the strength to survive.
In recent years, we have witnessed thousands of personal tragedies. Clients in therapy speak of bombings, the loss of homes, the separation of families, sexual violence, the death of children, loneliness, and prolonged life in fear. We observe various strategies of coping with trauma: dissociation, fight, inner resignation, or escape. Each is an attempt to survive — though often at the cost of psychological and physical integrity. Many of these people have no space to tell their story. Their trauma remains “frozen” in the body and in relationships. As Jadwiga Gosko-Ochojska wrote: “It is not only a family narrative I’ve heard – it is something that moves the body. It is memory that does not belong only to me, but lives within me.”
Without the presence of another human being — a therapist, a witness, a companion — this trauma may persist in the family system for generations. Research on transgenerational trauma (Yehuda et al., 2015; Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008; Lis-Turlejska, 2020) shows that psychological suffering can be inherited not only psychologically but also biologically: through changes in the nervous system, hormones, and brain structure. And yet we can break this chain. Properly guided therapy, a safe relationship, and conscious work with the body and emotions can bring healing — not only to the individual, but to their children and grandchildren.
Poland, a country marked by wartime and post-war trauma, has for decades struggled with high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It remains the country with the highest diagnosed PTSD rate in Europe. Even though the situation is slowly improving, we remain the most traumatized nation on the continent. This is why so many Poles — as inheritors of trauma — were naturally sensitive and ready to help their neighbors in 2022. Poland was the first country to open its borders — and its heart. Survivors found shelter in private homes, often welcomed like family. By June 2023, Poland had received over 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine. 977,400 people were granted temporary protection, including over 400,000 children. Over 100,000 refugees settled in Warsaw, and tens of thousands more in Wrocław, Kraków, Poznań, and other cities. This was not only a humanitarian response but also an immense psychotherapeutic and societal challenge.
We work with a wide range of individuals: civilians, mothers, soldiers, elderly people, children, those in exile, and those who have experienced violence, abandonment, and alienation. Each of them brings a different language of suffering — but each needs presence and hope.
Psychotherapy is not a luxury — it is an act of humanity. It is within the relationship based on trust and empathy that one can begin to speak, to cry, to return to the body, to reclaim agency. It is not just the treatment of symptoms, but the rebuilding of meaning.
As Viktor Frankl — concentration camp survivor and founder of logotherapy — wrote: “A man can be stripped of everything except one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
It is this freedom — internal, spiritual, and therapeutic — that forms the foundation of our humanity. In the face of violence, destruction, and despair, psychotherapy can be a space for rebuilding hope, unity, and the future.
Maria Marquardt – Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Supervisor of the Polish Psychological Association, Director of the Katowice Institute of Psychotherapy.
MA in Psychology, Trainer and Supervisor of the Ukrainian Umbrella Association of Psychotherapy
YANA GOLOLOB
Lecture “Encountering in Times of War: Meeting Persons of Tomorrow”
The ‘Persons of tomorrow’ concept was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1970s. During his numerous travels, he outlined his own observations based on meetings with thousands of different people in different parts of the world. These observations, in the context of the social protests and rapid changes taking place around him, led him to realise that a new world was emerging - the ‘world of tomorrow’. This phenomenon had a close inter- and intra-connectedness with the persons of tomorrow - the individuals of the new world who have the qualities, skills, competences and abilities necessary to thrive in the new culture that is emerging in times of change. In this presentation, I would like to share my experience of encountering such persons, whom I have met on my way during the significant changes in the modern world.
Yana Gololob, MA in psychology, is a person-centred psychotherapist in private practice, a trainer and supervisor of the Ukrainian Umbrella Association of Psychotherapists, a lecturer at the Ukrainian Psychotherapy University, and a guest lecturer at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She is a PCE World current board member. Her main concern is with the development of the person-centred approach both in Ukraine and worldwide. In this regard, she has contributed to and co-edited together with Gina Di Malta, Mick Cooper, Maureen O'Hara, and Susan Stephen The Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy & Counselling, 3rd edition (Bloomsbury, 2024).
MSc Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling, BA Psychology, MEAP, MIAHIP, MIACP, Psychotherapist and Lecturer
GERALDINE O’KELLY COONEY
Lecture “Searching for Truth and Humanity viewed through the Prism of Personal Experience of the Northern Ireland Conflict.”
Our time is a time of fear and uncertainty, uncertainty fuelled by mistruths and misinformation, which threaten our human family. Uncertainty is a powerful weapon of war damaging our psychological wellbeing, leading to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, trauma, and stress.
How do we combat this? What power do we have, as individuals, as psychotherapists and as a collective organisation? The speaker will explore these themes by drawing on their personal experience growing up in the Northern Ireland Conflict, known as “The Troubles”, and with reference to the concept of Ubuntu, “I am because we are”.
Geraldine O’Kelly Cooney, MSc. Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling. BA Psychology, MEAP, MIAHIP, MIACP, is a psychotherapist, and lecturer based in Dublin Ireland, who has lived and worked in several countries as well as Northern Ireland. She specialises in international experience, cultural integration, and diversity.
Psychotherapist, Psychologist, Founder and Former coordinator of the psychological program at the Charitable Foundation “Right to Protection”
ANNA SHYICHUK
Lecture “Humanity and Dignity as the Core of Humanitarian Response in Ukraine During the Invasion”
Is there a place for psychotherapy in the work of a mobile team in a 50 km area from the front line? What if a psychologist has a request to go to the place where a missile hit, and it turns out it's a hit on her own house? How to conduct supervision for specialists in a community if one group includes a social worker, psychologist, priest, librarian, and family doctor?
This is an overview report of the psychological and psychotherapeutic humanitarian response in Ukraine during the first 3 years of the invasion. Thoughts on how to keep humanity in the hearts of the affected population and in the hearts of specialists who can also become affected peoples at any moment.
In the presentation, you will hear about: the inner workings of psychological humanitarian response services, the requests of beneficiaries, the specifics of the work, and unusual cases based on the work of a Charitable Foundation.
Anna Shyichuk is a psychotherapist (Gestalt therapy, Positive Psychotherapy, EMDR), psychologist, founder and former coordinator of the psychological program at the Charitable Foundation "Right to Protection".
Psychiatrist, supervisor of the Polish Psychiatric Association
EWA DOBIALA
Lecture “The Transcultural Dimension of War: On Listening, Responsibility, and Shared Humanity”
In a world where war affects not only the borders of nations but also the psychological and moral boundaries of communities, the question of truth and humanity becomes a central challenge for contemporary psychotherapy.
In this lecture, I will share reflections from three years of leading transcultural support projects for Ukrainian psychotherapists and supervisors — through the WAPP Support Project Association — involving international educational programs, refugee support, and the creation of therapeutic environments at the intersection of cultures and war, including the “European Room for Listening.” The point of departure will be the original concept of a “transcultural system of reality perception” — describing how war shapes new forms of narrative, meaning, and emotion; how it penetrates language, the body, and identity. This is a system that knows no national borders, but emerges wherever the boundaries of safety, meaning, and relationality are breached.
War does not only destroy external structures — homes, cities, institutions — but also brings forth new ways of perceiving the world, deeply rooted in the body, memory, and everyday responses. These internal shifts — embodied vigilance patterns, accelerated life-or-death decisions, altered semantics of touch, sound, and silence — form a transcultural system of perception. It transcends language and national context, operating in the space of universal responses to threat and in the spiritual resistance to dehumanization. Such systems arise where humanity is tested — and where it must find new ways to express itself.
In this talk, I will attempt to capture a fragment of this phenomenon — from the perspective of a Psychotherapist, witness, and participant in a process unfolding for the past three years between Poland, Ukraine, and the wider world. I will invite several colleagues — Psychotherapists from different countries — who have accompanied me in this journey, to briefly share why they chose to take this path.
Ewa Dobiała, MD – Psychiatrist, supervisor of the Polish Psychiatric Association, international trainer and supervisor of the World Association for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy (WAPP). For over 20 years, she has supported children, adolescents, and adults in the field of mental health, with a particular focus on war trauma, transcultural environments, and the autistic spectrum. She is the founder and director of the WAPP Support Project Association and the Leszno Center for Positive Psychotherapy.
Founder and CEO of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine
JIM GORDON
Lecture “Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing”
Is there a place for psychotherapy in the work of a mobile team in a 50 km area from the front line? Trauma--the word is Greek and means "wound" or "injury"--comes to all of us sooner or later. It can, of course, be devastating. However, we have the capacity to reverse its biological and psychological consequences, to become more resilient and, indeed, to achieve "post-traumatic growth."
In this presentation I'll discuss the ways that trauma disrupts physiological, psychological, and social balance, and teach one highly effective technique for reversing trauma and promoting resilience that attendees can integrate into their lives and their clinical practice. I'll also describe the evidence-based program of self-care and mutual help we at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) have used for 30 years to successfully address population-wide psychological trauma: during and after wars in the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa, and Ukraine, as well as following mass shootings and climate-related disasters here in the US and the Caribbean, and a youth suicide epidemic on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and are using now to help people deal with the challenges and disruptions of Trump Administration policy.
James S. Gordon, MD - Founder and CEO; The Center for Mind-Body Medicine.
