This workshop invites clinicians into a deeper understanding of the historical and systemic forces shaping Ukrainian mental health. Participants will explore the lasting impacts of colonization, cultural erasure, forced assimilation, and ongoing geopolitical trauma, and how these experiences can show up in clinical settings.

Participants will gain insight into how these factors influence symptom presentation, help-seeking behaviors, and engagement in care, and how a fuller understanding of clients’ lived experiences can support more accurate assessment and more effective, compassionate clinical work.

Together we will consider the roles of individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma, along with culturally relevant dynamics related to language, identity, and safety.

This workshop also provides a space to reflect on implicit bias, microaggressions, and cultural misunderstandings, and how they can impact treatment outcomes. Participants will develop strategies to address these dynamics and apply inclusive, equity-focused approaches in assessment and treatment planning.

Clinicians will leave the training equipped with practical tools to deliver ethical, effective, and culturally responsive mental health care for Ukrainian clients.

Instructors: Valentina Pishchanskaya-Cayanan, LMFT, CIMHP; and Yulia Brockdorf, RD, LD, CDCES, CST, NCC, LPC, BC-ADM, BC-TMH, LMHC, FAIHM, LN, CD, ACS, FAWM

Cost and Credits: $105, includes 4 CEUs. GSEC Alumni, Adjuncts, and Clinical Mental Health Supervisors save 20%. $50 student rate.