Ternopil National Medical University’s Psychological Counselling Centre Celebrates Its First Anniversary

This year, the Psychological Counselling Centre of TNMU celebrates its first anniversary – the 5th anniversary since its establishment. This is undoubtedly an important and very symbolic event both in the history of our institution and in the professional and personal biography of the Head of the Centre, Tetyana Husieva, a psychologist and Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, Narcology, and Medical Psychology. Ms. Tetyana was among those who created/wrote the first pages of the history of this university unit and continues to actively work in various directions. Due to the necessity of various psychological assistance services, the Psychological Counselling Centre recently became part of the Mental Health Centre.

Today, we are talking to Tetyana Husieva about the Centre’s working weekdays, achievements, small victories, realities, and prospects of the Psychological Counselling Centre.

This year, your personal professional calendar, in addition to October 10, when World Mental Health Day is celebrated, was supplemented with another date. In January 2024, it marked 5 years since the establishment of the TNMU Psychological Counselling Centre. That is, this unit is still very young, but… The famous Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget emphasized the importance of overcoming the five-year barrier in a child’s life. It overcomes egocentrism and discovers society. How did the Centre develop, grow, mature, open the world, and open up to the world?

The TNMU Psychological Counselling Centre was founded in January 2019 and began operating as a special space for psychological support and personal development of students. Its creation was initiated by representatives of the Student Parliament of our university, who realized the importance of caring for the mental health of young people. It is pleasing that this initiative found support in the administration of our university.

In addition, we proposed the counselling services of a psychologist also for university staff, created a page of the Centre on Facebook, where we started publishing psychoeducational posts.

In the team of the Centre’s specialists, certified psychologists worked in the directions of Gestalt therapy and art therapy, using client art support methods in psychological counselling, cognitive-behavioral model of psychological counselling, and an integrated approach in counselling and Gestalt therapy techniques. As needed, we involved specialists from the Department of Psychiatry, Narcology, and Medical Psychology or referred them to another specialist.

How was communication with clients arranged at the Centre?

To receive psychological counselling, it was necessary to call the contact number indicated on the Centre’s page on the university web portal and in the student directory, or write in messengers Telegram, Viber, or WhatsApp, or on the Centre’s page on Facebook for a preliminary appointment. And then come on the appointed day. Also, information about our Centre is located on the pages of the student guide.

When there were quite a few registrations (and we had periods when those willing to come for a consultation with a psychologist were scheduled for two months in advance), we sometimes worked on weekends for live and online counselling. Since our Centre is not a crisis psychological service, we placed current information in university dormitories, indicating contacts of hotlines for providing psychological assistance where students could turn in case of urgent need. Also, on the Centre’s website, there is a link to the all-Ukrainian Telegram channel for psychological assistance to students.

The Centre’s specialists always responded to various requests from university departments, regularly cooperated with group tutors, mentors, the Centre for Educational and Cultural Development, the Department of Psychiatry, Narcology, and Medical Psychology. Many thematic events were held – webinars, seminars, workshops for students and teachers on various topics.

What types of psychological assistance do you provide? What forms do you use?

Firstly, this is psychological counselling, which is conducted in individual and group forms in offline and online formats. I want to note that we used the online format even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the pandemic, and during the full-scale invasion.

Secondly, psychological education and psychological prevention. These types of activities we implemented through informational content on Facebook pages and on the university web portal. We also used printed materials, including stress management booklets and flyers to facilitate the adaptation of freshmen.

We have an interesting experience of work of the student psychoeducational group “School of Mental Health”, the participants of which were involved in various events as volunteer consultants and could provide psychological support on the principle of “peer-to-peer”. The Monday personal development group has become a favorite and popular among students.

Psychological diagnostics at our Centre is carried out upon request. Also, at the end of the academic year for the second year in a row, we conduct monitoring of the psycho-emotional state of students.

In addition, the following are actively functioning: a support group for students, which worked online every Monday throughout the academic year; a resource laboratory for pedagogical workers; an “Online Support” group on the Facebook page, where we conduct thematic live broadcasts on psychological assistance.

It is worth mentioning the volunteer activities of the Centre’s specialists who provide psychological assistance during the war: work with internally displaced persons, children and adults, volunteers, those in need of this assistance.

What principles do the Centre’s staff adhere to in their work?

The basis of the activity of the TNMU Psychological Counselling Centre is the “Regulations on Psychological Service in the Education System of Ukraine” and the “Ethical Code of the Psychologist”, in which the principles we adhere to are fixed. For example, the principle of confidentiality, responsibility, competence, client welfare. These documents are also located on our university website.

Which organizations does the Psychological Counselling Centre cooperate with?

Currently, we cooperate with such professional communities and public organizations as the National Psychological Association, the Association of Higher Education Psychologists of Ukraine, the Ecosystem of Psychological Assistance in Education. This provides good opportunities for professional development of our specialists through training, supervision by Ukrainian and foreign experts, participation in various educational projects and programs (for example, the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program “How are you?” – an initiative of the First Lady Olena Zelenska).

How have the requests for psychological assistance changed over the 5 years of the Centre’s operation?

The provision of counselling began with requests on topics related to relationships (with parents, friends in the student group), personal self-realization and self-esteem, professional burnout, academic stress.

During the pandemic period, requests were related to health concerns, heightened anxiety states, more frequent panic attacks, worsened relationships with relatives and close ones, colleagues in the team, complaints about the inability to organize comfortable conditions for studying or working.

Ms. Tetiana, today you did not come alone but in the company of a very intriguing and charming guy. Who is he and what role does he play in our conversation? Is he your friend, assistant, guard, or advisor?

I did indeed visit you today with a friend. This is a toy – a hugging dog. His name is Hibuki. “Hibuki” translates from Hebrew as “hugs” because this toy can hug. It is a therapeutic tool that helps psychologists work with childhood trauma.

In Ukraine, the Charity Project “Hibuki Therapy” was initiated in the early days of the war by Israeli psychologist Dafna Sharon-Maksimov. The hugging dog was invented by Dr. Shay Hen-Gal in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War in Israel. Since then, Hibuki has helped children in Israel, Japan, and America to cope with trauma, pain, loss, and devastation. And now, this therapeutic toy helps children in Ukraine.

I want to note that for the first time in Ternopil, it was on the basis of our Centre that the charitable Ukrainian-Israeli project “Hibuki Therapy” was implemented, within which nearly 100 internally displaced children and young residents of our city and region received psychological support. Hibuki Therapy is a process in which a psychologist, using a specially developed methodology, gradually and carefully enters therapy together with the child, helping them cope with the trauma of war.

What inspires you, what brings joy in such difficult times?

Communicating with loved ones and friends, work where you receive positive feedback from our visitors – this inspires.

We are glad that over the years of the Centre’s operation, the number of requests for consultations has increased because for us, this is an indicator of our good work, as students understand the importance of turning to a psychologist and have no stigma about receiving psychological assistance.

Thank you, Ms. Tetiana, for the interesting conversation. I wish you peace and further professional growth!

Interviewed by Ihor Havryshchak.

Photographs by Yanina Chaikivska and Mykola Vasylechko.