Ongoing Projects

Project duration: January 2024 – December 2026

Kateryna Bondar is a project manager and principal investigator for Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, partner university of Erasmus+ K2 BURN project. The project connects war-affected universities in Ukraine with EU (Germany, Latvia, Estonia) universities that have strong psychological support centers. The project aims to establish crisis intervention courses and psychotherapy services at psychological centers in Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs), supporting the resilience and well-being of university communities.

Direct target groups:
  • psychology students enhancing skills in trauma-sensitive support;
  • university psychological service workers adopting EU best practices and aiding IDPs and veterans;
  • Ukrainian HEI members utilizing improved psychological services and promoting trauma-sensitive environments;
  • local actors learning psychosocial assistance for war-affected individuals.
Indirectly targeted groups:
  • war-affected individuals, benefiting from heightened awareness of resilience strategies, reduced stigma, and improved access to psychological support.
Expected results:

Ukrainian project participants will have a unique possibility to generate and transfer both European experience and ideas on improving educational and psychological services, offering psychological support, strengthening international cooperation in the process of post-war restoration. The Centers for Psychological Resilience and Wellbeing will innovate the UA universities and empower them with tools and knowledge for psychological rehabilitation, increase their ties with the local government bodies and communities. The new courses and university centers will also help the psychology students develop communication, ethics, problem solving, organization, and research skills, commitment to learning, and emotional stability.`

Project started in 2024 and is ongoing.

“Rehabilitators” is a French – Ukrainian project on training psychologists and rehabilitators for work with wounded people with amputated limbs.
Alina Yudina is a project participant who passed an internship.


Organizations involved in the project: Alfred Nobel University, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Alliance Française Dnipro, FEFU Federation Echanges France Ukraine, Centre Hospitalier de Lorquin.


Goals of the project are the following: 1) train Ukrainian psychologists to work with wounded people who have had their limbs amputated; mental health problems, cognitive disorders; 2) conducting online webinars for the exchange of experience between Ukrainian and French specialists.


The project “Rehabilitologists – 2024/2025” was created at the initiative of the “Federation Exchanges France – Ukraine” and the Center for Francophone Programs of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. During two years of this project, it received financial support from the L’Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (https://www.auf.org/) to implement professional mobilities of Ukrainian professors, scientists and students on the basis of Medical Rehabilitation Centers and Clinics of France.


In January 2024, 12 teachers of Alfred Nobel University and Academy of Physical Culture and Sports from Dnipro passed their first internships in France. Among them there were teachers from the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, who passed their first 2-week internship at the Centre de Rééducation et de Réadaptation Fonctionnelles André Lalande in the Noth, France. In 2025, 3 teachers of ANU, Department of Psychology and Pedagogy returned to Noth, but this time for preparing the internship of 2 psychology students and 1 philology student, which was successfully completed in March 2025. The main place of the new internship of the teachers in January 2025 was the Psychiatric Hospital of Lorquin (France), where they worked together with French colleagues for 3 weeks, what allowed them to significantly expand cooperation with specialized institutions. All internships this year were carried out thanks to the work of the Center for Francophone Programs and with the financial support of the AUF.


Cooperation continues, and new initiatives are currently being prepared for implementation.

Project duration: December 2024 – November 2026

Kateryna Bondar participates in EPERE project as a project manager for Kryvyi Rih State University.

EPERE Swedish – Ukrainian project aims to enhance the inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities, and provide training for teachers, other professionals, and parents. Training modules will be developed, implemented and evaluated in three regions of Ukraine. They will be empirically based on the perspectives of the stakeholders involved and based on this work. Guidelines for the inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities will be formulated.

Organizations: Örebro University – School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (Sweden), Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University (Ukraine), Bogdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University (Ukraine), Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University (Ukraine), Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej (Poland).

In 2022 to contribute to psychological support of Ukrainian highly qualified migrants NGO Center for Personal and Social Transformations launched an online project “World Roads” with online meetings on Sundays. Art-development sessions last for 1,5 – 2 hours and consist of drawing algorithms and modeling a solution of request (resource or goal) with baking foil or colored plasticine. In general, art-development sessions help migrants to containerize intense emotions and find solutions to problems in complicated life situations. Participants of art-development sessions come through art-development transformations. 

Highly qualified migrants experience a range of psychological challenges due to professional downshifting and necessity to acquire new skills very quickly. Difficulties in finding a job corresponding to the level of qualifications can lead to depressive states of different degrees. Those highly qualified migrants who were forced to change place of living due to war risks can also experience temporary decrease of cognitive abilities and emotional disadaptation. Groups of psychological support can prevent deep depressive states before their occurrence and enhance emotional adaptation. Consequently, highly qualified migrants can contribute much more effectively to accepting communities by realizing their skills to the full (Bondarevskaya, 2022). 

Art-development techniques, elaborated by me, mostly concern resources and identity, and consequently solution to request comes out from subconscious as an insight. Art-development techniques through awareness of feelings, emotions, states help adults to see changes from the point of opening perspectives for development (Bondarevskaya, 2020).

 Moving to safe regions from war is accompanied by negative emotional states which are caused by high level of uncertainty, necessity to change profession, low income, etc. besides war trauma. Many forced migrants pass through the state when they are emotionally not able to feel “taste of life” even when they have everything for that. Art-development techniques can serve for prevention of depressive states development among forced migrants. 

Most adult people do not use or minimize fine motor skills which are effective for stabilization of emotional state in any age. Quite often emotions effect decision-making. Awareness of emotions through drawing psychological algorithms, usage of coloured pencils, markers, coloured plasticine and baking foil modeling engage fine motor skills of arms, promote expression of emotions in creativity, their transformations through creativity and consequently enable to look at the situation from new side, see situation in integrity, in the context, from the point of opening perspectives and opportunities (Bondarevskaya, 2022).