Summer is almost over, and Seun Edagbami-Olota has finished her research assignment for the Helping Hand project. This is an update from her exciting period as the HOPE worldwide Canada intern in Toronto when she interviewed Rostyslav, a physiotherapist in Toronto.
I got to meet Rostyslav, a registered psychotherapist that works in Toronto, Canada. It was really interesting talking to him because I got to learn so much about his work and more about trauma. He speaks Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Italian and English. He does not work with refugees but he works with a lot of people who have trauma.
Trauma could be the consequence of some catastrophic event that people have either witnessed or are a part of. It could be family-related, for example, child abuse in a home or bullying in school, car accidents and others. A person could get flashbacks, intrusive thoughts and have great difficulty with sleeping. PTSD(post-traumatic stress disorder) is a consequence of that kind of event. He has worked with a lot of adults and teenagers and said that 70% of people who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) try to deal with it themselves at first.
He received his training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), a special universal approach in trauma therapy. It could also be very helpful for people who come from war or violence-torn countries.
I mentioned the Children and war therapy program and how it helps to deal with PTSD, depression and other consequences of war trauma and he shared his thoughts on the program.
The program can help people in two ways:
It can help people who have already been traumatized to learn how to deal with it.
It can help people who are at risk of being traumatized. It can teach people what to do when they experience a traumatic event and to be better prepared.
He would be interested in receiving training in Canada and Ukraine. It would be a very good idea to know more about war or violence trauma therapy and give therapy to children.