For 14 years, Ipso has been supporting diverse care systems by providing culturally sensitive, short-term psychosocial interventions to people with refugee and migration histories or people in war and crisis contexts worldwide. Since the war of aggression on Ukraine, the need for psychosocial counseling has increased again.
Ipso – International Psychosocial Organisation therefore offers psychosocial support in two new projects: on the one hand for refugees from Ukraine, on the other hand for their helpers – or for helpers who are generally committed to refugees.
Deployment of Ukrainian counselors
Due to increasing needs of Ukrainian and Russian speaking people, Ipso has trained psychologists from Ukraine in Value Based Counseling (VBC) in spring 2022.
With 200 sessions that we can offer per week as a result, we are available to all Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking people online as well as in personal conversations in our counseling centers. Our counselors provide sessions in the native language of the client and within the framework of our culturally sensitive non-judgmental approach.
Psychosocial support for helpers with Razom – United at Ipso
In the new project Razom – United at Ipso, we offer our expertise and experience to supporters of refugees from Ukraine and other parts of the world. Razom means together in Ukrainian.
The enormous amount of help provided by host families, volunteers, social workers and social educators can be enriching but at the same time exhausting. It presents many with emotional challenges. We would like to accompany this with our experience with the common target group.
Razom – United at Ipso offers two components:
– webinars on socio-cultural topics
– one-on-one talks and group discussions (raZoom-Talks)
Based on our culturally sensitive counseling approach and our experience in intercultural communication, our counselors offer free webinars on various topics such as intercultural understanding, communication in an intercultural context, trauma and self-care.
With our raZoom-Talks, we offer all helpers appointments for one-on-one conversations (supervision) as well as group discussions – for small and larger groups, e.g. for institutions – guided by our experienced counselors. Besides professional support they offer space for reflection and communication.
Further information on the project, as well as dates and registration, can be found on our project website www.ipsocontext.org/de/razom.
Picture: Screenshot of new Ukrainian Counselors during an online meeting
