Counseling on the front line: Insights from a Ukrainian doctor

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay, Oleksandr Fedorets reports his experience of counseling veterans of combat, both in the current invasion and in the Maidan revolution of 2013–2014. Doctor Fedorets eschews the notion of a neutral analytic “third position,” in wartime scenarios, in favor of a more humanitarian, trauma-informed “bearing witness” as discussed by Israeli and other analytic communities. The author reminds us that the stakes could not be higher, offering clinical vignettes both hopeful and catastrophic.