“Now we have the news to help us cry”: A conversation with Natalia Felbaba

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this interview, Natalia Falbaba takes us directly in the context of wartime upheaval and disruption by describing her initial strong emotional burnout response to working with displaced people in Western Ukraine where she lives and to having her brother join the army and fight on the front lines. After going back to her therapeutic practice, she describes how the war context changed her relationship to patients as they needed to find out more about how she was coping, radically changing the asymmetry of it. She was amazed to experience the therapeutic power of simply being a true witness to their distress even though she couldn’t solve their problems or guide them concretely, especially with adolescents who cannot turn to their overburdened parents. Access to tears and grieving held back to survive is a relief and can be triggered by listening to daily news.