'Their resilience is mad': the battle to boost sport psychology inside war-torn Ukraine

Exclusive look at how Ukrainian academics and associations are sidestepping supply shortages, air raid warnings and more to professionalise the country's sport psychology setup

Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash

Tutorials interrupted by shelling. Russian textbooks, once heavily-relied on, banished from memory. Career ambitions overshadowed by the spectre of war. This is the reality facing students in Ukraine.

But, amidst the anarchy, an unlikely effort to professionalise the nation’s sport psychology setup is taking shape. Against a backdrop of increasing mental health problems, with government data¹ showing approximately half of Ukrainians requiring psychological support, the country’s psychology association and one of its leading universities have recently launched programs aimed at aiding aspiring and practicing sport psychologists.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to Oleg Burlachuk, the  National Psychological Association of Ukraine’s General Secretary, and Anastasiya Khomutova, a Brighton-based lecturer managing the Ukraine Sigmund Freud University’s new sport psychology course, about the battle to boost the profession whilst contending with the brutal reality of war. Here’s what they had to say about teaching without textbooks, students seeking shelter during lessons and their hope for the profession’s progression.