lergy and Communities for Mental Health: project results

Since the beginning of 2026, 378 participants, including 101 women, have taken part in psychological training sessions under the project “Clergy and Communities in Support of Mental Health: Innovative Support Practices During the War in Ukraine.” The project is implemented by Eleos-Ukraine in partnership with DanChurchAid and Norwegian Church Aid in Ukraine, with financial support from the Government of Norway (NORAD).

The program aims to equip clergy, clergy spouses, seminarians, and active parishioners of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) with practical skills in psychological first aid, trauma-sensitive communication, pastoral counseling, self-care, and community needs assessment. Trainings have been held in Kyiv and Lviv in cooperation with the Kyiv and Lviv Orthodox Theological Academies.

Participants have come from across Ukraine, except the temporarily occupied territories — including Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson, Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Zakarpattia, and other regions.

Among them are parish priests and church rectors, military and medical chaplains, monks and nuns, seminarians, clergy spouses, active laypeople, and volunteers. Many serve in frontline and rural communities where access to professional psychological support is limited or, in some cases, unavailable.

For many priests, the trainings have provided more than practical knowledge needed for wartime ministry. They have also created a rare space to meet colleagues facing similar challenges, exchange experiences, discuss difficult cases, and find support among peers.

An important component of the project is the participation of clergy spouses, who often play a significant but less visible role in parish life.

They manage households, raise children, sing in church choirs, lead Sunday schools, support parishioners, and frequently share the emotional burden that priests bring home after funerals, hospital visits, and conversations with people affected by war.

For her, learning how to respond appropriately to this pain was one of the main reasons for participating in the training.

During the war, clergy have often found themselves among the first people to encounter the grief and psychological consequences experienced by their communities.

This is particularly true in rural and frontline areas, where psychologists, social workers, and other professional services may be difficult to access. In such circumstances, people often turn first to a priest — whether they are grieving a loved one, returning from military service, living through displacement, or struggling with the accumulated stress of war.

This makes it especially important for clergy to understand both how to provide appropriate initial support and where the boundaries of their role lie — including when a person needs to be referred to a psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, or another specialist.

At the same time, those providing support also need tools to protect their own well-being. Clergy and chaplains are repeatedly exposed to stories of loss, trauma, fear, and uncertainty while continuing to serve as a source of stability and hope for their communities.

That is why the knowledge and practical skills provided by professional psychologists and psychotherapists through the project are intended not only to strengthen the quality of support available within communities, but also to help priests, their families, and active community members recognize their own limits, maintain their resilience, and continue their ministry sustainably.

The project “Clergy and Communities in Support of Mental Health: Innovative Support Practices During the War in Ukraine” is implemented by Eleos-Ukraine in partnership with DanChurchAid and Norwegian Church Aid in Ukraine, with financial support from the Government of Norway (NORAD), in cooperation with the Kyiv and Lviv Orthodox Theological Academies.