When Olena speaks about her son, she says little about the past or about how he came to be a prisoner in Russia. Vadim, 19, was seized as a civilian at a checkpoint in the Donbas, in territory occupied by Russian forces at the start of the full-scale invasion four years ago.

What occupies Olena now is not how it happened but what may come next. Her concern centers on how four years of captivity may have changed him and whether she will know how to speak with him when the time comes for him to be released and returned home.

Such fears are common among families of detainees and former prisoners of war. Trauma does not end with release. For many, the most psychologically demanding period begins afterward, when reality is different from long-held expectations.

Olena is one of many Ukrainians participating in live psychotherapy sessions as the war continues. The patient-therapist conversations are not recollections shaped by distance or hindsight. They take place while missiles still fall, while loved ones remain missing, and while the threat itself has not passed.

The sessions are led by Viktor Dlugunovych, a Ukrainian-American psychotherapist who specializes in trauma. Participants include civilians whose lives were abruptly overtaken by war: mothers, widows, displaced people, and families living with prolonged uncertainty.

In one session, Olena was asked a........

© Psychology Today