Music, Trauma, and Healing: A Practical Guide to Working with Soldiers

In April, a six-month training programme for professionals working with military personnel was launched at the UNBROKEN Rehabilitation Centre.

Ukraine, in its ongoing struggle for sovereignty, faces an unprecedented crisis of soldier rehabilitation. Thousands of service members require support for PTSD, moral injury, physical rehabilitation, and reintegration into civilian life. Traditional therapeutic approaches, while essential, often fail to reach those whose trauma manifests in ways that resist verbal expression. Music offers a unique pathway—it bypasses verbal defences, speaks directly to the autonomic nervous system, and creates opportunities for connection, mastery, and emotional regulation that words alone cannot provide.

Among the participants of the course are psychologists and healthcare professionals from UNBROKEN and the Centre for Assistance to Ukrainians who have survived captivity, torture, and moral injury as a result of the war, as well as musicians from the Lviv Symphony Orchestra (INSO) and the Homin Centre of the Lviv Organ Hall.

The programme includes online lectures and practical sessions led by Nigel Osborne, Maryna Sliot, and Veronika Ivonina.

“Music may not be able to take away the horror of a traumatic stressor, intrusion symptom or moral injury, but through work with music, soldiers may express their felings in nonverbal ways, and exercise their emotions in healthy ways, that may ultimately reduce these effects. The experience of playing music can profoundly affect negative alterations in mood, frequently joyfully over-ride avoidance symptoms and often foster healthier reactivity,” Osborne notes.

Course objectives

To create a generation of practitioners who can work confidently, ethically, and effectively at the intersection of music, trauma recovery, and rehabilitation—bridging artistic practice with neurobiological understanding and trauma-informed care.

The course integrates three interconnected streams: neuroscientific, trauma-Informed, and practical-Musical. This integration ensures that participants understand why an intervention works, how to implement it safely, and what musical skills are required.

Graduates will be equipped to:

Design and facilitate trauma-attuned music sessions in clinical and community settings
Understand and respond to the neurobiological states of traumatised individuals
Use rhythm, songwriting, and group music-making as tools for rehabilitation
Work collaboratively within multi-disciplinary teams (psychologists, medics, physiotherapists)
Adapt methodologies to different cultural contexts and populations
Practice with ethical sensitivity and self-awareness

Course Curriculum

The programme begins with two months dedicated to foundational knowledge, introducing participants to the theory of trauma, its historical context, and the core symptoms of PTSD, alongside an exploration of the relationship between music and the body. The lectures cover diagnostic frameworks, the bio-psycho-social model, communication through music, and the impact of music on the autonomic nervous system, breathing, and movement. In parallel, practical sessions focus on developing skills in facilitating simple, inclusive rhythmic activities and drum circles, as well as creating safe, supportive environments for exploring the connection between music and emotional experience.

The next two months move into a deeper exploration of the psychological and social dimensions of musical practice. Participants examine how music influences memory, attention, social communication, self-confidence, and identity formation. Particular attention is given to trauma-informed approaches, including principles of safety, engagement, and empowerment, as well as working with moral injury. Practical work includes facilitating songwriting processes and adapting familiar melodies for group performance contexts.

The final two months focus on the integration of different art forms within rehabilitation practices and on the development of participants’ own projects. Participants are supported in designing their own musical intervention concepts, presenting them in group settings, and receiving structured feedback.

Team

Nigel Osborne is a composer, art therapist, and expert in using music and art to support children traumatized by military conflicts. This method was developed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) and later implemented in the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, East Africa, South-West Asia, and India.

For his work with Bosnian children during the siege of Sarajevo, Nigel Osborne was awarded the Freedom Prize of the Peace Institute. He also worked with the Committee for the Protection of Workers in Poland (1970-1989), the Civic Forum, and the Jazz Section alongside Václav Havel in former Czechoslovakia (1987-1989), and in organizations supporting Syrian refugees. From 2012 to 2014, Nigel Osborne served as co-chair of the Global Agenda Council on Arts in Society for the World Economic Forum.

Currently, Nigel works in Lviv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kropyvnytskyi with children in shelters, hospitals, and those from de-occupied territories.

Maryna Sliot is a musician, psychologist, certified music therapist (educational project USP and Vienna Institute of Music Therapy 2018-2022), lecturer, and psychologist in our project.

Maryna is a participant in numerous charitable projects and a speaker at international conferences, including the Conference for Speech Therapists and Related Professionals (2019, Odesa) and the Secrets of Music Pedagogy (2019-2023). She was a co-trainer for the seminar “Orff Approach in Working with Children with Special Needs” (2019, Mariupol).

Maryna is also a trainer for international Erasmus+ projects and a specialist at the NGO “Confidence Center for Psychological Assistance,” which implements projects to support families with children with special needs, families raising children in foster care, foster parents, guardians, internally displaced persons, as well as specialists from inclusive resource centers, rehabilitation centers, social services, and more.

Veronika Ivonina is a musician and a student at the I. P. Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts. She is a mentee of Nigel Osborne and a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship for Young Artists.

The educational programme is being implemented in collaboration between Art Therapy Force, UNBROKEN, INSO-Lviv, the Homin Centre, and the Centre for Assistance to Ukrainians who have survived captivity, torture, and moral injury as a result of the war.