Women’s Leadership in Trauma-Informed Art

An educational project for young professionals at the intersection of art and health.

The project ran from March to July 2025 and focused on supporting women’s leadership and promoting trauma-informed art practices in different cities across Ukraine.

As part of the project, ten young cultural professionals received training in trauma-informed art, gaining new skills and tools that they can apply to help restore their communities, advancing art as a means of psycho-emotional recovery, social change, and cultural development.

“The practice of creative arts provides in itself a context for social cohesion, particularly in relation to socialisation, communication, empathy, social identity, mutual respect, self-respect and synchronisation. These are some of the same qualities that make creative arts effective in caring for victims of trauma. In the act of caring for victims of trauma we also enhance social cohesion in societies broken by war. The project is intended to foster these skills and capacities among young women, within this benign circle of intervention, and alongside related developments in arts medicine,” says Nigel Osborne, the project’s founder and lead lecturer.

Participants: Anna Draganets, Valeria Liulko, Veronika Ivonina, Iryna Vodolazhchenko, Kateryna Momot, Natalia Shapovalova, Olena Pryhunkova, Sofia Obodyak, Yaroslava Demchenko, Alina Rashko.

Program

Over the course of three months, the project participants listened to recorded lectures by Nigel Osborne, Darren Abrahams, and Angela Kennedy, took part in feedback sessions with Nigel, and joined mentoring sessions with Angela.

They also met with members of Women in Conflict — a Beyond Borders Scotland initiative that provides scholarships to women from regions affected by armed conflict. These are mostly civic and cultural leaders working in peacebuilding, humanitarian response, and post-conflict recovery. Since 2017, the project has supported 364 fellows from 40 countries worldwide.

Community members shared their initiatives implemented in Kashmir, Syria, India, Pakistan, and Yemen, while our participants spoke about their experiences supporting those affected by the war in Ukraine.

At the end of the program, participants carried out their own mini-projects — art therapy sessions using music, drawing, and theater exercises. These took place in Lviv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Odesa. Among them were music therapy with children and teenagers with Down syndrome in Ivano-Frankivsk, art therapy sessions with children at Kharkiv Multidisciplinary Hospital No. 25, and work with the wives of servicemen, among others.

As part of the project, Veronika Skliarova, founder of NGO Art Dot and head of Art Therapy Force, visited Edinburgh, where she met with representatives of local authorities and international institutions, including Dr Amy McNeese-Mechan, Co-Chair of City of Edinburgh Culture and Communities Committee; Robert Palmer, Culture advisor to UNESCO, British Council, EU; Jennifer Johnston-Watt of Historic Environment Scotland; and Emma McLean, lecturer in music therapy at Queen Margaret University.

In August, one of the participants, Nataliia Shapovalova, took part in the Beyond Borders Festival. Together with Nigel Osborne, she presented the project’s outcomes and hosted “The Ukrainian Odyssey” — a musical journey through different regions of Ukraine.

“Along the walking route, we tried to find landscapes that resembled the Carpathians, the Black Sea, and the steppes of Donbas, to create an atmosphere of immersion in Ukrainian nature. Another highlight of the festival was a meeting with teenagers and young people from a local school. We spoke about our projects, presented the Kids Art Retreat Project, screened the final video of Women’s Leadership in Trauma-Informed Arts, discussed working with trauma through art, and talked about the power of their voices in society,” says Nataliia Shapovalova.

Another opportunity to present the project’s results came during the School of Trauma-Informed Arts within Healing Arts Lviv. Participants Alina Rashko, Veronika Ivonina, Nataliia Shapovalova, and Olena Pryhunkova showcased their practices.

Lecturers

Nigel Osborne is a composer, art therapist, and expert in using music and art to support children traumatized by war. He developed his method during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) and later applied it in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, East Africa, Southwest Asia, and India.

He was also been awarded the Freedom Prize of the Peace Institute, Sarajevo, for his work for Bosnian children during the siege of the city. Osborne has worked actively in human rights initiatives, Workers’ Defence Committee in Poland (1970–1989), Citizens’ Forum and the Jazz Section with Václav Havel in former Czechoslovakia (1987–1989), for Syrian refugee support organisations. During the genocide Osborne worked directly for the Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

From 2012 until 2014, Osborne served as co-chair of the Global Agenda Committee for Arts in Society for the World Economic Forum.

Angela Kennedy is a consultant clinical psychologist who comes from senior leadership roles in the NHS and Integrated Care System. She has been at the forefront of developing Trauma Informed Approaches in the UK and immersed in system change and compassionate leadership developments.

Angela has worked in Mental Health since 1990 and works to evolve and adapt our processes to actively support the needs of people with trauma and adversity through healthy work based cultures, systems and leadership.

She has set up and run a growing network for TI ambassadors across the UK, delivered programmes of change and research and has been on the board of trauma charities.

Darren Abrahams is a singer, coach, trauma therapist and trainer working internationally to support changemaking leaders navigate crises while prioritising wellbeing.

Darren is co-founder of The Human Hive, a social enterprise with the ambition to train 8 million regenerative ChangeMakers by 2030. He is on the steering team of The Complete Freedom of Truth, an international youth-led project developing global youth citizenship through culture and the arts, and serves as a trainer and Wellbeing Adviser for Musicians Without Borders, where he trains musicians to use music for peacebuilding.

Darren is co-founder of the One World Orchestra, an inter-cultural ensemble of musicians based in the UK, exploring the idea of ‘Home’ through music. Additionally, he co-presents the Conscious Creative Leadership podcast with Nadine Benjamin MBE, discussing leadership in the 21st Century. Darren is an expert at helping people feel safe while bringing communities together for healing.

The project was implemented in partnership with Beyond Borders Scotland, with support from the British Council.

Beyond Borders Scotland is a non-profit organization based in Edinburgh, Scotland, dedicated to fostering international dialogue and cultural exchange. Founded by UN mediator Mark Muller Stuart, it runs diverse projects throughout the year, drawing on Scotland’s rich cultural and political heritage.

One of its flagship events is the Beyond Borders International Festival, which brings together participants from around the world to explore global issues and share cultural perspectives through exhibitions, panel discussions, and artistic performances.

Feedback

Veronika Ivonina

The project gave me the chance to reflect. How can I help even more, using not only music but also drawing? If I don’t have formal training as a music therapist, how should I identify myself? It was the project’s experts who helped me figure this out, and I am incredibly grateful to them.

Together with Nigel, we held a session at a children’s hospital and tried a new format of interaction for me — combining music and drawing. After that, I began holding such sessions every week. It was an extraordinary experience that I continue to use in my work.

The sessions with Angela helped me understand how I can define myself as a professional. Self-identification in this field is crucial, because it shapes the meaning and depth you bring to your work.

Excellent project management, the online exchange of experience with other participants, and the scholarship — which allowed me to focus on the creative process and explore interaction with children more deeply — all made a huge difference. But most importantly, the project created the possibility of connecting with like-minded people from different cities across Ukraine.

Iryna Vodolazhchenko

My journey in the project was like a drawing gradually coming to life. Working alongside experts from different countries was a unique experience that opened new horizons for me in art, psychology, and trauma sensitivity. This was a space where ideas came alive and turned into real projects.

These months were both a challenge and a gift — I not only learned new techniques, but also discovered new strength within myself, found inspiration, and connected with like-minded women from the Women in Conflict community.

I am grateful to Art Therapy Force, Beyond Borders Scotland, and the British Council for creating this unique space of growth and inspiration. I am especially thankful for the opportunity to work with such inspiring experts. Their collective support and way of guiding us — professional, ethical, and deeply humane — made this course not just a training, but a space of trust, empathy, and sensitive presence.

Anna Draganets

This project was a real revelation for me. A trauma-informed approach is not just a new tool in a psychologist’s practice, but a deep understanding of how past trauma shapes a person’s behavior, reactions, and inner world. The experience of participating in this project was very valuable, as the trauma work methods I learned during the lectures have become effective tools in my professional activity.

The teaching team shared not only knowledge, but also sincerity and support, which was incredibly meaningful to me.