Shared Trauma and Professional Resilience: Qualitative Findings from a Mind–Body Intervention for Ukrainian Mental Health Providers

Background and Purpose:
Mental health providers in Ukraine are delivering care while living under the same ongoing war conditions as the clients they serve. This shared traumatic reality places providers at heightened risk for compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and broader psychological distress. Although these occupational and emotional burdens are increasingly recognized, less is known about interventions that may support resilience and professional functioning among Ukrainian mental health providers working under prolonged wartime conditions. This study examined qualitative findings on how Ukrainian mental health providers with elevated distress experienced an 8-week Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Mind–Body Skills Group (MBSG) intervention.

Methods:
This qualitative study was nested within a larger mixed-methods project on compassion fatigue, burnout, distress, and resilience among mental health providers in Ukraine during the ongoing war. Participants were selected from a larger survey if they scored above cutoff thresholds on measures of professional and psychological distress, including the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and agreed to follow-up contact. Qualitative findings were drawn from six focus groups with Ukrainian mental health providers who completed the 8-week online MBSG intervention. Data were collected via videoconference and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore experiences of shared trauma, occupational strain, and the perceived impact of the intervention on coping and professional functioning.

Results:
Findings suggest that participants experienced the intervention as both a personally restorative and professionally sustaining form of support under wartime strain. Several themes were especially salient: the stabilizing value of weekly structure and predictability; the importance of a safe, nonjudgmental group space in which providers could step out of professional roles and speak as people living through war; the grounding effects of simple, repeatable mind–body practices such as soft-belly breathing, movement, guided imagery, and mindful eating; and the role of group connection in reducing isolation and strengthening solidarity. Participants also described improved emotional regulation, clearer boundaries, reduced reactivity to clients’ trauma narratives and war-related triggers, and greater capacity to remain present in both clinical work and personal relationships. Overall, the intervention was experienced not only as a self-care resource, but also as a way of restoring professional steadiness under chronic shared trauma.

Conclusions and Implications:
These findings suggest that structured mind–body group interventions may offer a feasible and meaningful support strategy for Ukrainian mental health providers working under ongoing war conditions. Beyond symptom relief, the CMBM model may strengthen self-regulation, relational safety, professional boundaries, and collective resilience. This study contributes qualitative evidence for the value of trauma-informed, scalable, and context-responsive interventions to support the mental health workforce in Ukraine.