There are specialists in the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine who help soldiers go through difficult life situations and find the strength to move on. These are military psychologists. They have to work with the mobilized and form a base for psychological stability in them. The psychologist works directly on the front line, and provides psychological rehabilitation to those returning from the combat zone. Is it even possible to prepare for extreme situations? Yes, it is quite real.

Psychologists help to learn emotional self-regulation. They make a military team out of civilians. Psychologists participate in the combat coordination of personnel, identifying outsiders, leaders, informal leaders. The commander must know with whom he will go into battle. Therefore, he needs a specialist assessment. A psychologist is also a military man, a combat unit.

A psychologist teaches how to communicate with relatives. During active hostilities, excessive attention can harm a serviceman. Relatives should dose communication. They will not help, but only will raise emotional tension.

The return of servicemen after combat operations is called decompression. This is a program of recovery, psychological rehabilitation. The soldier is not immediately sent home. They need to be switched from a state of war to a state of peace, so that they do not bring negative experiences, increased observation, suspicion into the family, so that they do not bring war into their families. The level of traumatization is assessed.

There are people who need to be additionally sent to psychological rehabilitation, perhaps some to medical as well. Sometimes these types are combined. Then special institutions deal with recovering. It is much easier to recover physically than emotionally. A psychologist organizes a debriefing, where soldiers work through negativity and close it with positive emotions. Only after undergoing decompression, fighters can return to their families.

How will the military adapt when the war is over? It is clear that consciousness will not return until February 2022. Given the psychological trauma of war and the collective trauma of society in general, military psychologists will unfortunately have a lot of work to do.