Clinician Karolina Treats a Woman Held in a Basement by Russian Captors

ACHF President Lena Denman, who interviewed Clinician Karolina 

Karolina works at Shevchenko University. She also has a private practice, active duty military she takes for free. Clinical psychologist and but working with psychiatrist recommend her patients. All of her patients are adults over 18 years of age. Her clients have Post Truamatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) issues, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Karolina reported in July 2024, that she had the opportunity to work with 2 patients using the prolonged exposure mental health intervention to treat patients who have PTSD. With 2 patients, one was military, and the other was captured by Russians at around March, 2022. A woman who was in Russian captivity.  The woman 37 years old and married and was living together with her military husband. The area where they lived was near occupied territory on the outskirts of Kyiv. They saw fighting and went to the basement as their building was blocked. In the morning the door of the basement was opened, and the Russians were armed with guns. They asked everyone to give up their money and mobiles. They took the women’s purses, and they asked the men to strip to their underwear. The woman was worried about her husband. There was another woman in the basement with her who was pregnant. The woman who was the patient has previously had three miscarriages around the 6-month mark. This was upsetting to her that they might kill the pregnant woman and so she started crying uncontrollably.

 In one week, they realized that they could run out because they no longer saw Russians outside. They ran through the forest in the winter to escape and were able to find safety in Kyiv. It took days to reach Kyiv, but finally she was able to reach safety.  Now, much later her gynecologist proposed she try to become pregnant again. She started to feel worse after this time with panic attacks, with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder and PTSD.

 For the past 2 years the woman has been renting a place in Kyiv, but she needed to process the emotional trauma she felt. She could not go inside the apartment which had previously been occupied by Russians, which was the site of her captivity, because it would upset her so very much. Russians stole every expensive item in the woman’s apartment. They made a mess of the place and the woman had to spend a lot time and money to fix her apartment.

 Karolina asked the woman questions and determined that she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Even stress at work brought her back to difficult memories from her time in Russian captivity. Karolina proposed to use prolonged exposure, the technique she learned at our training seminar in May of 2024. Prolonged exposure was Karolina’s recommended course of treatment, because the patient cannot be on antidepressants. The woman cannot go back to her apartment even post renovations because of the traumatic memories. But now, the woman is able to visit, and Karolina hopes that the woman will be able to live in the apartment again. The woman has started to demonstrate progress in her emotional healing. Karolina said this was demonstrated by the fact that the woman started to buy nice items for her renovated apartment.

The woman’s husband is a soldier serving on the frontline presently. It may be difficult for the woman to live in the home where she endured captivity in the basement from Russians, when her husband is not present with her because he must serve in the military. The woman is collecting money to get the medical care needed to become pregnant. She would save money for renting if she went back to her previous apartment where she endured trauma. Near her apartment her husband’s parents live there and they are old needing care.