Rostyslav Prokopjuk Speaks at “Invisible Trauma” Conference at Lviv University
The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv hosted the 2nd International Scientific and Practical Conference “Invisible Trauma: National Practice and International Experience in Recovery.” Among the invited guests was Rostyslav Prokopjuk, Director of the Ukrainian Institute in Prague, who delivered a speech and presented his musical-poetic confession “Coffee Is Drunk by the Living.”
Conference Brings Together Specialists from Ukraine and Abroad
The event was organized by the Department of Special Education of the Faculty of Pedagogical Education at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and the NGO “Ukrainian Centre for Security Psychology.” The conference brought together scholars, psychologists, physicians, speech therapists, military psychologists, chaplains, representatives of civil society organizations, lecturers, and students from across Ukraine, as well as guests from abroad, including from the Ukrainian Institute in Prague.
The conference had a pronounced interdisciplinary character: participants discussed psychological, medical, social, pedagogical, and spiritual dimensions of invisible trauma. Such integration is essential for effective support of individuals. Today, Ukrainian psychological science requires maximum consolidation, inter-departmental cooperation, and a shared search for solutions to questions of societal mental health.
Rostyslav Prokopjuk’s Address: “There Are No Hopeless People and No Hopeless Situations”
In his address, Rostyslav Prokopjuk — who, as we have previously reported, has spent 34 years working in the Czech Republic on issues of addiction — drew on his experience of working with veterans. He recounted a 2018 meeting with soldiers returned from Russian captivity and discussed the specific challenges of psychological work in a wartime context.
“Invisible trauma is something that cannot always be seen or heard. It is a trauma without words, without a voice — one that does not shout, does not ask, but simply smoulders quietly in a corner of the soul,” said Prokopjuk. In his view, when a person responds “Everything is fine,” this is not the absence of a problem but an internal defence mechanism — one that a psychologist must look beyond to understand the person’s true state.
He cautioned against “Patroclus syndrome” — the feeling of guilt for failing to protect another — and called on specialists to give veterans hope for recovery. “There are no hopeless people and no hopeless situations. There is only our indifference or our desire to help,” he stressed.
“Coffee Is Drunk by the Living”: A Solo Performance to Close the Conference
The conference concluded on an artistic note with the musical-poetic confession “Coffee Is Drunk by the Living,” performed by Rostyslav Prokopjuk alongside violinist Oksana Kvasinska and pianist Matviy Kaminechny. The event was supported by the Ukrainian Institute in Prague and the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation.
Following the performance, grateful audience members and organizers presented Rostyslav Prokopjuk with their books and an embroidered vyshyvanka. The conference once again demonstrated that the Department of Special Education at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is capable of creating a powerful scientific and practical space in which contemporary ideas and real prospects for helping people are born.
