About 18 months after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Olha Podvalna decided she needed to leave. She was living in the country's Eastern area, which was deeply affected by the conflict.
She fled to Portugal though it wasn’t easy being so far away from loved ones and the tragic events unfolding in her country. “It felt like a betrayal, almost,” she says.
But Podvalna, a psychologist who specializes in trauma therapy, found a way to provide meaningful help from afar. During the initial days of the war, she and some peers in the field partnered with web developers to create a website to connect with those impacted by the conflict. They recruited 100 therapists to offer free online therapy sessions to war crime victims. By 2023, free sessions had been provided to 1000 people. “It felt like a contribution,” she says.
In conducting online therapy, Podvalna was surprised by the number of people she encountered who wanted sessions provided in their second rather than native language. She says the result is a simplification of language and the overall process. “It takes therapy into a totally different place,” she says.
Now a graduate student at UMD, Podvalna is expanding her knowledge with the Master of Arts in Psychological Science (MAPS) program. She received a highly-regarded Fulbright fellowship to support her studies.
In choosing from four master’s degree programs, she appreciated the conversational rather than interrogative approach taken by faculty in the MAPS program. “Something clicked with me when talking with them … It’s always about people for me,” she explains, adding that the program had a “coziness” that appealed to her.
Lake Superior was also a draw for Podvalna. “I love living near water,” she says, noting that she lived near the Dnieper River in Ukraine. In Portugal, she lived on the oceanfront.
Associate Professor Catherine Reich serves as Podvalna’s mentor. “Her lived experience in Ukraine during the war and her motivation to serve war survivors is sure to bring depth to our psychology classroom discussions and to her scientific research,” Reich says.
Novel experiences and opportunities
Podvalna arrived in Duluth in August. She has traveled to 30 different countries but has never experienced the same degree of culture shock as she did here. Having lived and traveled mainly in larger cities, she was shocked by the absence of people.
She has also been surprised by the large coffee portions in the United States, a discovery that relates to her primary research interest, which is insomnia. She’s specifically interested in paradoxical insomnia, where people report sleeping very little, yet their sleep studies show adequate rest.
Podvalna wonders how ongoing trauma in Ukraine is impacting people’s sleep. She’s also generally interested in investigating best practices to improve sleep. At UMD, she hopes to “explore new techniques and devices for sleep. This is not getting a lot of attention and it’s worth exploring,” she says.
Countless gadgets on the market promise to help people sleep, such as smart alarms, sound machines, apps, earbuds for sleeping and wearable sensors that provide a “sleep score.” But Podvalna points out that some of these devices may be helpful, and some may be fun but others may be useless.
Reich enjoys helping students “pinpoint their passion” for a topic when mentoring. In their early discussions, Olha highlighted her experience in Ukraine. “She and her loved ones receive air raid phone alerts and she noted the impact of this on sleep and daily functioning,” Reich says. “As we dug deeper into sleep literature, it became clear that Olha is highly motivated to learn more about insomnia. It has been rewarding seeing her come more into her own in that way.”
Though Podvalna is excited to have the chance to learn about research best practices through the MAPS program, she also describes herself as a practitioner. Her work needs to have practical applications. “In my core, I’m not a researcher. I’m interested in actually talking to people and delivering interventions,” she says.
Right now, Podvalna is grateful for the opportunity to learn at UMD. She appreciates the growth that happens when living in a new country and working with a new mentor.
When asked about her hopes for the future, she wishes for “Peace. For every single one of us.” For herself, she hopes to maintain “peace within myself and an energy for exploring new things.”