Migdal started its new Manifest of Life Program in response to the war in Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022. This program was created to provide psychological and mental help support through phototherapy to people traumatized by war. The term “phototherapy” first appeared in 1970 in the USA and Canada, when psychotherapists began to use photographs as psychological counseling tools. Today it became a very popular type of art therapy.
Photography is used to get to know oneself, one’s feelings, to prevent depressive states and eliminate fears. The war in Ukraine brought pain and shock, loss and grief, fear and uncertainty. The war affected everyone and has already left its mark on every sphere of life. That is why the benefit of phototherapy for human psychological health does not require special evidence. This method of art therapy helps:
- to feel one’s significance and strength;
- to acquire the technique of controlling the external world and learn to notice what is happening around;
- increase self-confidence;
- understand your inner world in the conditions of daily changes;
- eliminate anxious thoughts, fears, depressive states;
- relieve nervous tension;
- distract yourself and improve relationships with loved ones.
War brings a lot of grief, and quite naturally, it causes negative thoughts and feelings about deep meanings – is it worth living if tomorrow you can lose everything? What is the meaning of life? During times of war, we can get into really dark parts of our souls. Then the world around dims. This is how apathy begins to show itself. As an antidote, phototherapy provides emotional warmth, restores strength, reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation, and allows you to see the light at the end of the tunnel and share it with others.
- Phototherapy turns on sensory sensations – sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch – thereby giving us back the taste of life.
- A phototherapy session helps to heal irrational feelings such as shame or guilt through awareness and giving you tools to live with them.
- Phototherapy will remind you of the value of living with taste through the prism of personal beauty. Beauty in difficult conditions is a way to affirm the triumph of life over death and grief, aesthetics over destruction, good over evil. You will see how your inner beauty becomes the most emotional and perfect expression of life itself as the most valuable thing we have. Beauty and caring for the psycho-emotional state can be an invitation to yourself and others to appreciate life. Its fragility does not negate its meaning, on the contrary, it makes it even more precious and worth smiling and finding what we live for. Your personal beauty, which you will see in the photos, will be another way to fill yourself with life-affirming meaning.
The Weiner family from Kherson was the first family, which took part in the Manifest of Life Program. They evacuated from Kherson in April 2022, but their hearts are still in their hometown, where their close people and favorite things had remained. The war put their lives in the bright suitcases, with which they moved to the relatively safe Odesa, to the Jewish community, to an unfamiliar but warm and open environment. Of course, this new life will not replace what they left in Kherson, but everyone who meets this smiling and beautiful family on their new path puts in a little bit of support until it’s time to go back home: a smile, an advice, a hope …
They take what they need and give what they can. They are family, and family provides support. Personal beauty, which you will see in these photos will be another way to fill yourself with life-affirming meaning. We invite all who is in need of psychological and mental support to join our program!
