In the fifth year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, families continue to live with prolonged danger, uncertainty, and disruption to everyday life. For neurodivergent adolescents and young adults, air raid sirens, explosions, changing routines, restricted movement, and reduced access to school and social life can create additional sensory and emotional challenges. Parents and caregivers experience these same conditions while also providing stability and support for their children.

Joy of Movement / Movement Collage brings together psychotherapy and creative movement practice to work with mothers and their neurodivergent adolescent and young adult children living under these conditions. The project is a collaboration between psychotherapists Galina Itskovich and Tetiana Tsukanova and dance artists Beth Graczyk and Iryna Kifa, integrating therapeutic approaches to co-regulation and sensory awareness with embodied and artistic research.

Through guided touch, structured movement, voice, imagery, sensory exploration, and imaginative play, mothers and their children explore ways of connecting, communicating, and creating together. The practices are developed collaboratively by the psychotherapists and dance artists, with attention to psychological and physical safety while making space for experimentation, joy, and artistic expression. Families develop embodied practices for connection, co-regulation, and stress relief that they can continue to use together beyond the workshops.

Alongside this therapeutic practice, participants take part in Movement Collage, a participatory dance-making process developed by Beth Graczyk. Participants create gestures and movement phrases in response to prompts around connection, love, hope, resilience, strength, care, and belonging. Mothers, young people, artists, and therapists then assemble these contributions into a short collective dance created and named by each group.

Each movement collage becomes an artistic work and a record of a shared experience. The dances will travel between participating communities in Ukraine and the United States, where others will learn and embody the gestures. We are interested in what happens when one person’s movement is carried by another body, and how lived experience can be communicated across language, geography, and sensory difference.

In May 2027, the team plans to gather with participating families in Ukraine for a series of in-person workshops, bringing together these two interconnected aspects of the project: developing embodied practices that families can carry into their daily lives, and creating movement collages that can be shared across communities.

The project will culminate in a documentary film edited by Emmy Award-winning Hanne Vaughn, tracing the creation, sharing, teaching, and learning of these movement collages. The film will include the original creators, reflections on the movements and their associated stories, and exchanges between communities in Ukraine and the United States. Shared with participants and partner organizations, the film and dances will become living archives of connection, care, resilience, and community.

Why Beth Graczyk Productions?

BGP supports projects at the intersection of art, health, and science while centering neurodivergent voices. This project reflects our commitment to exchange, dialogue, and artistic exploration through movement. Alongside offering embodied tools for connection and co-regulation, it creates opportunities for participants to express and share lived experiences through the body, within communities in Ukraine, the United States, and beyond.

Support

As we begin this project, we are excited to share that we received our first grant from the Chabot Family Foundation. Thank you also to everyone who joined us for the benefit performance by Rustem Galich, curated by Galina Itskovich at Forte Piano in Paramus, NJ, on August 30, 2026.

So far, we have raised $4,437 of our $10,000 goal, with just $5,563 left to raise for this first phase of the project, culminating in Ukraine in May 2027.

Donate: HERE

Collaborator Biographies

Galina Itskovich, LCSW-R (New York, USA) is a practicing psychotherapist, educator and supervisor. Areas of expertise include psychiatric disorders, disaster mental health, issues of early childhood/attachment and developmental disorders. She served as a training leader and a clinical consultant at International Council for Development and Learning, authored 10+ professional articles, and currently serves on the editorial board of Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal.She directs and coordinates “On The Move”, a project through New York’s Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. “Psychology Today” referred to this project as “a poignant reminder of the power of compassion and innovation in the face of adversity... This initiative not only provides immediate relief but also sets a precedent for how therapists and educators can extend their support across borders and crises, using technology to bridge the vast gaps created by war. “ Special Needs Children in Ukraine Need Special Help | Psychology Today

Beth Graczyk, (New York, USA), Bio

Tetiana Tsukanova (Ukraine) is a psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, registered psychotherapist, and training co-trainer with the Ukrainian Umbrella Association of Psychotherapy (UUAP). She has over 20 years of professional experience and practices Katathym Imaginative Psychotherapy (KIP) and trauma-focused psychotherapy. She is Head of the Mykolaiv Branch of the Ukrainian Umbrella Association of Psychotherapy and a coordinator of training programs for psychologists. Tetiana has many years of experience working with children and families, including neurodivergent children and children with sensory processing, developmental, and communication differences. Since 2022, she has facilitated a psychological support group for families with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in frontline regions of Ukraine. Her main areas of professional expertise include psychological and complex trauma, the psychological consequences of war, ambiguous loss and grief, and sexual and gender-based violence. She has extensive experience providing psychological support to military personnel, veterans and their families, women whose loved ones are missing, and war-affected adults and children.
She provides individual and group psychotherapy as well as supervision for psychologists and other helping professionals.

Iryna Kifa (Ukraine) is a theatre director, choreographer, performer and creative producer with over 15 years of experience in theatre, dance and performance. Her practice combines physical theatre, movement, choreography and storytelling, with a particular interest in embodied expression and cross-cultural collaboration. She has worked internationally across Ukraine, Europe and Asia, collaborating with artists and organisations including Aerowaves, British Council, Candoco Dance Company and international creative teams. Iryna has directed and produced interdisciplinary performances, created original choreographies and led movement workshops for diverse communities. Her work explores the relationship between body, identity, story and space, creating performance experiences that are both physically expressive and emotionally resonant.