Working at the intersection of creative movement practice and psychotherapy, this project brings together Ukrainian-born NYC-based clinical social worker, therapist, and poet Galina Itskovich and movement artist Beth Graczyk to develop interdisciplinary practices informed by therapeutic care and embodied movement research for mothers and their neurodivergent adolescent and young adult children in partnership with schools and community centers in Ukraine.

Through guided touch practices, structured movement explorations, and imaginative physical play, participants will learn embodied tools for co-regulation, connection, and stress relief. Centering sensory awareness and relational attunement, the workshops offer accessible practices that support nervous system regulation.

Working onsite with groups with whom Galina has established relationships, in different regions of Ukraine, we will facilitate a series of workshops for mothers and their children, followed by a larger public gathering to expand dialogue around sensory difference and neurodivergence within the broader community. Additional collaborators in Ukraine include psychotherapist Tetiana Tsukanova and dance artist Iryna Kifa, who will contribute their own expertise and approaches as facilitators.

A central component of the project is Movement Collage Exchange, a participatory dance-making practice developed by Beth Graczyk. Through prompts centered on connection, love, hope, resilience, strength, perseverance, care, and belonging, each participant contributes a gesture or movement phrase of their own creation.

Together, mothers, adolescents, and facilitators sequence these gestures into a shared movement collage, a one- to two-minute dance that reflects the identities, experiences, and relationships present within the group at that moment. Each dance is collectively named, documented, and preserved.

Each group will create its own movement collage. These dances will be shared across participating communities in Ukraine and the United States through in-person exchanges and video documentation. We are interested in how bodies can share across space and time, carrying gestures that emerge from lived experience and unique sensory needs of each individual participant.

Participants, facilitators, dancers, and community members will learn and embody dances created by other groups. We are interested in the courage it takes to try on another person's gesture, to feel it in your own body, to discover what it evokes, and to carry it forward. Through this process, the project amplifies the artistic expressions of mothers and neurodivergent youth while creating an exchange of gestures and stores beyond language.

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, associated stories and language, and exchanges between communities in Ukraine and the United States.

Shared with participants and partner organizations, the film and dances become living archives of connection, care, resilience, and community.

Why Beth Graczyk Productions?

BGP supports projects that intersect art, health, and science while centering neurodivergent voices. We believe this project aligns with our commitment to exchange, dialogue, and artistic exploration through movement. It creates opportunities to share stories through the body. Alongside offering tools for connection and co-regulation, the project creates an artistic expression that can be shared within communities in Ukraine, the United States, and beyond.

Support

As we begin this project, we are pleased to share that we have received our first grant from the Chabot Family Foundation.

Collaborator Biography

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