“Not Alone in the Trauma” … The Restorative Power of Collective Thinking and Sense-Making Through Socioanalytic Methodologies Held Online in Disturbed Times

This article describes an action research project concerning three workshops, each using a different socioanalytic methodology, which were held shortly after the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian conflict in 2022. The participants were mostly native Russian speakers. The three methods were social photo-matrix, social dream-drawing, and social dreaming matrix. The goal of our research is to understand from these participants how and in what way their participation in these workshops helped them cope with the deeply unsettling experiences associated with this and subsequent world events. Our major overall finding, based on follow-up interviews, was the power and value of the group experience. Due to the realities of long distances between participants, all workshops were held online. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, participants found themselves better able to face and to bear the anxieties and deeply held concerns they were experiencing. These workshops will be described in detail, including our research findings on the value of these experiences. The article will conclude with further thoughts on the use and impact of these methods.