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A Russian-speaking psychotherapist at the Jewish Social Services Agency of Los Angeles helps immigrants from the post-Soviet space.
Residents of Los Angeles County, California, are offered the opportunity to benefit from Jewish Family Service LA, a leading Jewish social services agency, where a team of professionals supports people who are experiencing anxiety, depression, change, and uncertainty in their lives. Help is available at offices throughout the county or in the comfort of their own homes via telehealth.
Among the social workers at JFSLA, there are also Russian-speaking professionals. Slavic Sacramento correspondent Vitaly Atayev-Troshin managed to talk to one of them, licensed marriage and family therapist Katerina Ryndenkova. Katerina has been working at the agency for 2 years now, and she received a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. Her client Yulia, who continues to use services at one of the centers and has almost completely overcome her depression, was with her at the meeting. A couple of years ago, Yulia fled to California from Ukraine and was able to find a solution to her problems thanks to a Russian-speaking worker at JFSLA.
Despite the fact that the psychotherapist herself had once left Russia, the girls had no disagreements regarding the situation around the unprovoked war in Ukraine. It was important for Yulia to learn Katya’s clearly expressed anti-war position, and this gave her more confidence that they would succeed.
Yulia looks like a stunning and cheerful woman, despite what she experienced in her hometown of Zaporizhia. Two days before the war, she was diagnosed with cancer, and she was denied surgery due to the military actions that were going on at that time 30 kilometers from her home. Feeling helpless and afraid of losing her life, the Ukrainian made a difficult decision to go to a foreign country. At first, Yulia flew to Spain, but then learned that the United States began accepting compatriots under the Humanitarian Password program (Uniting for Ukraine). She did not think twice and flew to the Mexican border city of Tijuana to cross into the United States.
Long journeys took a heavy toll on the refugee. In the new country, Yulia’s only support was her own daughter, who at that time was already living in California. At first, Yulia burst into tears and was frightened by the difficulties that fell on her shoulders. Of course, she was worried about the situation in her homeland, which continues to suffer from military aggression from Russia – Yulia left her house with her husband and pets in Ukraine.
But her life changed dramatically as soon as she got an appointment with Ekaterina from Jewish Family Service LA. True, she had to wait for an appointment for about 4 months due to the workload of the Russian-speaking specialist. All this time she was on antidepressants and coping with a serious illness. She was able to undergo surgery in one of the best multidisciplinary research academic medical centers in the world in Cedars-Sinai, located in Los Angeles.
Yulia noted that she was ready to work with a translator, but this is not always applicable in such conversations. And, according to her, it was important to find contact in her native language, she needed the person to express himself in phrases and expressions that were understandable to her.
When she came to Katerina for an appointment, she immediately felt understanding and sympathy. The specialist was able to get to the bottom of the psychological problems that had settled in Yulia since her youth. As it turned out, the Ukrainian woman’s brain blocked part of her memory – several years from her past life, which were the most traumatic.
Despite the fact that the refugee came to her own daughter, she was unable to help her mother cope with her emotions. Everything began to normalize for Yulia during long-awaited therapeutic meetings with Ekaterina.
Yulia told how she once got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the psychotherapist’s office and was upset that she might miss the meeting. When Yulia called the agency and reported the traffic jams, she was offered to use the service via video communication. The most important thing is that Ekaterina has special noise-protection devices installed in her office, which protect against any information leakage; the therapy is strictly confidential.
During the conversation, psychotherapist Katerina noted that she is not always ready to take on all clients, because there are those who are not ready to fight their internal beliefs and attitudes. Rarely, but some clients are absolutely not ready for therapy, mostly they want to change their loved ones, but not themselves. They see problems in others or come just to “gossip about life” without delving into the subconscious and their emotions. Therapy is not indicated for such clients.
The Russian-speaking specialist noted that many people from Russia and Ukraine turn to her for professional help, who have a lot of trauma, especially due to recent events. But there are also clients who confuse physical health with stagnant emotional deviations. Katerina emphasized that it is important to consciously come to a psychotherapist with a desire to work on yourself.
In the conversation, both Yulia and Katerina agreed that those who want to get rid of emotional problems should remember about life, which quickly passes, stop living in the past, and see the present around them, have a positive attitude towards themselves, towards finding themselves in sunny California.
Jewish Family Service LA helps to fight feelings of sadness, depression, oppression, irritability and even anger at others. The center’s specialists are ready to help their clients get rid of anxiety, panic or excessive worries about any reason.
JFS services are available to Medi-Cal or Medi Care recipients and are available in English, Spanish, Russian, and other languages. For more information, please contact the providers themselves.
