psychologist’s case with the children’s toys is taken from the experience of the
volunteer psychologists who worked in the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone.
In order to develop psychological competence in volunteers so that they will be
able to provide psychological support for witnesses in the court involves the following
aspects:
1. Acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities to provide psychological support to
reduce anxiety in witnesses in the court.
2. Acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities to provide psychological support to
reduce level of fear to provide testimony in witnesses in the court.
3. Acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities to provide psychological support in
the situation of emotional changes in witnesses like fear, apathy, stupor, excitement,
aggression, nervous shaking, cry, hysterics, panic attacks.
After the completion of the psychological and legal training students-volunteers
have to start attending court hearings. After week of the volunteering activity in the
court or more often depending on the situations taking place in the court, the
psychological activity is going to be performed in the feedback groups. The goal to
create feedback groups is to conduct psychological analysis of the specifics of
volunteer activities in the court.
The feedback groups give an opportunity for the volunteers to: receive the support
from other volunteers; to do the self-analysis of our own and other volunteers’s
activities; self-reflect on your own emotions, stress that can be accumulated while
working in the court; better understand yourself, your emotions and other people.
Material and Methods. Participants. 30 students majoring in Legal studies in
Lviv National Polytechnic University participated in the research and were trained for
the volunteer project to work in the court.
Organization of the Research. This article presents the research results on
efficiency of cognitive behavioral approach implementation in working with students
that are undergoing the preparation training for volunteer activity in the court. The
psychological work was conducted in the groups of 8 to 10 people. The implementation
results of one of the exercises are presented below. The exercise objective is lowering
the anxiety level, and emotional worry in students at the beginning of the volunteer
activity. The exercise also has diagnostic meaning, in particular, it provides an
opportunity to improve the students’ attitude towards themselves and others, indentify
the preparedness level for volunteer work in the court.
To determine the effectiveness level of the exercise at the beginning and the end
of the exercise the students’ anxiety level was measured (due to their subjective
assessment of their own state). The difference in results received at the beginning and
the end of the exercise indicate its effectiveness level.
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