Kintsugi: the art of restoration and inner strength
As part of the psychological support project for veterans and their families, the NGO “Veterans’ Wives” held an event dedicated to the theme of kintsugi — a special technique of restoring ceramics that does not hide cracks but highlights them with gold. The very word “kintsugi” translates as “golden seam” or “golden patch.” This philosophy is about acceptance: what is broken is not discarded but carefully restored, giving it new value.
For veterans and their family members, this theme has deep meaning. War leaves marks — in the heart, in memories, in everyday life. Kintsugi helps to see that experienced trauma does not make a person weaker. On the contrary, it becomes part of their strength, experience, and unique story. It is important not to silence pain, but to learn to live with it, supporting one another within the family.
Psychologist Serhii Usenko noted: “The kintsugi metaphor is very close to psychological work with veterans. We do not erase traumatic experience, but integrate it into a person’s life. When a person accepts their ‘cracks,’ they stop fighting themselves and begin to heal. This provides inner support and hope.”
This event became another step toward understanding that the path of recovery is not a return to the past, but the creation of a new state of wholeness. And even through cracks, gold can flow.
The project is implemented with the support of the KSE Foundation — the charitable foundation of the Kyiv School of Economics.
With support GO “Wives of Veterans”
