A Logotherapy Retreat in the Carpathians
Authors: Nataliia Khmelova, Yevheniia Ivlieieva, Karina Skomorokhova
Nataliia Khmelova
The idea for the Logotherapy retreat was born in winter, when Yevheniia and I were recalling our trip to Finland and sharing our impressions. Yevheniia had become our guide on that trip at my invitation. I noticed her talent for sensitively shaping an itinerary and leading a group. This time, the suggestion that she take us into the mountains arose naturally. We thought not only about the programme but also about what people could manage. Not everyone is ready to set off on a demanding hike straight away, so the retreat was divided into two parts: a few days in Yaremche and an ascent to the Yavirnyk mountain meadow, with an overnight stay in the mountains. This gave everyone their own level of challenge.
A Logotherapy retreat differs from an ordinary retreat in that it brings together people for whom Logotherapy is more than a method: it is a way of looking at life and living it. Logotherapists, students, enthusiasts of the approach, and even people with no professional connection to psychology joined us. We created a space of renewal open to everyone seeking meaning and acceptance. Participants came from different cities in Ukraine and from abroad. I came from Canada, and our special guest was Vedrana Grgić from Croatia. Among ourselves, we call her ‘the soul of Logotherapy’. For Vedrana, travelling to the Carpathians was more than a professional event. The very decision to come was the first challenge and an act of courage, because Ukraine was already in the fourth year of the war unleashed by Russia, and nowhere here is completely safe. We even had to spend several nights in a shelter. Vedrana had also learned that Croats have Slavic roots and, in particular, origins in our lands, so in her words she had ‘touched something familiar’. In this way, we felt a unity between peoples.
The retreat began in a warm, relaxed atmosphere. We even celebrated my daughter’s seventh birthday together. Everyone gathered over tea and cake to congratulate our youngest participant, forming our first circle of togetherness.
On the second day, we held a small, family-like mini-conference: we gave one another symbolic gifts, exchanged warm words and hugged. During the therapeutic part of the gathering, Vedrana led an exercise that touched many people deeply: some cried, some were silent, but everyone went through something important.
A particular discovery was the workshop on aroma psychology led by Logotherapist Nataliia Hulei. Aroma psychology is based on the connection between the sensory perception of smells and the limbic system—the part of the brain responsible for emotions and memory. When we inhale a particular aroma, it activates emotional centres, bypassing conscious control. This is why smells can quickly change our state: calming or enlivening us, restoring a sense of safety, or opening access to memories. Nataliia showed how aromas can become doorways to memory, lived experiences and inner strength. We inhaled the scents of different oils and chose what resonated with us and what did not. Nataliia helped us understand these aromatic clues.
We took photographs, joked and exchanged contact details. Participants also had the opportunity to buy Logotherapy in Theses by Maria and Edward Marshall. This book is a pocket guide to Logotherapy, exploring 20 themes and areas of life in which Logotherapy is effective.
The following evening, Timo Purjo presented his long-awaited book Understanding Love to the international Logotherapy community over Zoom. We joined as an entire Ukrainian team—a real support group. For us, it was a moment of heartfelt gratitude to our mentor. Understanding Love is truly a treasure of Logotherapy, and a Ukrainian edition is due in 2026. Vedrana brought the very first English-language copy, and we filled it with dozens of warm wishes for Timo: small expressions of our love, gratitude and support.
That same evening, we played ‘Secret Friend’: everyone prepared a small gift for the person whose name they drew at random. It was moving to see how small symbols can convey values, show attention to others and express understanding. To me, this is the most precious currency in human relationships. As is our tradition, we ended by singing songs. Wherever Ukrainians gather, there is always music!
Then came the ascent to Yavirnyk, and it proved a real challenge. It was hot; some wanted to go by car, others spoke of fatigue or pain, and there was a temptation to give up and go back down. I remember saying something to the group along these lines: “We came precisely for the experience of overcoming difficulties: we need to meet challenges rather than give up. Weakness is contagious; now everyone feels like quitting. Let’s go step by step.”
The climb took several hours. Sometimes we talked; sometimes we walked in our own silence. For me, the hike was a double challenge because my daughter Varvara was with us. She also found it difficult at first, complaining at times as any child might. But later she walked quite confidently and even set the pace for everyone.
A completely different reality awaited us at the top: absolute silence, with no other people and no sounds of the city; the sunset, the mountains, spring water, wooden cabins for the night, and the feeling of standing before something far greater than oneself.
In the mountains, I felt something I often think about in Logotherapy: we are only guests in this world. Nature existed before us and will exist after us. We have only our limited time in which to answer the questions life asks us. There, responsibility for oneself, for the people nearby and for the land one loves feels especially tangible. People reveal themselves differently there. Status and position do not matter: everyone is simply themselves, with their unvarnished fatigue, joy, silence or laughter. Within this acceptance, you inevitably want to say yes to life despite everything.
I would like the Logotherapy retreat to become a cherished tradition in our community. Mountains do more than offer rest: they transform experience into meaning. You return a slightly different person, closer to your true self.
Yevheniia Ivlieieva
I had been nurturing this idea for years. The only question was where to begin. While still living in forced emigration, I began taking teenagers into the mountains, and later women. It was a way to help people adapt as they built a new life in an unfamiliar country. The idea gradually gathered momentum, until a question—a wish—arose within me: why not bring colleagues together to recover and renew themselves? Nataliia, the organiser of our Logotherapy community, made her suggestion at just the right time. Colleagues also embraced the initiative and became interested in the programme. I realised that I had enough organisational experience and knowledge of Logotherapy to make our hikes truly beneficial.
Mountain hiking makes me genuinely happy, because both on a climb and in life, moving forward is often difficult. This is precisely why I enjoy taking people into the mountains so much. A hike becomes a living example of how Logotherapy—therapy through meaning—works.
We were in the heart of Halychyna, a region renowned for its jewellery, delicious food and colourful music. We made sure to visit the local market, with its jewellery, embroidered shirts, Carpathian tea and gifts. For dinner, we chose an authentic Hutsul restaurant-museum, touching the region’s culinary history and tasting traditional dishes once forgotten. We walked through the new yet already recognisable Gedzio Park of Legends and entered a fairy tale about hobbits, to which the Carpathian forest was perfectly suited. A special bonus was the open-air swimming pool, into which we boldly jumped even in the rain. Rain and water washed away fatigue and restored our sense of the here and now. In the evenings, after hours filled with impressions, we warmed up in the sauna and allowed ourselves to slow down, enjoying the quiet and peace.
In the mountains, everything becomes clearer: the landscapes, the horizon and the true person—their strength, abilities, fears and possibilities. Far from visual and auditory noise, each person begins to hear what is within. The trust of colleagues who entered the process openly and listened to recommendations was especially valuable. As in any group process, the hardest part is trusting the process and its dynamics. My role as a guide also involved supporting colleagues’ faith and confidence at the start of the ascent. I reminded them that they could do it. Although it was not easy, Logotherapy itself, and an understanding of the defiant power of the human spirit, became my support and my argument during the climb.
Logotherapists and people with shared values—from Ivano-Frankivsk to Kramatorsk, from Germany to Canada—travelled hundreds and thousands of kilometres for this gathering. Although everyone had their own motives, one shared wish certainly united us all: the chance to embrace one another. Vedrana Grgić, a Logotherapist from Croatia who supports Ukraine and contributes to the development of our Logotherapy community, joined us. Welcoming guests from other countries during wartime is a great honour and responsibility. Everyone brought their own experience and value to the retreat, and the support participants felt during the climbs gave them powerful encouragement to keep moving forward.
Viktor Frankl had a special connection with the mountains. He grew up near the Alps and often hiked in the Raxalpe area. It was his ‘room of silence’, where thoughts became clearer and decisions more honest. There, he practised what he would later describe in Logotherapy: distancing oneself from chaos and returning to responsibility and the freedom of inner choice. His biography contains a well-known episode: during an ascent on the Rax, the weather suddenly deteriorated, and he spent a long time deciding whether to turn back or continue. Frankl recalled that it is precisely in such moments that a person encounters their true self: between ‘what others want me to be’ and ‘the one who takes responsibility for every next step’.
For him, the mountains were a training ground for an inner yes to life despite fear, doubt and fatigue. There, one could feel that freedom begins within a person, regardless of the weather or the difficulty of the climb. Perhaps this is why he loved paths that reminded him that meaning reveals itself through movement.
Mountains and Logotherapy share something conceptually. To complete a route, for example, preparation is necessary: physical fitness and suitable equipment. These represent our strengths and weaknesses, which require attention, responsibility and an understanding of how we can improve them. Mountains, like Logotherapy, allow us to experience the limits of our capabilities and our responsibility for every step and for life itself. This is a space in which the defiant power of the human spirit is activated.
No less important than the ascent is the descent—and who we choose to be when we return to our own lives. The experience of climbing in the mountains can support a person in their everyday circumstances. For Logotherapists in particular, who encounter the challenges of human life every day, it is important to enrich their own spiritual dimension so that they can remain a source of support for themselves and their clients, helping them discover meanings at important times.
I will continue taking people into the mountains, because I can see the difference between before and after.
Karina Skomorokhova
The autumn Logotherapy retreat took place as summer was saying goodbye and autumn was touching the mountains with its first gold. For me, the journey became a journey inward—a transition from the bustle of everyday life to what is meaningful, through conversations, silence, nature and the presence of people asking themselves: “What for?” People usually seek peace at retreats; at our Logotherapy retreat, we found meanings.
For me, the discoveries were the strength of the group and inner silence. A group’s strength can hold the space even when each person is living through their own story. Inner silence always speaks louder than external noise. Mountains suggest a height from which there is perspective. A person can always rise above circumstances, even when the path is steep.
We moved along mountain trails, and the sense of a shared journey was combined with each person’s inner silence. Probii Waterfall became an image reminding us of the power of movement, renewal and the flow of life that continues despite obstacles. Being alongside people who ‘know how to listen with their hearts’ felt like more than a metaphor: it was a therapeutic event that created a space for discovering meanings. The mountains fulfilled their age-old purpose, stripping away the unnecessary and leaving what was most true in each of us. Meaning often reveals itself not only in answers but in being together. Viktor Frankl called this an encounter with life as it asks us questions. Perhaps it is amid the sound of water and the silence of the mountains that we can hear those questions.
During the mini-conference, participants shared thoughts about responsibility, meaning and freedom of choice. What often remains abstract theory in everyday life became real through emotions, experiences and sometimes tears. A particular moment was the workshop on aroma psychology. The scents seemed to open our memories, releasing emotions we had been holding back. Through aromas, it was as though we touched our true Self, stripped of roles and defences.
The walk along the Dovbush Trail became a spiritual experience. Among moss-covered stones and ancient trees, we felt nature speaking to us in its own language. Every step forward recalled the journey towards oneself as an inner ascent that demands effort but reveals meaning. In the evening, we exchanged sincere, symbolic gifts, sang songs and warmed ourselves in conversation. The Secret Friend activity became a way of saying: “I see you. I value you.” Everything carried a meaning greater than words alone.
We climbed to the Yavirnyk mountain meadow. Every step demanded effort: the ascent was a challenge, with a steep path and stones slippery from rain. Everyone who reached the top felt a strength and an ability to exceed their own expectations. Among wooden cabins beneath the wide sky, we felt time slowing down. When the full moon rose, we made candles in the light falling onto our palms. Each candle became a symbol of one’s own light, which does not go out even in darkness. It felt like a ritual of unity: we were silent, yet everyone spoke through their presence.
We returned home different: calmer, more attentive and closer to one another. The mountains, the space, the clean air and the waterfall became active participants in our experience. The heights and boundless horizons reminded us of freedom of choice and responsibility for our own lives. Each of us found something of our own, and we all shared a sense of attachment to Logotherapy.
We always want to return to places where we feel connected with ourselves. Mountains open a space in which we can listen, respond and grow.
