Translating Meaning: My Journey into the World of Logotherapy

Authors: Olha Serha, Iryna Koverznieva

From the first issue of “Time of Logotherapy”, 2025.

Translating logotherapeutic texts is a complex process, as it involves not only linguistic accuracy but also conveying profound existential meaning. Our translators shared the challenges they had encountered and the influence of logotherapy on their lives.

Olha Serha

Olha Serha. Portrait from the original publication.

My name is Olha Serha, and I have been interpreting logotherapy events for the Ukrainian logotherapy community for over a year. During this time, I have interpreted for lecturers from Finland and Croatia.

In fact, I came into this community by accident. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say — by chance. My curiosity and interest in everything new brought me here. By the time I was invited to interpret a webinar on logotherapy, I had already done a great deal of translation and interpreting, although this is not my main profession. So I gladly accepted the invitation, without even knowing what it would involve.

I was familiar with the word “logotherapy”, but for some reason I associated it more with “logopaedics” (speech therapy) and did not connect it at all with “existential analysis”, a term I also knew. While the former seemed quite clear to me, I thought the latter was something extraordinarily complicated. When I was sent a thesaurus, I was surprised and felt a little afraid to engage with such serious matters, let alone take responsibility for interpreting them correctly. But curiosity always wins, and I took it as a challenge: could I manage it? I did! I stayed for the long term, and I am very glad I did!

Logotherapy is about life as it is. It is about the essence of everything, about its foundations, about how everything happens and how to live in harmony with it all. I find every webinar immensely interesting, because logotherapy seems to have answers to every question. And life seems simpler and more understandable.

Logotherapy explains things that seem so familiar and clear to everyone, yet often we need to hear them expressed to confirm our “hunches”. Logotherapy is rather like an explanation of intuition, an explanation of what we live by every day. So rich and full of meaning. It offers both a great deal of understanding and much food for thought.

Of course, every interpreting assignment has its own particular features. The distinctive terminology of logotherapy has certainly improved my attention — and my pronunciation! I must also mention the wonderful lecturers’ lively humour and their ability to draw interesting analogies to explain complex matters more clearly through examples from life.

Having spent this time in the logotherapy community, I have, of course, been influenced by it myself. Such close contact with logotherapy encourages me to seek more meaning in life situations, events and my own choices. And I have begun to find it more often.

When we look at the world through the lens of meaning, life becomes richer and more vivid, and what matters most becomes clearer. And for each of us, this is our own, personal and unique — Ordo amoris.

And, of course, like attracts like. In the same way, the logotherapy community brings together people who are interested in living meaningfully and helping others find meaning in their lives. Here, people are united by a shared interest and purpose.

Although the meaning of life will be different for everyone, it is very valuable and interesting to be among people who want to have more meaning in every day of their lives.

Iryna Koverznieva

Iryna Koverznieva. Portrait from the original publication.

My name is Iryna Koverznieva, and I have been interpreting for the logotherapy community for six months. I have interpreted for lecturers from Croatia and Finland (Vedrana, Cristina and Timo), and also at lectures, supervision sessions and other meetings (for example, about the trip to Finland!)

I first encountered logotherapy in the second year of my bachelor’s degree (in 2022), when our lecturer was telling us about the approach she used in her work. Later, in my fourth year, I became interested in a therapeutic approach for my own practice — and immediately thought of logotherapy.

In September 2024, alongside my master’s studies, I also began studying at MeaningsLab. By then, I had been teaching English for seven years and had studied the language, but I had never worked as an interpreter. When Nataliia Khmelova asked in the main group whether anyone knew English and would like to do some interpreting, I immediately responded — I wanted to contribute to the wonderful community I had joined, and I felt that my knowledge could find a place here.

During this time, there have inevitably been some “interesting” situations while interpreting. Once, while interpreting a lecture by Timo Purjo for “The Spiritual Capabilities of Viktor Frankl's Logotheory”, I became nervous and mistranslated the word “appendix”: instead of the Ukrainian word for a supplementary section, I said “appendicitis”. Sometimes, more often when interpreting supervision sessions, I forget which language I am interpreting from and begin “interpreting” into English for the lecturers what they have just told me (also in English). For example, once, after Cristina’s comments on a case, I began “interpreting” her own comments back to her (from English into English) — we all laughed about it.

There have also been times when I have forgotten words, even ordinary or simple ones — only the English word would be in my head, and nothing else! So sometimes I take a short pause to remember how to say it in Ukrainian.

Now, after six months of interpreting and studying, logotherapy continues to reveal itself to me. I am currently taking “The Spiritual Capabilities of Viktor Frankl's Logotheory” with Timo Purjo, and with each module I immerse myself more and more deeply in logotherapy, learn many new things and leave every lecture with a wealth of insights! Then I watch recordings of the same lectures several more times — logotherapy and logotheory really are boundless in their possibilities and knowledge.

I realised that I had become calmer, more grounded in my wishes and plans, and more meaning-oriented — all thanks to studying logotherapy.

In this community, I feel only warmth and acceptance; it is a place where I want to be, to help one another, to open up and to discuss things. I think it is the fact that we are all moving in the same direction, uncovering our own meanings and seeking our own path that unites us — we are all searching for meaning, and we all give one another unconditional and pure love.