Mykyta Karimov

Psychologist
Psychotherapist
Trainer

I first came to Insight back in 2014 through the Human Library. That is when I learned that there were other transgender people in Ukraine besides me 🙂 — and they did not merely exist, they were actively changing society for the better. My cooperation with the organisation began in 2015, in 2016 I became Insight’s psychologist, and since 2024 I have been heading our psychological service.

My main principle is: nothing for us without us. When you face a society that never left a safe place for you in the first place, you have to build it yourself. And to fight so that other queer people feel stronger, safer and more comfortable in our country.

Human rights defence and psychological support of the community are inseparable for me. What charges me most in this work is the moment I see people we helped in their hardest times get back on their feet, find inner strength and later make their own contribution to the fight for equal rights.

What fuels me:

Working with people, psychotherapy and teaching are my true calling. Within NGO Insight I focus on:

Individual, group and educational work with transgender people, queer teenagers and their families.
Training professionals: I teach a specialised course for psychologists on working with the LGBTQ+ community.

In my practice I am a certified psychotherapist and supervisor in the gestalt approach, as well as a trauma therapist. I am a member of NAGTU, WPATH and EPATH, and a lecturer of the course for psychologists on working with LGBTQ+ people.

Blitz interview:

What do you do when you are not saving human rights?
I travel, go to concerts, take photographs, do sports and spend time with the people close to me.

One sentence about yourself that is not a job title:
I help people find support within themselves even when it seems impossible.

Three words that describe you:
Resilient, sensitive and curious.

A queer watch you recommend?
The films Kill Your Darlings and Total Eclipse. Probably because I have always been drawn to stories about identity, closeness, rebellion against imposed roles and the price people sometimes pay for the right to live in accord with themselves.