Acoustic Requirements for Premises for Personal and Group Psychotherapy

The psychological impact of the war in Ukraine has created an urgent and substantial need for effective mental health interventions, particularly psychotherapy. As offline therapy often requires deep engagement, the quality of the physical environment becomes paramount. This article addresses the critical issue of acoustic comfort in psychotherapy spaces, an essential factor for ensuring patient confidentiality, effective communication, and a conducive therapeutic atmosphere, yet one for which specific standards are currently lacking in Ukraine. Drawing on a review of the literature on post-war mental health needs and the influence of environmental acoustics on well-being and communication, combined with professional experience in engineering acoustics, this article identifies key acoustic parameters necessary for effective therapeutic settings. These include adequate sound insulation to guarantee privacy, controlled reverberation time for speech intelligibility, minimization of intrusive background noise from building systems, and consideration of electroacoustic methods to support individuals with hearing impairments. The analysis highlights that, while there are broader concepts of acoustic design, meeting the specific needs of psychotherapy requires adherence to fundamental principles of acoustic engineering. The article argues that the absence of acoustic standards customised for therapy spaces in Ukraine represents a significant challenge to providing high-quality mental healthcare. It concludes that establishing clear and measurable acoustic criteria is a vital infrastructure to support psychological recovery and lays the groundwork for developing such essential standards.