Virtual Mental Health and Well-being Day
| Date | Day | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2022 | Thursday | 11:00 AM - 2:30 PM | Online event |
Event description
Students, staff, family, and community members are invited to drop into one or more of the many virtual wellness workshops running throughout the day.
This event is brought to you by VCC’s Counselling Services, Human Resources, and Student Union of VCC (SUVCC), in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Mental Health Week.
Join us
This year's event will be hosted on Zoom and livestreamed on Facebook.
- Students and staff - check out the event calendar in myvcc for the Zoom link
- Family and community members - visit our Facebook page on the day of the event
Schedule
| Time | Session |
Presenter |
Workshop description |
| 11 a.m. | Territorial acknowledgement and opening prayer |
TBA |
|
| 11:10 a.m. | Welcome |
Ajay Patel, President and CEO, VCC |
|
| 11:15 a.m. | VCC's Mental Health and Well-being Strategic Initiative launch | Ajay Patel, President and CEO, VCC |
After extensive consultation from employees and students, Vancouver Community College (VCC) is launching a Mental Health and Well-being Framework. Created in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association British Columbia Division (CMHA BC) and Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses, as well as guided by VCC’s Mental Health and Well-being Steering Committee, the framework garnered over 1,500 responses from members of the college community by way of focus groups, dialogues, and a campus-wide survey. The framework aims to guide the college’s well-being efforts in promoting mental health for the next five years (2022-2026). |
| 11:20 a.m. | Live music | Theda Phoenix, VCC Alumna | |
| 11:30 a.m. | Keynote: Tools for taking care of our mental health and well-being | Sarah Peyton, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and Neuroscience Educator | What does research show us is the best way to take care of ourselves? What do isolation and loneliness do to us, and how can we counteract them? Join Sarah Peyton for fun, surprising information on our brains and what they need. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Chair yoga | Sandra Jara (sponsored by SUVCC) | Practicing yoga regularly provides countless benefits, both physical and mental. The class is for all levels, whether you have practiced before or if it is your first time doing yoga. I encourage my students to practice Yoga with the sound of their own breathing and listening to their bodies, how it opens, contracts, releases and how suddenly with an adjustment they can enter the yoga posture and the experience is transformed. Also, I encourage them to feel the body, aligning it, inviting gently to go a little farther, support it, and explore the yoga posture (Asana) to see what is beyond. |
| 1 p.m. | Procrastination workshop: Why we avoid doing what we know will be good for us | Mika Maniwa, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication |
Do you procrastinate – do you avoid doing what you know you “should” do? Do you judge yourself as being “lazy”? Do you feel frustrated when you can’t concentrate on the task in front of you? Is it hard to feel compassion for the part of you that may be frozen in terror, alone with the overwhelm? We will learn about the power of empathy and kindness to change our brains. We hope to better understand our behaviours that don’t always make sense. |
| 1:30 p.m. | Sound healing | Theda Phoenix, VCC Alumna | In this session, participants will be invited to recline comfortably, close their eyes and receive the calming effects of guided sound healing music to support nervous system regulation. We will enter a state of slowing down, connecting to the breath, body and our intentions as the sounds and frequencies of Crystal Singing Bowls and the natural human voice creates a calming and balancing effect on the nervous system, intended to lead to an experience of well being, renewal, relaxation, and peace. |
| 2 p.m. | Closing | Alper Caglayan, VCC Counsellor |