We run presentation workshops on a variety of topics. These are being held online for 2024-25 and are open to all students. You can book a place on a workshop on MyEd. MyEd Events booking (Once you've booked it's important that you join the workshop using your university Teams account to avoid technical issues)Our wellbeing workshops are delivered online via Microsoft Teams to groups of up to 30 students. They are very short introductions to topics, and will not resolve the issues but will help you find ways to start dealing with them. They last for one hour and 15 minutes and contain input from the facilitator as well as small group discussions and individual exercises for reflection and practice. There will be a resource pack made available after each session. Privacy Notice for workshops.Workshop - Presentations 2024-25 (Semester 1)DateTimePresentationThursday 19 September15:30Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway: An Introduction to Anxiety ManagementFriday 20 September11:30Spot the Thought: Challenging Our Unhelpful ThinkingMonday 23 September15:30Enhance Your Focus: Clear Distractions and Train Your Attention to Improve Learning and WellbeingTuesday 24 September15:30Up-Write Yourself: An Expressive Writing WorkshopWednesday 25 September11:30Finding your Feet: An Introduction to Overcoming Social Anxiety in Social and Academic SettingsTuesday 1 October11:30Nobody's Perfect: When Your Best Is Good EnoughWednesday 2 October11:30Don’t Lose Sleep Over It: How to Improve Your SleepFriday 4 October11:30I'll Start Tomorrow... Defeating ProcrastinationMonday 7 October15:30Imposter Syndrome: Feeling Like a Fraud?Wednesday 9 October15:30When the Problem is Bigger Than MeFriday 11 October11:30The Feel-Good Factor: Managing MoodMonday 21 October15:30Finding Your Feet: An Introduction to Overcoming Social Anxiety in Social and Academic SettingsWednesday 23 October11:30Enhance Your Focus: Clear Distractions and Train Your Attention to Improve Learning and WellbeingThursday 24 October11:30Moving Forward: Loss, Bereavement and Managing ChangeTuesday 29 October15:30Spot the Thought: Challenging Our Unhelpful ThinkingWednesday 30 October15:30Keeping Yourself Well While Trying to Support Others: How to Stay Afloat when Someone You Care About is SinkingFriday 1 November11:30Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway: An Introduction to Anxiety ManagementMonday 4 November15:30Managing StressWednesday 6 November15:30Imposter Syndrome: Feeling Like a Fraud?Thursday 7 November15:30Up-Write Yourself: An Expressive Writing WorkshopMonday 11 November15:30I'll Start Tomorrow... Defeating ProcrastinationWednesday 13 November15:30The Feel-Good Factor: Managing MoodThursday 14 November11:30When the Problem is Bigger Than MeTuesday 19 November11:30Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway: An Introduction to Anxiety ManagementWednesday 20 November15:30Nobody's Perfect: When Your Best Is Good EnoughThursday 21 November15:30Keeping Yourself Well While Trying to Support Others: How to Stay Afloat when Someone You Care About is SinkingTuesday 26 November11:30Weathering the winter blues: An introduction to SAD syndromeWednesday 27 November11:30Spot the Thought: Challenging Our Unhelpful ThinkingThursday 28 November15:30Enhance Your Focus: Clear Distractions and Train Your Attention to Improve Learning and WellbeingMonday 2 December15:30Don’t Lose Sleep Over It: How to Improve Your SleepWednesday 4 December15:30Managing StressThursday 5 December11:30I'll Start Tomorrow... Defeating ProcrastinationTopicDescription Don’t Lose Sleep Over It: How to Improve Your SleepIt is very common for our sleep to be disrupted, particularly around stressful life events. Sometimes this temporary glitch can become longer term. This session looks at what happens when we sleep and the causes of poor sleep. It provides a chance to explore ways to support your body and mind to get a good night’s rest. Enhance Your Focus: Clear Distractions and Train your Attention to Improve Learning and WellBeingStruggling with focus is a common experience, particularly in the face of modern distractions. It impacts our ability to function, learn and feel OK. The good news is that we can train ourselves to reclaim our attention and make it work for us. This workshop offers an introduction to attention and what gets in our way, along with strategies and exercises to help us maintain our focus, so we can work towards our goals and support our wellbeing. Please note this is a general workshop aimed at everyone, rather than specific to those with a diagnosis of ADHD. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway: An Introduction to Anxiety ManagementHelps you to recognise your own anxiety response; learn more about why it’s triggered and find ways to get control over your anxiety. Finding Your Feet: An Introduction to Overcoming Social Anxiety in Social and Academic SettingsThis is a workshop for students who feel particularly anxious when socialising, or when presenting or speaking in seminars and groups. We'll look at the factors that contribute to social anxiety, keeping it going, and consider ways to make changes in order to feel more comfortable in social situations. I'll Start Tomorrow... Defeating ProcrastinationOffers us a framework to understand ‘stuckness’ in relation to work and offers empowerment to get going again. Time-management strategies are offered as well as ways to limit procrastination, allowing us to optimise productivity and feel good about ourselves Ideal for anyone who finds themselves saying, 'I'll start that tomorrow...' Imposter Syndrome: Feeling Like a Fraud?Feeling inadequate, undeserving and like a fraud is common amongst university students. This programme is an introduction to Imposter Syndrome. We will look at what it is, its causes and contributors, and learn how to apply realistic skills to help combat feeling this way, resulting in lowered stress and increased productivity Keeping Yourself Well While Trying to Support Others: How to Stay Afloat when Someone You Care About is SinkingThis workshop is for anyone who is impacted by the mental health of someone they care for or live with. We can often find ourselves in situations where we feel we are supporting a friend/flatmate/family member or partner who is struggling with their mental health. This can be a frightening, lonely and isolating position. This workshop provides an opportunity to explore the impact of being a supporter on us; offers ways to safeguard our own mental health; and also provides some practical information on signposting and how to take next steps when the supported person needs professional help. Managing StressOffers an explanation of the physiological effects of stress and highlights ways in which we can manage our minds and bodies to maintain a more relaxed state. Ideal for anyone who gets stressed - probably all of us! Moving Forward: Loss, Bereavement and Managing ChangeThis session introduces the notion of loss and explores some of the common ways people experience loss such as experiencing a bereavement or a divorce/separation or relationship break up etc. The session touches on some of the positive and negative ways we may react to such life changes and introduces suggestions to help manage those changes Nobody's Perfect: When Your Best is Good EnoughAn introduction to perfectionism - where it comes from; how it is maintained and what its consequences are.Strategies are offered and ideas are generated together to achieve high standards while being kinder and more forgiving of ourselves. Spot the Thought: Challenging Our Unhelpful ThinkingHow we think impacts our mood and anxiety levels. ‘What if…’ thoughts can get us stuck in worry, or ‘mindreading’ leaves us imagining the worst in what others are thinking. We often interpret our thoughts as facts, and so how we think about ourselves, others or events can greatly escalate or de-escalate how anxious we feel and how happy we are. This workshop uses tools from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It is an introduction on how our thoughts effect how we feel, and how to identify, challenge & change the kind of thinking that is unhelpful to us. The Feel-Good Factor: Managing MoodOffers insight into how to recognise how you are performing (from a psychological perspective); explores ways to manage mood and adopt practices that help keep emotional balance.Ideal for anyone who wants to have better control over their emotions. Up-Write Yourself: An Expressive Writing WorkshopA workshop to explore what expressive/reflective writing is and how it can enhance our well-being. It can be learned as a versatile skill to increase self awareness, make sense of difficult life events, process feelings, and offers a valuable form of self help and self care. There will be an opportunity to engage in a brief writing exercise in the session to experience the benefit of it. Weathering the Winter Blues: An Introduction to SAD SyndromeIn this introductory session, we will be exploring the impact of dark winter days on our emotional wellbeing. You will be gaining insights into SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder, as well as learning about the general coping techniques recommended to help avoid a mood-dip in winter. When The Problem Is Bigger Than MeFor all of us, the context we live in affects our mental health. Sometimes our individual struggles are related to something much bigger – a pandemic, a cost of living crisis, power imbalances in society, global instability, climate uncertainty. These can be overwhelming and hard to see a way to cope. How can we look after our mental health in this context? This workshop is a chance to look at these questions together and for you to generate your personal ideas about ways forward. This article was published on 2023-11-22
