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Wellness Resources

With COVID-19 and sheltering in place, it is important to still take time for self care. Below are virtual resources for faculty, staff and students, from our department, the campus community, sister campuses and companies around the globe that are offering free online services during this challenging time.

Support Groups

Tuesdays, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM with Silvia Austerlic, MA

El Jardin de la Escucha, a healing justice listening circle, welcomes you into an inclusive, safe and brave space to take a pause, and connect with yourself and others in mindful and caring ways. In these times of extreme uncertainty, adversity, and new possibilities, the rapidly growing pile of crises may narrow our focus to the immediate urgency at hand. Counterintuitively, it is in critical moments like these that our wisest move is to pause, abandon reactivity, cultivate resourcefulness, and develop personal leadership. In this supportive space, you will ground in your internal resources, and learn tools and practices for self-care and resilience, while fostering individual/collective well-being and building community.

Each week will have a different discussion topic. November 3rd will be Rethinking Self and Community Care, November 17th will be Mindful Communication, November 24th will be Attending to Difficult Emotions, December 1st will be Cultivating a Healthy Mindset, December 8th will be Entering the Holiday Season and the Power of Pause, and December 15th will be Grief and the Holiday Season.

Silvia Austerlic

This weekly gathering is facilitated by Silvia Austerlic, an intercultural educator, facilitator and consultant @ Senti-Pensante Connections. She is a working member of the Radical Resilience Initiative and a lecturer for Oakes College where she developed and teaches a class titled “Building an inner sanctuary” about the cultivation of inner and external resources in order to show up for social justice and community care. She also facilitates campus-wide learning events surrounding cultural humility, social justice, and fostering care in the community. Sign up for Silvia's November sessions here and December sessions here.


Wednesdays 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM with Laurel Andres, LMFT

Laurel Andres, LMFT, will facilitate a confidential support group for staff and faculty where she will focus on the cumulative stress and anxiety that could be brought on by the ongoing pandemic, working from home, unrest and injustice, isolation, the devastating fires, and divisive elections.  She will utilize didactic modules on self-awareness and self-care, writing exercises, dyads and group discussion to delve into individual coping and thriving mechanisms. Laurel will discuss the importance of engaging with others in meaningful conversation and inquiry regarding self-care, attending to oneself, our stories and families, as not taking that route can run the risk of those stressors turning into cumulative trauma rather than contributing to growing resilience.

Laurel Andres Laurel Andres is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has her own private psychotherapy practice and is also part of the Critical Incident Team in Santa Cruz County, where she coordinates and facilitates emergency mental health services following acute disasters and periods of long term stress. Sign up for Laurel's sessions here.

For more upcoming events, check out our events calendar.

Wellness Webinars

Building Resiliency and Emotional Wellbeing

Additional Emotional Wellbeing Resources

Physical Wellbeing

Nutritional Wellbeing

Financial/Occupational Wellbeing

Personal Growth

 

For questions regarding wellness programming, please contact Jessica Bulleri, Wellness Coordinator at jbulleri@ucsc.edu, or questions regarding mental health wellness resources please contact Cindy Delgado, at cadelgad@ucsc.edu in the Office of Risk Services.