Students held discussions and offered each other support at the Mental Health Healing Circle Tuesday, which provides students with a safe, non-stigmatizing environment to share accounts of mental health experiences.
According to Abbey Vadnais, academic and inclusion program assistant for the Center for Cultural Enrichment, the CCE collaborated with Ask.Listen.Save to connect with people who have endured similar circumstances.
“I’m really just aiming for the few students, or as many students as are going to come tonight to just find a space and people, in which they can connect with and talk about and share their experience,” Vadnais said. “Just so they know they’re not alone and that other people are having similar experiences.”
The event stemmed from both Vadnais’s personal experience with mental health in her own family and the general stigmatization of mental health on campus.
“Often I think it’s neglected to be talked about individually with friends or even close family members about mental health, especially when it comes to college it’s very much so stigmatized as well,” Vadnais said.
The program was held in Witte Residence Hall to focus on dormitory life, and aims to reach students living in the residence halls who may be dealing with their mental health due to the newly close and “intimate” living conditions.
While there are no immediate plans for the future, Vadnais hopes to continue the conversation of mental health and wellness, specifically within the context of the residence halls.
“I think this could be a stepping-stone process of helping overstep those bounds of stigmatization, obviously very small, but hopefully meaningful for the people that come,” Vadnais said.
