The Catamount seeks to foster community and empower students to work together in discussing, addressing, and engaging our mental health. The Catamount will promote consistent participation and ownership of the space and overall experiences, which will include practices, activities, events, workshops, training, and group sessions/interactions. The ultimate goal is for The Catamount to be mostly student-run with an emphasis on peer support. Students, faculty, and staff will collectively be invited to have active involvement in events, activities, functions, and experiences offered by The Catamount.
Students, faculty, and staff will have an active and intentional role in various aspects ranging from sharing a positive testimony to spending time. Students, alumni, staff, faculty, and various professionals/experts will all be invited to experiences that involve education, training, and the practice of wellness from a broad spectrum. The Catamount will operate as a “system of support” that will invite belonging and active membership. A core goal of The Catamount is to lower experiences of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection in the lives of participants. This is something that is difficult to accomplish in a once-a-week visit to a counselor in an outpatient clinic experience. Emphasis will also be placed on specific mental health experiences such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction and ADHD.
Unique to The Catamount will also be the promotion of service-based learning, volunteerism, and overall outward engagement through avenues of care, business, and relational engagement with the surrounding communities. While growing health and wellness in all areas of human life on our campus, The Catamount will train and promote students, faculty, and staff to be active off-campus through a variety of engagements. A core belief of The Catamount is that our internal wellness is not only meant for ourselves but for the good of others, and the world around us. While we care inward, The Catamount will be active, intentional, and conscious of caring outward to our communities and connecting with other universities at the WHAC conference.
Kick-off event:
Anxiety: We will discuss the origins, energy, and shapes of anxiety with the goal of education, understanding, and healthy open dialogue. We will also explore healthy practices and overall approaches to self and others as we come to understand anxiety at both universal and granular levels.
Details:
Time/ Date: January 18, 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Location: Chrysler Student Lounge (down the 300 wing)
Agenda: Food/ Brief Talk/ Practice/ Breakout Discussion
Followed by ongoing discussion and practice over the course of the following weeks (on a weekly basis).
Up next:
Depression
Eating and Nutrition (Emphasis on Sports Nutrition as well as conversation about eating disorders)
Addiction
Mind/Soul/Body Care
Point of Contact | Andrew Chambelin (achamberlin@cleary.edu)
