Equality & Diversity course timetable
February 2021
Wed 10 |
Mindfulness Practice - Session 3
Finished
Life can at times feel relentless, overwhelming and draining. We can become so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that they entangle us in ways that are harmful. Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinical trials show that it works to halve the risk of depression in those who have experienced illness (Professor Mark Williams). Mindfulness practice can help us become more present in the moment, increase our awareness of feelings and help us notice signs of stress, low mood and anxiety so we can take steps to address them. These sessions are offered to help staff experience the benefits of Mindfulness practice as a way of supporting health and wellbeing. Join Esther Hunt, for a series of six standalone weekly sessions. Book into as many or as few as you wish. No materials necessary, although you may wish to be seated in an upright chair with a blanket around you to maximise the benefits. Esther Hunt trained as a Mindfulness Teacher with the British Mindfulness Institute and was taught by Dr Patrizia Collard. She is a Registered and Accredited Psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Affiliated Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling in the Faculty of Education. Zoom joining instructions will be provided in your booking confirmation email. |
Thu 11 |
Workshop 3 : Mindfulness and Emotion
Finished
This series of four workshops is designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. Each session in the series is designed as a stand-alone workshop, so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Originally run in October 2020, and being repeated due to their popularity, Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, will introduce each session - an edited recording of the original event - and will be available to answer questions. Workshop 3: Mindfulness and Emotion We often regard emotions as inconvenient, or unprofessional. But our emotions can give us important information about our environment, and if we are able to identify them and tolerate them, we are less likely to 'act out', to become overwhelmed, or to get stuck in cycles of unhelpful behaviour. This workshop invites us to expand our emotional vocabulary and to be curious and non-judgmental about our emotions, with the view that the more we know about how we feel, the more choice we have in how we respond to our feelings. Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Mon 15 |
Come along to this session if you’d like to develop tools for becoming an antiracist ally and to build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation emails. |
Wed 17 |
Come along to this session if you’d like to develop tools for becoming an antiracist ally and to build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation emails. |
Mindfulness Practice - Session 4
Finished
Life can at times feel relentless, overwhelming and draining. We can become so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that they entangle us in ways that are harmful. Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinical trials show that it works to halve the risk of depression in those who have experienced illness (Professor Mark Williams). Mindfulness practice can help us become more present in the moment, increase our awareness of feelings and help us notice signs of stress, low mood and anxiety so we can take steps to address them. These sessions are offered to help staff experience the benefits of Mindfulness practice as a way of supporting health and wellbeing. Join Esther Hunt, for a series of six standalone weekly sessions. Book into as many or as few as you wish. No materials necessary, although you may wish to be seated in an upright chair with a blanket around you to maximise the benefits. Esther Hunt trained as a Mindfulness Teacher with the British Mindfulness Institute and was taught by Dr Patrizia Collard. She is a Registered and Accredited Psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Affiliated Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling in the Faculty of Education. Zoom joining instructions will be provided in your booking confirmation email. |
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Thu 18 |
This series of four workshops is designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. Each session in the series is designed as a stand-alone workshop, so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Originally run in October 2020, and being repeated due to their popularity, Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, will introduce each session - an edited recording of the original event - and will be available to answer questions. Workshop 4: Freedom and Responsibility The feeling of being 'stuck' can cause great distress. This workshop looks at how we can identify opportunities for choice and freedom even in situations where our options may seem very limited. We will consider ways to take up our responsibility to ourselves, by making deliberate choices about how to use our time and emotional energy, bolstering our sense of dignity and autonomy. Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Wed 24 |
Life can at times feel relentless, overwhelming and draining. We can become so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that they entangle us in ways that are harmful. Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinical trials show that it works to halve the risk of depression in those who have experienced illness (Professor Mark Williams). Mindfulness practice can help us become more present in the moment, increase our awareness of feelings and help us notice signs of stress, low mood and anxiety so we can take steps to address them. These sessions are offered to help staff experience the benefits of Mindfulness practice as a way of supporting health and wellbeing. Join Esther Hunt, for a series of six standalone weekly sessions. Book into as many or as few as you wish. No materials necessary, although you may wish to be seated in an upright chair with a blanket around you to maximise the benefits. Esther Hunt trained as a Mindfulness Teacher with the British Mindfulness Institute and was taught by Dr Patrizia Collard. She is a Registered and Accredited Psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Affiliated Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling in the Faculty of Education. Zoom joining instructions will be provided in your booking confirmation email. |
Thu 25 |
Stress and Anxiety Workshops Overall Aims of 4 weeks
Week 1 - This first workshop will be an opportunity to learn about stress and anxiety and begin to think about our own experiences. Come prepared with a pen and paper as there will be some self-reflective exercises. Delivered by Euan Ambrose from the University Counselling Centre Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
March 2021
Tue 2 |
A series of four workshops designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. Each session in the series is designed as a stand-alone workshop, so participants can book on to all four workshops or just one on its own. Kathrin Hicks is a clinical psychologist who has worked with many different patient groups in the NHS. Her most recent focus has been staff working on the Covid front line. Workshop 1: How mind and body interact in long term health conditions Delivered by Kathrin Hicks from the University Counselling Centre Kathrin will present a framework for understanding how physical and mental factors interact in the experience of long term health conditions, drawing on ideas from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness. This framework will provide the rationale for the interventions presented across the sessions – understanding how and why a technique works will increase the motivation to try it out. In a nutshell, the experience of long term physical health problems can set in motion a vicious cycle of thought processes, emotions and behaviours that makes it even harder to live with the symptoms of the condition. This is not our fault but a consequence of the way the human brain is wired to respond to stressful situations. If we can understand and manage this response better, we can work towards a way of living well with our health problems, rather than feeling like we are in a constant battle. Concepts to be covered include:
Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Wed 3 |
Life can at times feel relentless, overwhelming and draining. We can become so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that they entangle us in ways that are harmful. Mindfulness is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinical trials show that it works to halve the risk of depression in those who have experienced illness (Professor Mark Williams). Mindfulness practice can help us become more present in the moment, increase our awareness of feelings and help us notice signs of stress, low mood and anxiety so we can take steps to address them. These sessions are offered to help staff experience the benefits of Mindfulness practice as a way of supporting health and wellbeing. Join Esther Hunt, for a series of six standalone weekly sessions. Book into as many or as few as you wish. No materials necessary, although you may wish to be seated in an upright chair with a blanket around you to maximise the benefits. Esther Hunt trained as a Mindfulness Teacher with the British Mindfulness Institute and was taught by Dr Patrizia Collard. She is a Registered and Accredited Psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Affiliated Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling in the Faculty of Education. Zoom joining instructions will be provided in your booking confirmation email. |
There is a rush in the media to diagnose a ’tsunami’ of mental health problems during covid while research from University of Sheffield presents a view that there are people who fare better, people who fare worse and many who are doing OK with respect to their emotional well-being. What ‘doing OK’ may mean in a highly stressful world could be mistaken for mental health ‘problem’ rather than a normal stress response to a stressful time. To stop that embodied and wise response to stress turning into enduring mental illness we need to consider those protective factors we have within ourselves and those we can offer to others. In the role of parents and carers, we may be concerned about how those around us are coping in these challenging times. This session demonstrates through activities and input how attachment theory and positive relationships between people support resilience. The affirmation of social bonds is presented as a way to normalise the stress we are feeling, to support each other and to be ready to promote our own recovery and the recovery of others when stress is reduced. Fiona Peacock (Certified Theraplay® Therapist, Trainer & Supervisor, Senior Affiliated Lecturer Faculty of Education) will run attachment enhancing activities (children welcome!) and also contextualise the difference between an appropriate anxiety or stress reaction to what is going on in the world, from mental distress or illness. Sarah Hughes (Senior Staff Counsellor, University Staff Counselling Centre) will give guidance on how carers can support themselves through self-care and signposting to internal and external services. The session is an hour. Children are welcome to attend this session with you, but you may wish to turn off your video and mute. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
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SPACE : Carers @ Cambridge
Finished
Virtual afternoon tea and chat to share experiences, discuss challenges and get updates on University initiatives and policies to support parents and carers. Zoom joining details will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
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Thu 4 |
SPACE : Parents @ Cambridge
Finished
Virtual coffee and chat to share experiences, discuss challenges and get updates on University initiatives and policies to support parents and carers. Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Come along to this session if you’d like to develop tools for becoming an antiracist ally and to build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation emails. |
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Stress and Anxiety Workshops Overall Aims of 4 weeks
Week 2 - The focus of this workshop will be on worry and anxious thoughts and how they impact on our wellbeing. We will look at strategies to help address worries directly as well as activities to distract and soothe us. There will be time for Q&A at the end.
Delivered by Sarah Hughes from the University Counselling Centre Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
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Fri 5 |
Come along to this session if you’d like to develop tools for becoming an antiracist ally and to build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation emails. |
Mon 8 |
Dr Nicola Rollock and Professor Stephen J Toope in conversation Dr Nicola Rollock and Professor Stephen J Toope discuss race, gender and identity at the University of Cambridge as part of International Women’s Day celebrations. Dr Rollock is a leading academic, consultant and public speaker whose scholarship addresses racial justice in education and the workplace. She holds a number of advisory appointments including with the Wellcome Trust and the British Science Association. She is Distinguished Fellow at the Faculty of Education and was appointed Senior Adviser on Race to the Vice-Chancellor in October 2020. Professor Stephen J Toope has a distinguished career as an academic leader and as a renowned scholar of Human Rights Law. He is the first non-Briton to serve as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge. Since taking up the post in 2018 he has been a strong advocate for equality at the University. |
Tue 9 |
Workshop 2: Physiological responses and relaxation Delivered by Kathrin Hicks from the University Counselling Centre The most straightforward way of interrupting the vicious cycle of negative thoughts and feelings associated with long term health conditions is to start with the physical processes involved in the fight/flight stress response, particularly breathing and muscle tension. If we can slow down our breathing and reduce muscle tension, this sends the message to the brain that we are safe, which has a calming influence on our thoughts and feelings. Concepts to be covered include:
Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Thu 11 |
Stress and Anxiety Workshops Overall Aims of 4 weeks
Week 3 - This week we will take a deeper look at stress and anxiety, work on what our triggers are, and any behaviours that might maintain an anxious state.
Delivered by Euan Ambrose from the University Counselling Centre Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Tue 16 |
Workshop 3: Thinking Delivered by Kathrin Hicks from the University Counselling Centre The way we think about a situation has an enormous influence on our subjective emotional experience and on our behaviour. This process is more complicated than examining supposed thinking errors or trying to “think positive.” In this session we consider different types of worry and how to respond to them and focus in particular on changing our relationship with our thoughts, rather than the content of the thoughts themselves. Being able to take a step back and observe our thinking processes rather than becoming tangled up in our thoughts can make an enormous difference to how we respond emotionally and behaviourally. Concepts to be covered include:
Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Thu 18 |
Stress and Anxiety Workshops Overall Aims of 4 weeks
Week 4 - In this final workshop we will take a look at the various causes of workplace stress, its tell-tale symptoms, and ideas for stress-management and self-care. There will be reflective-practice exercises and time for Q&A.
Delivered by Sarah Hughes from the University Counselling Centre Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Fri 19 |
Join us for an opportunity to reflect on some of the difficulties staff have been experiencing , as well as the support available, potential concerns about returning to the workplace and to consider what a return to the workplace might look like. We would also like to capture some of the positive aspects of working from home for example in relation to new and more flexible ways of working.
There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion. |
Tue 23 |
Workshop 4: Behaviour Delivered by Kathrin Hicks from the University Counselling Centre The most common behavioural consequences of long term health conditions are avoidance and doing too much. These often go together in a “boom or bust” cycle. We will look at what this means in the context of living a life in line with our values and how we can work towards achieving a balance of rest and activity, and of different types of activity. Concepts to be covered include:
There will also be time to pull the ideas from all 4 sessions together, considering them within the original conceptual framework. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
April 2021
Thu 1 |
SPACE : Parents @ Cambridge
Finished
Virtual coffee and chat to share experiences, discuss challenges and get updates on University initiatives and policies to support parents and carers. Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |
Wed 7 |
Come along to this session if you’d like to develop tools for becoming an antiracist ally and to build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation emails. |
SPACE : Carers @ Cambridge
Finished
Virtual afternoon tea and chat to share experiences, discuss challenges and get updates on University initiatives and policies to support parents and carers. Zoom joining details will be provided on your booking confirmation email. |