What to Do on World Mental Health Day

October 10 is World Mental Health Day. This year, HSE University is joining the global event and organizing its own Mental Health Day in the new complex on Pokrovsky Boulevard. Read more about the event’s lectures, sessions, and workshops that will be given by mental health experts below.

How to Maintain Your Mental Health

In the central atrium, there will be an exhibition of mental health-themed works by artist Sasha Skolichenko and students and graduates of the HSE Art & Design School, as well as a screening of mini films. You’ll also have the opportunity to relax between classes or important meetings by colouring huge anti-stress colouring sheets or drawing a mandala at the Colour and Relax art therapy session.

Photo by Mikhail Dmitriev

Therapy dogs, which have become everyone’s favourite since the last meeting, are coming to HSE University again for a dog therapy session, which will begin at 5 pm. Dog therapy is a psychotherapy method for improving mental health state by means of interacting with a dog.

At 6 pm and 7 pm, students and staff can participate in yoga classes. Maria Filimonova, a certified yoga instructor, will conduct two hour-long classes with exercise and practices from hatha yoga, which can be used for emotional regulation in everyday life.

At 6 pm, there will be a screening of the film, The Future is Bright, followed by a discussion. The film portrays a future society in which life consists of TV shows, and there are two kinds of people—those who crave new digital entertainment and work hard for it at a special factory, and those who dream of making their way to the other side of the screen and believe something big and true will happen after that. The screening will be conducted by Maria Shvets, a clinical psychologist who works at the HSE Centre for Psychological Counselling.

At 6:30 pm, there will be a lecture, ‘Voice Therapy: Voice as My Internal Resource’ (in Russian). The talk will discuss how the perception of one’s own voice is connected to self-acceptance, and how to learn to achieve results and enjoy the process, both vocally and in life. During the talk, the participants will perform vocal exercises that will enable audience members to experience the ideas of the talk for themselves.

Also at 6:30 pm, Anna Roznatovskaya, a cognitive behavioural therapist, will talk about simple and accessible mindfulness techniques, which can be used in everyday life.

How to Understand that You Need Help

During the festival, you will have the opportunity to receive a personal consultation with a mental health expert (in Russian).

At 5 pm, Alisa Plyaskina, Maria Alipova and Sergey Ishanov, psychologists with the Centre for Psychological Counselling, will give a public talk, ‘Saying “No” and Saying “Yes”: Living in Harmony with Yourself’.

Sneksy, iStock

After that, at 6:30 pm, you are welcome to attend ‘A Talk about When You Have to Ask for Help’ with Irina Makarova, Director of the Centre for Psychological Counselling, and Vladislav Chupeev, a mental health doctor. At the same time, there will be a workshop with experts from the Centre of Eating Disorder Studies about how to learn to love your body.

Anna Varga, a leading Russian expert in family therapy and Programme Head of Academic Council at Systemic Family Therapy Master’s programme, will deliver a lecture, ‘Are Marriages Made in Heaven?’. The lecture starts at 5 pm.

At a workshop ‘Living with Storytelling’, which starts at 6 pm, we will discuss the role that stories play in our lives, how they are used in narrative psychology and psychotherapy, and why this presents an alternative to traditional mental health concepts. There will be a ‘storytelling workshop’ – a space to create, research and perform your life stories. The workshop will be led by Elena Grebenyuk, narrative therapist and co-founder of Kray project.

izusek, iStock

Olga Kalashnikova, clinical psychologist in the Crisis Psychiatry Department of Moscow City Hospital No. 20, will talk from 4 to 6 pm about dialectical behaviour therapy and how it can help when someone has suicidal thoughts.

What to Do if You Have a Friend in Trouble

In the US, ‘Gatekeepers’ are people who can identify the signs of suicidal behaviour in those around them and know how to help. At 5 pm, there will be a Gatekeeper Training session where you can learn the signs of suicide risk in others and what you can do if someone you know has suicidal thoughts. The session will be conducted by Ekaterina Solovieva from the HSE Centre for Psychological Counselling.

Mental Health Day Events in English

Mental Health Awareness on Campus: Public Talk

4 – 5 pm, Small Hall, Cultural Centre

Tomas Jurcik, HSE Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Maria Alipova, Head Psychologist of HSE’s Centre for Psychological Counselling, will discuss psychological and mental health issues that affect students on campus and share information about on-campus resources available to students.

Working language: English, with translation into Russian. 

Breathe. Move. Feel

4 – 5 pm and 5 – 6 pm, Dance Hall, Cultural Centre

Take a break from your daily cares and join us for a yoga class. Certified yoga instructor Maria Filimonova will lead 2 hour-long sessions, in which you will learn stretches, poses, and practices of Hatha Yoga, a form of yoga that helps bring harmony to your daily life.

Dog Therapy

5 – 6:30 pm, Cultural Centre, hall on level 3

Canine therapists are once again visiting HSE. Come one, come all to a heartwarming canistherapy session! In canistherapy, also known as dog therapy, participants have the opportunity to improve their psycho-emotional state by petting and interacting with warm, friendly dogs. 

Walk-in Consultations with Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and Psychiatrists

3 – 8 pm, Central Atrium

Get answers and/or help by talking to a professional. Doctors and specialists from the following institutions will be offering consultations: HSE University’s Centre for Psychological Counselling; the Crisis Department of Eramishantsev City Clinical Hospital; the Center for the Study of Eating Disorders; the Psychological Aid Service of the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine; and Clear Morning Cancer Patient Care Service.

September 30, 2019