Salt Lake Community College students were invited to embrace their “feels” for an event put on by the Center for Health and Counseling (CHC) on March 13. Appropriately named “FEELS,” the two-hour event aimed to teach students that all emotions are healthy and necessary.
Attendees of “FEELS” at the Taylorsville Redwood campus were offered free resources such as journaling tables, “grounding kits” and informational packets with details for discounted mental health counseling at the CHC. Licensed therapists also led a mental health workshop.
Vibrant decorations outfitted the event’s space. Among them were small, colorful blobs which represented the variety of emotions that people experience. Jasmin Wesley, graphic designer for the CHC, said the inspiration behind the event’s decoration started with animated films like “The Emoji Movie” and “Inside Out.”
Wesley said she attended several mental wellness conferences in which certain emojis, like the “mad” emoji, were labeled as things to avoid. However, Wesley feels that all human emotions are important and that, by accepting the diverse spectrum of emotions, individuals may be more well-equipped to address a wider variety of situations.
“Sometimes you [need to] defend yourself and be mad, or sometimes you need to be sad,” Wesley said. “All ‘feels’ are valid, so that’s kind of where the idea [for the decorations] spawned.”
Wesley wanted the “little guys” or “blobs” she created to be more like vague representations of all the emotions people experience, instead of distinctly labeling them.
Wesley also explained that if emotions grow to be overwhelming, if there are too many at once, or if they become uncomfortable and/or hard to manage, then students should know that the counselors at the CHC are there to help.
To remind students of this resource, the “FEELS” event included a workshop with licensed mental health counselors, which highlighted the importance of acknowledging one’s emotions. The counselors who led the workshop used the concept of dashboard lights on a car as a metaphor for the feelings we experience. They said those emotions are our bodies trying to tell us something.
Whitney Ockey, health promotion manager at the CHC, also spoke at the event about the mental health struggles that college students sometimes face.
“[College is] stressful, [and] even though it’s positive stress, it’s still stress,” Ockey said. “A lot of college students are going to school and working and supporting family members, especially here at Salt Lake Community College.”
Ockey added that one can’t be completely stress-free, especially while in school, but there are ways to maneuver through the stress and reach an end goal. She described a variety of ways students can find support for their mental health while at SLCC.
“First and foremost, [the CHC] is great because we help students one-on-one with their stress levels through therapy,” said Ockey. “We also have a psychiatric nurse practitioner, so [if] someone is struggling with ADHD or something that may require medications, we can help them with that.”
Ockey also said that it’s helpful for students to build a community for themselves while at the college.
“Make friends in class, create study groups … Don’t feel like you’re just doing it all alone; everybody’s in it with you,” she urged attendees.
Wesley said there are additional resources offered at the CHC, aside from counseling. These services include massage therapy and medical appointments. Wesley explained that all services are charged at a flat rate, and insurance isn’t needed. She added that if the cost isn’t doable for students, the center has a waiver program that one only needs to apply for.
For more information about the resources available to students at the CHC, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.
