UHS Health & Wellness Spotlight: Recent Episodes
Lindsay R. Repko, MFT
This is a collection of brief conversations with members of the high school community and hosted by UHS Director of Health & Wellness and the UHS School Counselor. The conversations feature health and wellness topics that are relevant to teens and those who care for them and sometimes feature surprise guests.
This episode is a recording of a 15 minute yoga nidra (yogic sleep) practice to help folks rest in the face of stress, anxiety, and tension.
This podcast episode dives into a discussion of racial issues pertaining specifically to the mental health of Black people, especially with the heightened attention given to the Black Lives Matter movement since the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others. It discusses how Black people can take care of themselves right now and always, since for Black folks, especially Black women, increased focus on Black issues often means burdening themselves with taking care of and educating others. The podcast connects these trends with a conversation about mental health and how to sustain it, whether that means checking in or checking out. For non-Black people in particular, this episode provides a lot of concrete action steps on how to avoid performative activism and instead move straight to active allyship. The focus is on uplifting Black voices while avoiding leaving the bulk of the work on Black people’s shoulders as often is the case.
As outlined in the UHS Newsletter:
The pandemic has illuminated the course of two viruses; COVID19 and racism, which continue to wreak havoc on countless minds, bodies, and hearts. These viruses threaten mental health, meaningful self-care practices, and erode our relationships to ourselves, each other, and the larger world. The persistent wrestling with these realities, and acknowledgement of the subsequent trauma that they produce in BIPOC communities, is long overdue. Some folks are realizing for the first time what’s happening, while others face the impact of how long that they’ve been waiting for action. These realities can stir all kinds of emotional reactions that make working transformation difficult. Where can healing fit into this and what kind of mental health are we striving for if we can’t wrestle with these realities in an ongoing, relational way? In our next and fourth episode of UHS Health & Wellness Spotlight, entitled “The Intersection of Anti-Racist Work, Mental Health, & Relationships,” Corinne and I will begin our discussion of these topics and talk about resources. We hope that you’ll tune in! We recognize the potential limitations in our offering, given we will be sharing from our perspectives as white women. However, we hope to partner with others in future episodes, and if you would like to contribute a topic or participate, please be in touch with Lindsay (lindsay.repko@sfuhs.org).
Corinne and Lindsay take a moment to acknowledge the violence in our country right now and then move into an episode discussing how space might feel for people right now. They discuss some ideas in terms of how to frame summer space and the episode even features the spaceship launch.
In this episode, Corinne and Lindsay explore how anger is showing up for people and its relationship to moral distress, as the nation braces for a transition to re-open slowly. They discuss goodbyes, why anger shows up when we're saying goodbye, and deconstruct what makes a goodbye "good?" Or is there such a thing as a "badbye?" Solid resources are offered at the end to help navigate all the complexity in this time and as another school year comes to a close (only this time, in quarantine).
Join Corinne and Lindsay as they discuss the relationships that students may be having with body image, food, and exercise in quarantine. They debunk some problematic messages, discuss supports, and provide suggestions for parents/caregivers/loved ones pertaining to these topics.
Introduction to our collection of 15min health & wellness conversations with the student support team at UHS.