The Office of Student Mental Health and Wellness provides wellness programs designed to cultivate resilience, improve problem-solving skills/coping mechanisms, and promote engagement in positive mental health behavior. Programs aim to assist students outside of the counseling setting in developing skills, gaining knowledge, and increasing self-awareness in personal, social, and emotional functioning, as well as promoting personal and professional growth and development that supports physical well-being and quality of life.
Need a break or some sunshine? Need to get your steps in? Want to meet members of the SMHW Staff and new people Join us for a Walk + Talk through campus during your lunch break, every Friday at noon. This group, facilitated by MH interns Nola Long and Paula Wasserman, provides students with a chance to socialize, build community, take a break from daily stressors, and add some movement to your day. Resuming in Fall 2024. Check the NYMC calendar for dates. A consent form is required to join.
This 4-part virtual workshop reviews evidence-based practices for managing emotions, relationships, and self-compassion. Each session covers different concepts and do not require consecutive attendance. Students can attend the dates that best suites their schedules, offered every other Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom. Check NYMC calendar for dates and to register. Resuming in Fall 2024.
SMHW provides free workshops and activities that focus on wellness in areas of nutrition, anxiety, education, stress management, mindfulness, and awareness. We also offer free integrative exercises in yoga and meditation to enhance students' overall health.
Weekly | Tuesdays
6:00p.m. - 7:00p.m.
Location: Medical Education Center (MEC), MOD 202
Beginners encouraged!
Register for Student Meditation classes here
Final session: May 21st, 2024 | Will resume Fall 2024
Meet our Instructor: Joy Solomon
Joy is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher whose practice combines body and breath awareness, evidence-based neuroscience and Western psychology and the ancient Eastern wisdom traditions. Her extensive training includes certifications in mindfulness meditation, yoga, Reiki, trauma, family and older adult mediation, as well as an end of life doula. Joy has been teaching meditation for over a decade and has sat in numerous silent retreats. Joy was also a practicing attorney, specializing in elder justice for twenty years, until recently, when decided to leave her elder justice practice to focus exclusively on mindfulness. She is nourished by the great outdoors, hiking, running, lakes, trees and travel. Poetry and other great writing enlivens Joy's life. Rituals matter to her. Joy has run two NYC marathons and every year with some friends, she enjoy a day-long walk from the northernmost tip of Manhattan to Battery Park.
Weekly | Thursdays
5:30p.m.-6:30p.m.
Location: Yoga Room - Asprinio Fitness Center, Skyline Building
*Weather permitting, class will be held outside on Alumni lawn. Participants will be notified through e-mail and must bring their own towel or mat for outside. Register for yoga classes here
Final session: May 2nd, 2024 | Will resume Fall 2024
Meet our Instructor: Mary Butler-Fink
Mary Butler-Fink has been teaching yoga and meditation for more than twenty years. Her training is in the Hatha Yoga Tradition, and she is certified by Yoga Alliance at the highest-level E-RYT 500 hour, YCEP. She has taught in yoga studios, her own included, corporations, spas, the Veterans Administration, hospitals & schools. Presently, in addition to beginning her 14th year working with faculty, staff & students at NYMC, she holds both private & group classes of all levels. Her karma yoga project for the past decade is Gilda’s Club, which has been recently renamed Red Door Community. For more info and to follow her on Instagram.
Location: Yoga Room - Asprinio Fitness Center, Skyline Building
In this four-week course, participants will develop skills including awareness, safety strategies, verbal de-escalation, and physical techniques that enable someone to confidently avoid, prevent or escape harm. This course takes place twice throughout the academic year in the Fall and Spring. Check NYMC calendar for dates and to register. A consent form is required to join. For any questions, please contact smhw@nymc.edu.
Meet our Instructor: Benjamin Andersen
Ben Andersen is a martial arts and self-defense instructor with over twenty years of experience. His martial arts background includes Goju-Ryu Karate and Brazilian Jiujitsu. He is a co-owner of Edge Martial Arts, located in Dobbs Ferry, NY, where he teaches both martial arts and self-defense programs.