With everything happening in Lebanon and its deep impact on the mental health of the whole population, it is crucial to raise awareness and share effective coping strategies in order not to eliminate the impact but to ease its consequences on our daily lives. 

Within this framework, a collaboration between USJ’s Mental Health Club and ‘Mental’ took place last week. This collaboration was an online workshop held on Monday, the 25th of November, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM via Teams; it was conducted by Dr. Julia El Kallassi, clinical psychologist, lecturer, and founder of the mental health club.  

The workshop was about stress & time management during finals. It started with a brief introduction, and then Dr. Julia spoke to us about the signs of stress and how they can manifest differently from one person to another. She also shed light on the importance of asking for help when we think it is needed. 

Moreover, she highlighted a very well-known experience led by Martin Seligman to introduce the concept of “learned helplessness”. In this experience, 2 dogs were put in cages where they couldn’t avoid electric shocks. After a certain time, these shocks were removed, and they were able to leave, but having internalized the belief that they couldn’t escape because of the electric shocks, they did not even try to escape.  

Furthermore, she talked about the importance of coping strategies like relaxation, breathing techniques, grounding techniques, and mindfulness techniques that we all performed together during the session. We started by sitting straight, putting our hands on our laps, and closing our eyes. We were guided during this by Dr. Julia to allow ourselves to feel the moment and focus only on the present. Once we were done with the exercise, we shared what we felt. 

After doing that, she talked about time management and its importance now during our final exams. She shared with us some tips like taking breaks, doing our best, studying with a friend, and other important things to keep in mind during these difficult times. 

At the end, the workshop was concluded with students asking questions and getting responses from Dr. Julia. 

In summary, this workshop goes way beyond being a secondary thing to watch. In fact, it is a need to be able to momentarily escape from nowadays’ overwhelming events. Thank you USJ, USJ Mental Health Club, and of course Dr. Julia, for the support you were able to give us during this workshop.