By Maddie Garvis
The Resiliency, Integration and Self-Empowerment (RISE) Program has started its third run at Hood, this time in a virtual format.
The RISE program, offered at no cost to students, aims to help Hood students who’ve experienced traumatic events like sexual assault or abuse, stalking, or domestic violence, among others.
The facilitators of the program, a licensed Heartly House counselor, and Cheyenne Bowman, a mental health counseling student from Hood’s graduate school, provide students with tools that they can use to build their resiliency skills and overcome hardships.
Due to COVID-19, the normally eight-week program will be condensed to six weeks and will be conducted entirely via zoom once a week, and through recorded video instruction.
Bowman highlighted the benefit of the new virtual format making the program material program more accessible.
“Even if you’re not able to attend the group that day, if you were to send me an email saying that you were interested in it, I can still send the materials to you from the group and you can still view it at your own pace,” Bowman said. “Since the educational portion is pre-recorded, it’s like you have a teacher right there with you.”
During the live sessions, participants will learn a coping technique from a pre-recorded video and will then participate in an exercise that utilizes that technique.
The first session, held on Tuesday, Sept. 15, focused on distraction as a coping skill. Participants were instructed on how to create their own mandala drawing, a complex series of geometric patterns, that promotes focus on a simple task to distract the mind.
Other topics that will be discussed throughout the program are mindfulness, self-soothing, movement, and emotional awareness.
CARE Project Coordinator Nina Carr highlighted the importance of the program in helping students overcome past trauma.
“Things like this can throw you off course, from all the great things you want to do, all the schoolwork, and the clubs, the jobs, and internships,” Carr said. “Sometimes these things have a way of getting in the way, so this is a way to give that power back to students so they can rise above the adversity that they’ve experienced.”
For more information about the RISE Program, contact Cheyenne Bowman at csb16@hood.edu
Be the first to comment