Spilling the Tea on Mental Health
By Lisa MacTavish
The snow is trying to melt and birds are beginning to sing… all signs that spring is here! This also means that the end of the semester is near with final projects due and final exams around the corner. Hello anxiety and stress! However, this stressful end of the semester doesn’t need to happen! The University of Lethbridge is the first Canadian University to join the on-demand emotional health and well-being service, 7 Cups.
7 Cups is an online support service to students that offers therapy, counselling, coaching, and guidance. Rebecca Friesen, a full-time Calgary Campus student and full-time U of L admin support, says she turned to 7 cups when she just needed to talk to someone:
“I reached a point during the semester where things were building up and I just needed to talk to someone, but I wanted to talk to someone who didn’t know my whole life story. Everyone always wants to give me a solution, I didn’t want a solution, I just wanted to talk to someone. 7 Cups offered me that.”
Realizing the importance of having that listener, Rebecca did the online training with 7 Cups to become a trained listener. Now, having engaged in over 600 chats on 7 Cups, Rebecca has fallen in love with helping people.
“When you get that first message saying that you helped someone out, it’s a really good feeling, but the best feeling is empowering a student. We get them to look introspectively. They can see what their options are, and when we find all those options, the listener doesn’t make the decision, the student has the power to make the decision.”
7 Cups offers University of Lethbridge students the ability to connect with a trained, compassionate listener in a safe space that is completely anonymous. Visit the uLethbridge platform where you can access listeners who know our campus and can relate to a specific challenge you may be facing.
https://www.7cups.com/p/uleth/
The password to use our uLethbridge platform is: uleth
