Breath of Fresh Air Before Academic Sprint: Mental Health Spring Returns to HSE University

On May 29, 2024 the HSE Centre for Psychological Counselling and the ‘Training School’ student organisation will hold the traditional Mental Health Spring festival at HSE University. Its goal is to provide psychological education and support to HSE students before the upcoming summer exam session.

This year, Mental Health Spring will be themed around the works of Hayao Miyazaki, the famous Japanese animation director. The programme includes a live Ghibli Museum, immersive theatre, expert lectures, self-discovery training sessions, a cosy evening gathering, and other beneficial activities.

In the central atrium on Pokrovsky Bulvar, the Ghibli Museum will feature the following themed zones:

• Away to Childhood;
• Magical Self-Discovery Service;
• Meeting Castle;
• Imaginarium;
• a canine therapy zone with therapy dogs, a quest, and much more.

Irina Makarova, Director of the HSE Centre for Psychological Counselling

— We first held MHS in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic and lockdown. Since then, the festival has become an annual event and focuses on issues of communication and resource finding. This year, the main theme is the worlds of Miyazaki because his cartoons are very popular among young people and address important themes: friendship, self-discovery, and finding ways out of the most difficult and unbearable situations into the amazing and magical worlds of our imagination, where anything is possible.

2024 has been declared the Year of Family in Russia. As psychologists, we recognise the undeniable and unquestionable value of family relationships and their influence on personality development. As part of the festival programme, we would like to talk about family and family relationships as a source of life energy, which is why we invited representatives of the HSE master's programme 'Systemic Family Therapy' as speakers.

Another feature of this year's Mental Health Spring festival is the presentation of a relatively new direction for our Centre, namely socio-psychological training. We have gathered an excellent team of HSE students and alumni ready to develop and implement various forms of training education together with professional psychologists. And within the framework of the festival, we are ready to present and showcase them.

Elizaveta Afanasyeva, graduate of the HSE bachelor’s programme 'Psychology', practicing methodologist and trainer, author of the Telegram channel 'Deadlinewasyesterdayy'

— It is hard to believe that the annual Mental Health Spring festival is coming soon. This is not the first event where I will be a trainer, but it is the first time we are doing this with the training staff of the HSE Centre for Psychological Counselling.

After we attended a training workshop last summer, many of us were inspired by the idea of conducting these sessions and have developed our own signature training courses on topics that interest us. We will be sharing knowledge and skills with the participants.

I am looking forward to Mental Health Spring, where I will conduct the training 'Personal Boundaries: How to Define and Set Them?' in which you will learn to understand your comfort zone, defend your position, say 'no,' and resist pressure.

In addition, my colleagues will present training sessions on self-esteem, team management and communication, as well as problem formulation. Over several hours, there will also be training on effective and nonviolent communication with Andrey Ruban, an organisational psychologist, coach for trainers at HSE University, and head of the Leadership Consulting Department at Ward Howell.

I have no doubt that you will find something interesting and relevant. You are sure to gain useful information which you can use to improve the quality of your life.

A detailed festival programme is available on the website (in Russian). Registration for the events is open till May 24. Anyone interested can join Mental Health Spring.

May 20