Stress Management is a two-hour workshop developed by People Supporting People- a consumer advocacy group of mental health survivors. It is an interactive and educational workshop, which can be presented to a wide audience of participants, including a variety of age groups, the general population and mental health survivors.

Stress is a “fact of life” for everyone, especially in our fast-paced, modern day society. We all need some stress to function and keep motivated to achieve our goals and meet the challenges of everyday life. Without stress we would not grow as individuals or attain higher levels of self-satisfaction.

This workshop will explore positive and negative stress and individual coping mechanisms which affect how we deal with stress.

Seasonal depression, winter blues and holiday stress is a two-hour workshop developed by People Supporting People is a consumer advocacy group of mental health survivors. It is an interactive and educational workshop, which can be presented to a wide audience of participants, including a variety of age groups, the general public and mental health survivors. Seasonal Affective Disorder or Depression (SAD) affects a very large number of people in the fall and winter months when there is a lack of sunshine (vitamin D) in more northern climates or countries. In particular, this workshop will focus primarily on Christmas holiday stress, which often coincides with Seasonal Affective Depression (SAD) and a less severe form of sadness, often referred to as the “winter blues” for those who are prone to these conditions

This PSP workshop will focus on self-advocacy skills for survivors of mental illness or the general population. It is presented in three units, which can be performed as three separate workshops involving three themes: ATTITUDE, SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE. A shorter version can also be adapted to present as one workshop, which would be done in a half-day session. The format, which will be developed in this workshop, will involve the shorter format focusing on attitudes, skills and knowledge related to self-advocacy. The material presented in this workshop can be adapted to problem solving personal advocacy issues and/or systemic, organizational and larger problems. This workshop will provide participants with many opportunities for group discussion about attitudes, skills and developing more knowledge about how to be an effective advocate, as well as becoming aware of their present strengths and weaknesses in this area of study.

This is a two hour workshop presented by People Supporting People (PSP) to aid participants who may be survivors of mental illness, the community-at-large or any other special interest groups, to gain an understanding of “what is stigma?”, where it originates, it’s effects on individuals with a mental illness and how a community and society as a whole can help to erase it. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by the stigma associated with a mental illness and how they may have inadvertently contributed to their own or others’ stigma. This workshop will also give participants a chance to discuss ways of eradicating stigma on a personal and societal level.