All You Need to Know About the Health and Well-Being Week

The annual Health and Well-Being Week at AUBG took place between March 18 and March 23, granting students the opportunity to participate in lectures and activities focusing on mental and physical wellness. This series of events gathers Health Center staff members and psychology-oriented clubs to highlight the importance of looking after your health.

 

The Psychology Club’s Yoga Session

The events started on Monday, March 18, with healthy sandwiches and desserts in all three Skaptopara residence halls. Later that day, the Psychology Club offered a trauma-informed yoga session. 

 

Victoria Taneva, a junior and head of the club’s yoga program, shared: “Trauma-informed yoga is the yoga which considers that our emotional and physical bodies are connected. This is true no matter whether you’ve suffered through traumatic experiences or not. Yogis, however, believe that deep trauma response is stored as tension or a tendency to dissociate with your body or parts of it.” Victoria points out that yoga means union between body and mind, and believes that every yoga session should be trauma-informed. 

 

Round Table with Professor Diaz

Four directors of local social service facilities and psychology professor Felix Diaz conducted a round table on Tuesday, March 19. The event was hosted by the Psychology Club. As Professor Diaz reported, the four speakers described their work process in organizations in Blagoevgrad caring for children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. 

 

The directors of these organizations also shared their hopes to continue collaborating with the university in ways that are beneficial for everyone involved. Professor Diaz said: “Students have been visiting some of these centers in volunteering projects, in the activities of different student clubs, as Psychology interns or to develop projects for JMC.” 

 

 

Sexual and Reproductive Health Discussion

Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, Executive Director at the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association, visited AUBG on Wednesday, March 20, and invited students to participate in a discussion about sexual and reproductive health. 

 

Raya Borissova, a freshman who attended the event, said: “The presentation was very detailed and explored many topics. Also, I loved the guest speaker - she was very friendly and engaged a lot with the audience, which made the atmosphere very pleasant.” 

 

Art Therapy with the Peer Counselors

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the Peer Counselors hosted two art therapy sessions named “Blooming Equinox,” where students took part in clay crafting. 

 

Nadezhda Trifonova, a freshman and peer counselor, considers creating art beneficial for mental well-being: “Making something out of clay makes you feel satisfied because you created it with your own hands. It is great for students’ reward systems.” 

Gynecological Exams

As a final event, the Health Center, in collaboration with Lozenets Hospital, offered free gynecological and breast exams for everyone who had signed up in advance. Despite the positive feedback, some students who wanted to take advantage of the free examinations were mildly disappointed with the planning.

 

Lora Slavova, a junior, shared: “The available slots were booked way too quickly, and, in case of an opening, they were expecting you to be on call and react immediately.” However, she found the examination helpful and, according to her, the doctors were competent and well-disposed. 

 

The Past and Future of the Event

The Health and Well-Being Week is one of the university’s signature series of events. It started as a Health and Well-Being Day in the Spring of 2022 and, encouraged by its success, Dean of Students Sabina Wien and the Health Center decided to expand and improve it the following year. 

 

When asked about the future of the event, the Dean of Students responded: “I firmly believe that the HWBW has become a tradition and will remain one of the highlights of the Health and Well-being Program offered by the Health and Well-being Center in the future. We already have plans to expand the list of community partners and outreach for next year.”

 

Editors: Dasha Dolgopolova and Niya Manditsch