May Mental Health Awareness Month Events & Initiatives

Tuesday, April 28 from 1 p.m.- 2 p.m. on Zoom

Register for Psychological Skills for Managing Stress and Change

Many people are navigating a complex mix of national events, workplace demands, and personal responsibilities. It’s understandable that this can lead to feelings of overwhelm, uncertainty, or even helplessness.

In this webinar, Dr. Ana Dolatabadi will share practical skills to help you regulate stress, maintain perspective, and access your thinking during challenging times. The session will explore strategies for staying steady amid multiple stressors, caring for yourself in sustainable ways, and finding moments of connection and meaning within community. Participants will leave with concrete tools to support their well-being while continuing to meet the demands of work and life.

Friday, May 8 from 12 p.m.- 1 p.m. on Zoom

Register for Working Parents: Strategies for Wellness and Avoiding Burnout

This 1-hour webinar will provide an overview of today’s challenges in being a successful working parent and how to address the risks for parental burnout. By the end of the webinar, you will be able to:

• Recognize signs and causes of parental burnout
• Discover personal, family, and career strategies for prevention & recovery
• Design your own plan to make working parenthood more sustainable
• Know how to access resources for dealing with parental burnout inside and outside your workplace.

Join Heike Mitchell, PhD and the Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) for this practical, solution-focused session to help you manage the pressures of working parenthood and improve your well-being. 

Bio: In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month, The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) is delighted to welcome Dr. Heike Mitchell as our guest presenter for this special webinar.

Heike Mitchell, PhD is a champion of workplace well-being, especially for new and working parents. Drawing on her psychological expertise and a strong understanding of workplace dynamics, she develops practical and science-based solutions that help both individuals and organizations thrive. Dr. Mitchell previously served as a fellow at UCSF’s Faculty & Staff Assistance Program and is pleased to return to present this webinar. 

Thursday, May 14 from 12 p.m.- 1 p.m. on Zoom

Register for An Expressive Arts Webinar for Navigating Uncertainty

We are living in a time of ongoing uncertainty - and also of creativity, connection, and unexpected joy. Both things are true at once.

This webinar invites you to explore that tension not just through analysis, but through art. Through a simple, grounding drawing practice. Through a few lines of poetry. Through the act of making something with your hands and attention.

Drs. Leanna Reyes, Tina X. Wang, and Sabina Brown will guide you through three connected experiences:

• Dr. Leanna Reyes opens with a warm, accessible look at what uncertainty does to our minds and bodies — and why learning to hold mixed emotions is a skill, not a personality trait.
• Dr. Tina X. Wang leads a guided mandala drawing exercise. No artistic experience is needed, and there is no right or wrong outcome. This practice uses repetition and gentle focus to help regulate the nervous system, offering a way to stay present while your mind begins to settle.
• Dr. Sabina Brown closes with a short poetry writing exercise. You'll leave with something you made - a few lines that are entirely your own.

You don’t need to be an artist. You don’t need to be a poet. You just need to show up.

The goal isn’t to fix uncertainty, but to feel a little more at home inside it.

All are welcome.

Wednesday, May 20 from 12 p.m.- 1 p.m. on Zoom

Register for the Psychology of Journaling and Wellbeing

Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is take a moment to put words to what we're carrying. This one-hour journaling workshop is open to everyone - whether you've kept a journal for years, tried it once and moved on, or have always been a little curious but never quite started. We'll explore what the science tells us about the benefits of journaling, unpack four different ways to journal so you can find the approach that fits your life, and spend time writing together in a space that's low-pressure and judgment-free.

You'll leave with:

• Practical tools to begin and build a habit
• Ways to come back to the page when life gets in the way - because it will, and that's okay
• The reassurance that your journal entries are entirely private, as this is a personal journey of self-discovery and reflection

No writing experience needed. Just bring yourself and a journal or something to write with.

Bio: In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month, The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) is delighted to welcome Dr. Nicolas Bob as our guest presenter for this special webinar.

Nicolas Bob, PsyD (he/him) is a licensed clinical psychologist currently working as a staff psychologist at California College of the Arts. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF's Faculty and Staff Assistance Program in 2024.

Dr. Bob holds a deep belief that creativity and self-expression are not peripheral. Instead, he sees them as acts of courage essential to what it means to live a full and examined life. Dr. Bob views art, writing, and storytelling not as separate from well-being but as some of its most honest expressions. This shapes how he works with people: less about fixing, and more about helping them author the story they most want to live.

He is passionate about creating spaces - clinical and communal - where people feel free to explore who they are, give voice to what they carry, and find meaning in the telling of it. He is glad you're here.

Thursday, May 28 from 12 p.m.- 1 p.m. on Zoom

Register for Drowning in To-Do Lists

Do you have more than one to-do list in more than one place that never seems to get smaller? Many of us want to find a balance with task accomplishment that feels sustainable and fulfilling.  In the face of sustained overwhelm, our capacity to manage care tasks at home and work can become impacted. 

Drawing on current understandings of stress’ impact on regulation and functioning, this webinar will explore reframing care tasks as functional supports, rather than moral measures of worth. 

Dr. Sandhu will address

• How the nervous system responds to stress
• Barriers that can make completing care tasks difficult, including shame and negative self-talk around unfinished tasks
• Skill building strategies to regulate chronic stress
• Creating functional ways to manage everyday care tasks

This webinar draws on ideas and inspiration from How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis, LPC.

Bio: In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month, The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) is delighted to welcome Dr. Sophia Sandhu as our guest presenter for this special webinar.

Dr. Sophia Sandhu is a licensed psychologist working at the Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP) at UC Davis, where she primarily works with medical residents and fellows. 

Dr. Sandhu completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco’s Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP). She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute, a master’s in education with an emphasis on Poverty and Intervention from Vanderbilt University, and a bachelor’s in Psychobiology from UCLA.

Her clinical experience includes work within community and academic medical settings, supporting individuals across the lifespan. She has co-led mindfulness and self-compassion groups, facilitated workshops on burnout prevention and presented on topics including building habits for practical change, sensory tools for nervous system regulation, and trauma stewardship.