Wellness Classes and Support Groups
The Office of Student Mental Health and Wellness provides wellness programs designed to cultivate resilience, improve problem-solving skills/coping mechanisms, and promote engagement in positive mental health behavior. Programs aim to assist students outside of the counseling setting in developing skills, gaining knowledge, and increasing self-awareness in personal, social, and emotional functioning, as well as promoting personal and professional growth and development that supports physical well-being and quality of life.
Support Groups
Managing and Mastering Academic Challenges: Thriving through Stress
Academic life can be both rewarding and challenging. When facing academic obstacles, students often experience a complicated mix of emotions and reactions that can impact their ability to effectively manage their circumstances. This virtual confidential group will provide an opportunity for students to connect with other students and develop coping skills to achieve maximum success. Come to any or all sessions. Resuming in Fall 2024. Check the NYMC calendar for dates and to register.
Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole: Fostering Resilience Group
This 4-part virtual workshop reviews evidence-based practices for managing emotions, relationships, and self-compassion. Each session covers different concepts and do not require consecutive attendance. Students can attend the dates that best suits their schedules, offered every other Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom. Check NYMC calendar for dates and to register. Resuming in Fall 2024.
Wellness Classes
SMHW provides free workshops and activities that focus on wellness in areas of nutrition, anxiety, education, stress management, mindfulness, and awareness. We also offer free integrative exercises in yoga and meditation to enhance students' overall health.
Student Meditation
Bi-Weekly | Tuesdays
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Medical Education Center (MEC), MOD 202
Beginners encouraged!
Register for Student Meditation classes
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Meet our Instructor: Joy Solomon
Joy is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher whose practice combines body and breath awareness, evidence-based neuroscience and Western psychology and the ancient Eastern wisdom traditions. Her extensive training includes certifications in mindfulness meditation, yoga, Reiki, trauma, family and older adult mediation, as well as an end of life doula. Joy has been teaching meditation for over a decade and has sat in numerous silent retreats. Joy was also a practicing attorney, specializing in elder justice for twenty years, until recently, when decided to leave her elder justice practice to focus exclusively on mindfulness. She is nourished by the great outdoors, hiking, running, lakes, trees and travel. Poetry and other great writing enlivens Joy's life. Rituals matter to her. Joy has run two NYC marathons and every year with some friends, she enjoys a day-long walk from the northernmost tip of Manhattan to Battery Park.
Yoga Classes
Weekly | Thursdays
6:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
Location: Yoga Room - Asprinio Fitness Center, Skyline Building
*Weather permitting, class will be held outside on Alumni lawn. Participants will be notified through e-mail and must bring their own towel or mat for outside.
Meet our Instructor: Mary Butler-Fink
Mary Butler-Fink has been teaching yoga and meditation for more than twenty years. Her training is in the Hatha Yoga Tradition, and she is certified by Yoga Alliance at the highest-level E-RYT 500 hour, YCEP. She has taught in yoga studios, her own included, corporations, spas, the Veterans Administration, hospitals & schools. Presently, in addition to beginning her 14th year working with faculty, staff & students at NYMC, she holds both private & group classes of all levels. Her karma yoga project for the past decade is Gilda’s Club, which has been recently renamed Red Door Community. For more info and to follow her on Instagram.
Self Defense Classes
4-Week Course | Thursdays
12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Location: Yoga Room - Asprinio Fitness Center, Skyline Building
In this four-week course, participants will develop skills including awareness, safety strategies, verbal de-escalation, and physical techniques that enable someone to confidently avoid, prevent or escape harm. This course takes place twice throughout the academic year in the Fall and Spring. Check NYMC calendar for dates and to register. A consent form is required to join. For any questions, please contact smhw@nymc.edu.
Meet our Instructor: Benjamin Andersen
Ben Andersen is a martial arts and self-defense instructor with over twenty years of experience. His martial arts background includes Goju-Ryu Karate and Brazilian Jiujitsu. He is a co-owner of Edge Martial Arts, located in Dobbs Ferry, NY, where he teaches both martial arts and self-defense programs.
