A safe space where we engage in genuine, introspective conversations about nurturing mental health, with compassion and open minds.
"Who am I to know, judge, or decide?" Self-esteem is vital for our well-being. In a fast-paced world, it's easy to feel inadequate compared to others' glamour and overwhelmed by information overload. Self-esteem is essential for our mental health, self-efficacy, and self-respect.
In this series of events, you can expect:
Presentation
Activity: Conversation based Worksheet(s)
Round Table Synthesis
This is to understand and integrate Nathaniel Branden's The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem:
Self-Acceptance: Embracing and advocating for oneself.
Living Consciously: Introspecting for higher awareness.
Self-Responsibility: Accountability for actions and pursuit of goals.
Self-Assertiveness: Expressing needs and values respectfully.
Living Purposefully: Setting and actively pursuing specific goals.
Personal Integrity: Consistency between actions and values.
The Six Pillars to Build Self-Esteem
First Event - Saturday, March 30, 2024 - At Both Coffee
Presentation:
What is Self Esteem?
What isn't self-esteem?
Why is self-esteem important today?
How to build it? Six Pillars of Self Esteem
Activity: Nathenial Branden's Stem Completion
Reflection on the Event:
This was quite a success. With this event, I realized how a lot of the participants really yearned for genuine conversations. During the activity (Conversation-based Worksheets), I emphasized that the participants should:
Focus on exploring each other,
Avoid being judgmental,
Establish and respect boundaries.
I felt I had to do this because it seemed within my frame of reference that people are highly focused on labeling others before actually understanding them. With the guidelines established, the depth of conversations was amazing! The members felt safe to share who they were, and this was reflected in the round table synthesis.
During the synthesis, many of the participants commented on how the activity made them very vulnerable. I did wonder if it was more vulnerable for them to explore themselves with a stranger or alone. I'm leaning towards the latter.
One of the most interesting insights that a participant had was: "How can I face a problem I don't know?" This is connected to how they faced their internal struggles. This attitude is really the basis of the next event: Self-Acceptance, which says that accepting the reality of our internal worlds is the precondition for change.
Overall, I was very happy with how it went.
Self-Acceptance: The Importance of Advocating Yourself
2nd Event - Saturday, May 4, 2024 - At Both Coffee
Presentation:
Discussion of the levels of Self-Acceptance:
Self-Advocacy: Why is it important to consistently advocate for ourselves?
Self-Owning: Why should we fully acknowledge and embrace our real thoughts and feelings?
Self-Compassionate: Why is practicing kindness towards ourselves crucial when acknowledging our faults
Activity:
Nathenial Branden's Stem Completion
CBT Worksheet
Reflection on the Event:
The event was eye-opening for many members. I talked about Anne Freud's Defense Mechanisms to highlight how we often avoid our thoughts and feelings. After understanding them, we shared personal examples; mine is usually intellectualization.
I briefly introduced CBT's concept of core beliefs to show how they form and affect us. Although we only touched on it, it could be worth an entire event.
I presented two activities, one of them used CBT's cognitive model, with members reflecting on chosen situations.
During the Round Table Synthesis, a member shared their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sensations about a friend's last-minute cancellation. It was fascinating to hear their detailed reflection. Members were a bit hesitant to share their deep, personal reflections, which was totally fine.
The highlight was the theme of 'loneliness.' Many members resonated with this, sharing feelings of loneliness despite engaging in activities or reaching a certain age.
Post-event feedback mentioned the event was emotionally challenging and the worksheets were a bit clunky. For future events, I'll aim for more concise content and make the worksheets more conversationally friendly.
Living Consciously: Mindfulness
3rd Event - Sunday, May 25, 2024 - At Both Coffee
Presentation:
Living Consciously
What is it?
Why is it important?
What does it entail?
Mindfulness
Activity:
Art Therapy and Mindfulness
Reflection on the Event:
Presentation: I began by addressing feedback from the previous event, which highlighted three main points:
The activities were too difficult.
I needed to be more facilitative.
The event was emotionally draining because it dealt with core beliefs and could potentially reopen wounds.
As the host of the psychology society, I realized it was important to embody the qualities of a therapist. Eliciting, listening, and applying feedback are essential, and it's a core principle in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to collaborate and seek feedback from attendees.
Another quality I needed to embody was eliciting more perspectives from the attendees. After introducing the concept of Living Consciously, I shared a short self-disclosure and then asked each attendee, "Why are you seeking to live consciously?" This simple question engaged them significantly.
Activity: To address the difficulty of the activities, I started with a warm-up. I presented "Comedian" by Maurizio Cattelan, which is literally a banana taped to a wall. I chose this artwork because I remembered Ryan, the host of the Art Club, presenting the same piece, and everyone had drastically different reactions. Similarly, the attendees at this event had varied reactions. I asked them how they felt about it, what they thought about it, what bodily sensations they experienced, and what behavior they would exhibit towards it. Each attendee’s reactions showcased their core beliefs.
For the main activity, I integrated principles from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and my observations from Ryan's event (essentially art therapy), and the outcome was very inquisitive. The attendees discovered meta-analyses through the worksheets on their own, which was not something I had intentionally planned. They recognized that they related to certain themes more than others.
Round Table Synthesis: An example of this meta-analysis is an attendee who practiced solitude and realized they couldn't say much about it compared to other themes, indicating something they needed to introspect on further. Many attendees had different meta-analyses of themselves, which I hadn't anticipated could be achieved through art therapy. Some of my friends even analyzed my choice of artworks and shared their thoughts during the synthesis, which I found very funny.
Post-event Thoughts: I recognized that I should embody the qualities of a therapist as it's in line with the theme of the psychology society. This includes focusing on engaging the attendees and minimizing self-disclosure. Seeking feedback and collaborating on future events is also essential. Please feel free to privately message me on Messenger (there should be a link below) for any feedback or suggestions.
About Me
Hey, I am Fai. I'd describe myself as quite eccentric, benevolently self-interested, super energetic, and overtly expressive. I am in love with exploring people's inner worlds, particularly mine.
My interest in Psychology began when my therapist suggested I take up Psychology. After completing my sessions with her, many books, and deep conversations, here I am sharing what I've learned. I am currently training to be a hotline crisis volunteer and will be pursuing an M.A. in Clinical Psychology.
Psychology Society is simply a place where I share my learnings and have genuine deep conversations. I adore offline spaces; I don't think we have enough of those where we can comfortably sit down with a stranger and actually talk about who we are.
