UAGC Psych Club Newsletter
2022 Q2
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Tuesday, Jul 5, 2022, 12:00 AM
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Challenge Yourself!
Editorial by Vickmarie Murray, 2021-2022 Psych Club President
As I complete my year as the Psych Club President, I want to reflect on my experience. What seemed like such a big undertaking resulted in a series of little steps, events, and tasks that kept me motivated to continue and prepare me for each new challenge. The journey of being a Psych Club Officer was far from what I envisioned it would be, ... it was better! I attribute my success in the psychology program to the mentorship, encouragement, and empowerment experienced. If it wasn't because of the meetings, the Psych Club team, and the faculty members that inspired me to push myself and continue, I highly doubt I would have completed my degree when I did.
During my journey, I had to transition from being a stay-at-home mom and full-time student to a full-time working mom and full-time student. One of the blessings of being the president was how my experience set me up for success during an employment gap. I was able to demonstrate my potential by sharing my accomplishments in the Psych Club. Life was hard and being an officer gave me a sense of purpose and helped me grow as a professional. As a bonus, I now have several mentors in the field of psychology who I deeply respect.
when encouraged to run for President, I questioned my ability to lead and felt overwhelmed by the prospect of "running the show". Thankfully, the club advisors, my fellow officers, and SAAB members helped me realize my potential.
So, what does a Psych Club officer do? As a Psych Club Officer, my involvement consisted of leading monthly meetings, planning, delegating, and communicating with the faculty to ensure we accomplish our goals. By attending the meetings and completing small tasks in meetings we managed to host a Winter Symposium, publish four newsletters, host three different member engagement events, and conduct a UAGC hoodie giveaway, not to mention consistently interacting with other members and sharing valuable information via our platforms, UAGC and LinkedIn. We had the support of the faculty behind the scenes, so we didn't have to do it all alone, but the student leadership really allows our club to maintain focus on what matters to you, the members.
I would love to share my experience with anyone interested in becoming an Officer. I challenge you to challenge yourself.
Wellness
Editorial by: Dr. Cara Metz, Faculty Advisory Board
When we think about wellness, we often think about what keeps us healthy. This can be through eating healthy foods and exercising. You might think about keeping yourself mentally healthy through mindfulness, meditation, journaling, or even seeking out therapy. Did you know, though, that wellness has different dimensions? Depending on where you look, you can find several “wheels” of wellness (e.g. Myers et al., 2000; Hettler, 1976). Although there are some small differences, they all have several dimensions in common, which include physical, emotional, spiritual, friendship, and work. We probably understand the physical and emotional elements well. When we talk about the spiritual portion of the wellness wheel, we are looking not necessarily at religion, although this can be included, but instead examining our connection to the world and universe, the role we play (Myers et al., 2000), and meaning making. Friendship is the social aspect to our wellness. Humans are social creatures and we need connections to others. As a student, it can be important to have a balance of friendships outside of school, but having connections with other students, people who are experiencing the same thing you are with respect to classes and work, can be extremely helpful. Finally, with work, we look at what we do that are useful to others or the community. This is not only the career you choose, it could be caring for others, volunteering.
When we talk about wellness and working on our wellness, we need to look at all of these aspects of our lives. Wellness is a balance that we work on throughout our lives, and the right balance is going to be as unique to us. One person’s balance might not be the same as ours. As we grow, mature, and change, the unique wellness balance changes as certain aspects might become more important than others. Our wellness wheel does not work in isolation, either. Each piece of the wheel can have an impact on the others. If we are feeling too stressed or possibly anxious or sad, our physical health can be impacted. Our emotional, physical, and friendship pieces all can impact how satisfied we are at our job (Metz, 2012). There is a lot of interconnection between the pieces of the wellness wheel, so it is important to examine all of our pieces and how we can create balance. When one aspect is off or ignored it has a ripple effect on others.
When we want to work on our own wellness, we should take it one step and one aspect at a time. At the beginning of every year we all might make resolutions, and sometimes those fail because we take on too much too fast or we try to focus too much on the big picture. Find the one aspect you can do something for or that one step you can take. Focus on what you can make happen now. Work on that, then move to the next. Wellness is a lifelong balancing act. Beginning to understand what your needs are is an incredible first step to find your balance.
References
Hettler, B. (1976). The six dimensions of wellness. http://www.hettler.com/sixdimen.htm
Metz, C. L. (2012). The effects of mental health and physical health on job satisfaction in the mental health field (Publication No. 3518100) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Myers, J. E., Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (2000). The wheel of wellness counseling for wellness: A holistic model for treatment planning. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78(3), 251.
Intergenerational Trauma: A Consideration for Future Generations
With the interest in mental health growing exponentially in recent years, there is a topic that begs to be acknowledged: intergenerational trauma. Intergenerational trauma is defined by the American Psychological Association (n.d.) as traumatic events that happened to descendants of someone which caused the ancestors posttraumatic distress, such as those who experienced events like the Holocaust, internment camps, and the forced displacement of Native Americans. This phenomenon often leads us into considering just how many ancestors have experienced these events and how deeply they were personally affected. How does this affect those of today’s times though?
Zhukova (2020) found that some mothers who experienced institutional care tend to normalize their past traumas with the mindset that they survived those hardships, therefore their children will as well. Institutional care can be considered foster care placement and involvement with child protective services. Something that the general public is often aware of is that foster care can be either good or bad. Zhukova (2020) explained that maladaptive parenting strategies from mothers with traumatic childhood history tend to have negative effects on their children. Additionally, DeAngelis (2019) noted a study that factored some adaptive styles which were observed through Holocaust survivors: Those who have trouble growing apart from their trauma may become overprotective, while those with emotional detachment may view mental illness as a problem.
Further studies by Zhukova (2020) found that due to the prior trauma of mothers, their behaviors (mistreatment and maladaptive parenting) “evoked cross-generational maltreatment” (para. 24). Essentially, those who experienced poor treatment within institutional care and erroneous, emotionally detached parenting found that the following generations also experienced mental breakdowns from these events. An example that may correspond with this type of maltreatment includes the traumatized mother’s early introductions to sexual behaviors which lead to unplanned pregnancies, thus producing an unprepared mental and physical environment in which the child is raised. Considering DeAngelis’s (2019) explanation of adaptive styles, this provides contemporary insight. Oftentimes, the assumption is that mothers who experienced traumatic sexual abuse growing up may find themselves imposing stricter rules with their children as a form of protection, but this can be maladaptive in nature as it can create a sheltered environment which does not allow the child to see for themselves how reality is.
At what point do we realize that current mental health resources are scarce and in need of revision in order to benefit our future generations so we can intervene in, and maybe prevent, the trauma cycle?
References
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/
DeAngelis, T. (2019, February). The legacy of trauma. Monitors of Psychology, 50(2), 36. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/02/legacy-trauma
Zhukova, M. A. (2020). Mothers with a history of child welfare involvement: A brief literature review of cross generational impact of maternal trauma. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2020(169), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20328
Congratulations to the Psych Club Give Away Winner - Ailed Hernandez !
Ailed Hernandez won the hoodie displayed below. Interested in participating? Stay tuned on our LinkedIn and UAGC Connect groups for more giveaway opportunities.
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