Wellness Presentations Library

Emotional Wellbeing

Body Scan Meditation -audio file
For many of us, the stress we experience manifests as physical symptoms. By “checking in” with our body we can learn to identify and attribute physical sensations to our mental state and vice versa. This audio recording will take about five minutes and may be helpful to use throughout the day to check-in with your body and feelings.

How Optimism Can Improve Your Quality of Life
Improve your quality of life by changing your outlook. This training provides a definition of optimism, learned helplessness, benefits of optimism, how you can think differently, and a process to help you be more optimistic is provided. If where you look is where you go, why not get some ideas on how to head in a more optimistic direction?

Make your Mental Health a Priority - Staff session
The University Counseling Center presented information on the importance of making your mental health a priority and offered tips and strategies for coping with stress. The New York times article, "What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others," was also discussed. To access the recording please sign-in to your Oregon Office 365 account.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and the Importance of Restful Sleep
This seminar provides a review of stress, what it is and how it affects us. Information on mindfulness tools that can help change relationships with thoughts, feelings and sensations related to stress. Participants also learn tools to use in the future. The importance of restful sleep and quick tips for sleeping are provided.

Tips to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions
Psychology professor Elliot Berkman explores the neuroscience of goal-setting and provides tips on how to create the best environment for sticking to your New Year's resolutions.

Family and Relationships

Aging and Disability Resource Center of Lane County
A representative from the ADRC presents information about Senior & Disability Services offered in Lane County. These services include SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, and Older Americans Act Programs (Meals on Wheels, Senior Companions, etc.). The ADRC is discussed as an information and resource link for the community. This session is for anyone interested in these services, including caregivers or family members, and persons with disabilities.

Balancing Work and Family
In today's busy society, balancing work and family is a common challenge. The stress this creates can be detrimental to an individual's physical health, emotional well-being, and work productivity. This presentation discusses the effects of stress and strategies and techniques to reduce it.

Building Healthy Relationships
Tiffany Brown, Director of the Couples and Family Therapy Program and a senior lecturer in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services, details the College of Education’s Couples and Family Therapy program. The program admits some 20 students pursuing a master’s degree that prepares them for licensure and a career in counseling. She also describes the Relationship Check-in program and philosophy, which welcomes the public for a free session. Review the PowerPoint presentation here

Care Giver Communication Strategies
This PowerPoint presentation explores how communication takes place when someone has Alzheimer’s. Learn to decode the verbal and behavioral messages delivered by someone with dementia, and identify strategies to help you connect and communicate at each stage of the disease. A short explanation of important legal and financial issues are addressed when a loved-one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's or another dementia will be included in the presentation.

College Admissions 101
The UO Office of Admissions processes nearly 24,000 applications for freshman admission annually. This session offers some specific tidbits for parents who are navigating the ins and outs of the college admissions process.

Elder Care Options Part 1 Part 2
Learn what elder care options are available, how to evaluate which option is best for your parent, and what questions to ask the providers.

Empty Nest Syndrome: Tips to Manage your Feelings When Your Child/Children Leave Home This Powerpoint presentation defines Empty Nest Syndrome, when parents experience feelings of loss or sadness when their child/children leave home. It also discusses ways to cope with these feelings during this time of change. A panel of parents who have managed to navigate this change created a Q & A document and a handout outlining 20 tips for Empty Nest Parents was provided at the session.

Explore Your Relationship with Money
Money is not typically considered an emotional issue, yet it is often a source of stress in both people’s personal lives and relationships. This training will explore whether your relationship with money is similar to other relationships in your life. Tools to help think about money differently will be presented. This seminar is not designed to be a budgeting workshop or to provide financial advice of any kind.

Financial Aid 101
The Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships reviews your Oregon Public University tuition fee benefit, cost of attendance, college savings accounts, applying for scholarships and loans, and important deadlines.

How to Help Your Young Adult Transition to College
Going to college is more than just “going back to school.” The departure is a significant milestone in any family. It ushers in a time of separation and transition, requiring an adjustment on the part of parents, the collegebound teenager, and other family members. This training identifies some of the challenges that families face during this time, along with sharing coping strategies to help for a successful transition.

Senior Law Services of Lane County

The Senior Law Service, a Program of Lane County Legal Aid/Oregon Law Center, provides civil legal services to people age 60 and over. The target population consists of those in the greatest economic or social need. Funding is through the Older Americans Act, Lane Council of Governments, Area Agency on Aging. Local volunteer attorneys enable the program to expand services beyond staff resources. This program also covered basic information on estates, wills and trusts.

Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Basics
This PowerPoint presentation details the typical changes of growing old and the specific changes that can be problematic, including dementia. A number of types of dementia are identified and Alzheimer's disease is reviewed in length. The emotions that may be experienced by the patient and family when a family member is diagnosed with this disease are also addressed. Early, middle, and late stages of the disease are also discussed along with planning for the future. A list of Alzheimer's resources is provided.

COVID-19: Marital and Relationship Stress
This webinar is hosted by Canopy, the university employee assistance program. The session supports communication for people experiencing additional strain on their relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic. This webinar provides tips and useful information to improve communication during stressful and uncertain times.

Family Stress and Parenting Children Under 12 During COVID-19
As we all adjust to the "new normal" of social distancing and isolation, we are faced with unique challenges in all aspects of our lives. This webinar will review the following concepts: family dynamic challenges, parenting children under 12 while in quarantine, co-parenting strategies, creating a family schedule and mindfulness practices for coping with anxious feelings.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Yourself and Your Kids During the Pandemic
Are you feeling guilty that you are not doing enough for your child/ren during COVID-19. We are living in a drastically changed set of circumstances. So why are we still expecting ourselves to feel, work, relate, and parent the same way? This webinar highlights tools to help you manage your own expectations and the expectations you may have for your children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teens and Young Adults and the Unique Challenges They Face During a Pandemic
As teens and young adults, feelings of loss, anger and anxiety are common during this time and the loss of social opportunities are difficult. This webinar will connect you and your teen with ideas you can utilize during these uncertain times.

UO Parents Helping Their Children Navigate Online Learning
This session focuses on helping parents work with their children (K-12) as they attend school remotely. Strategies to support online learning are discussed, as well as, ideas for motivation and how to help your children become their own best advocates. To access the recording please sign-in to your Oregon Office 365 account.

Healthy Living

Debunking Dieting Myths
Did you ever wonder why diets don’t seem to work? That even when you lose weight it seems to come back, maybe with a few extra pounds? This training explores the biology and research behind our bodies’ resistance to weight loss, our obsession as a culture with body size, and some ideas about letting go of the numbers on the scale and focusing on health as opposed to weight.

Four Seasons Cooking
UO's Assistant Director of Culinary Operations discusses how, when, and why to use seasonality in meal preparation. An overview of some of the healthy and local seasonal produce available in the Willamette Valley is introduced along with ways to incorporate these options into your meal planning for yourself or your family.

Healthy Eating On Campus
Join William Mullins, Assistant Director of Culinary Services, in University Housing, to learn about healthy eating and cooking and healthy options on campus.

Healthy Eating Tips from UO's Senior Sports Dietician
This seminar peeks inside the role of a senior sports dietitian and how sports nutrition aids in athletic performance for our student-athletes here at the University of Oregon. It also provides a spin on nutrition and how UO employees can use these tips to improve diet and increase work productivity.

Optimize Your Energy to Increase Your Productivity
Professional organizer Debbie Rosemont discusses work life harmony and using the SAVERS acronym for getting into the correct mind set to start your day off right.

Work and Career

Conflict Resolution
A conflict can occur when individuals have mutually exclusive goals and are unwilling to move from their respective positions. This training will identify components required to resolve conflict, including active listening and the ability to articulate one's position. Using creativity while exploring possible solutions will be discussed as a strategy to successfully resolve conflict. A counselor from the university's employee assistance program will be presenting this information.

Exploring Ways to Move Past Implicit Bias
In his campus presentations, Dr. Girvan asks a basic question: How can people's race, sex, age, and other characteristics influence the way others see and treat them even when they are genuinely trying to be unbiased? By addressing the concept of implicit bias, he explores how the brain naturally perceives, categorizes and draws inferences about the world, including other people. In this wellness seminar, Girvan will expand his talk with a broader set of issues, including partisan polarization and the assumptions that people tend to make about those that they disagree with.

Generations at Work
For the first time in American history veterans, baby boomers, genXers, and millennials are working together and in close quarters. In order to be effective communicators we need to know how to adapt to different personality types, along with understanding the different generational issues that can create conflict in the workplace. This seminar provides practical solutions to help people bridge the generational gap.

Moving Towards an Inclusive Workplace at the UO
The Division of Equity and Inclusion (DEI) discusses the IDEAL Framework as the foundation for making Equity and Inclusion commonplace here at the UO. Additionally, DEI will discuss manners in which employees can begin to confront their own beliefs, biases and perceptions and their effects on our daily interactions. Through this understanding, employees work on developing strategies to help create, foster, and celebrate inclusivity on campus.

Supporting Employees During Workplace Reintegration
As states and organizations begin reopening, this can create stress and anxiety for employees re-entering the workforce. Managers are in a unique position of having to support employees during this transition while also practicing their own self-care. This webinar provides strategies on how best to support employees during reintegration and what other EAP resources are available.

Working in a Changing Environment
In an organizational culture of constant change, adapting can be challenging. Some areas addressed in this presentation are the elements of change, the different loss experienced related to change, the transitional stages, and ways of coping with stress and change.

Workspace Ergonomics and Safety in Motion®
The techniques presented in this training are proven to reduce physical stress and strain. Office SIM-plicity will guide you to make simple practical and ergonomic changes to improve the way you work in an office environment. *This session was not recorded; however, the university's Ergonomics Coordinator can schedule a time to meet with you individually or with your department, to review this training. Contact the Office of Occupational Health and Safety or visit their website to review their resources.