Health and Well-being
Employee Assistance Program (for faculty and staff)
The EAP program offers employees confidential, no-cost assistance with a variety of personal or workplace concerns, ranging from stress and depression, to coping with grief and loss. This benefit is confidential, and you have no co-pay for visits with a mental health professional in your community.
Through the UBH EAP benefit, you also have access to unlimited telephonic counseling for legal issues. Unlimited telephonic counseling for financial issues is also available through the EAP benefit. [More Details]
Counseling and Psychological Services (for students)
Counseling And Psychological Services at UC Santa Cruz offers a variety of counseling services for personal, academic, social, or family concerns.
Additional Campus Resources
- Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports (OPERS)
- The Wellness Center
- The Student Health Center
- The Women’s Center
- The Lionel Cantú Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex Resource Center
- African American Resource and Cultural Center (AARCC)
- American Indian Resource Center (AIRC)
- Chicano Latino Resource Center (CLRC)
- University Religious Council
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an experiential program developed and popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn at UMass Medical School over the past 25 years. MBSR has been shown in clinical research to have a profound effect on ones ability to effectively regulate the mind, and consequently the emotions and to a significant degree, physical health. It is used in complementary and alternative medicine programs at a number of universities, including UMass, Stanford, Duke, U of Virginia, UC San Francisco and many others around the world (i.e. 250+ universities and hospitals worldwide according to a recent count). With its focus on the development of non-judgmental awareness of our moment-to-moment experience, MBSR offers a powerful, integrated approach to working with our daily physical, emotional and psychological stress, as well as offering powerful coping tools for dealing with chronic pain and debilitating illness. For many, this program provides a solid foundation for deep emotional healing and spiritual growth.
- More information:
- http://www.bemindful.org/mbsrhome.htm
- http://www.stressreductiontraining.com/facilitators.html
Integrated Spiritual/Physical Practices
Yoga is an ancient system of practice for increased health, well-being and inner peace. There are many centers and practitioners in the Santa Cruz area. Below is a limited selection of the many that are available. These listings do not constitute a recommendation nor does the omission of other yoga centers constitute a non-recommendation.
- More information:
- Ashtanga Yoga Institute
- Yoga Center Santa Cruz
- The Om Room
- Bikram Yoga
- Kali Ray Tri Yoga
Aikido: A martial arts practice of peace
Aikido is a nonviolent, noncompetitive Japanese martial art emphasizing mind-body harmony, balance, relaxation, and the understanding of vital energy (ki). Aikido self-defense techniques aim toward the creative resolution of conflict and the growth of the individual. There are many dojos in the greater Bay Area several dojos in the immediate vicinity of UCSC.
Aikido of Santa Cruz
Linda Holiday, Chief Instructor
306 Mission Street, Santa Cruz
(831) 423-8326
www.aikidosantacruz.org
Aikido of Pajaro Valley
1040 E Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076
(831) 722-0838
Aikido Classes at UC Santa Cruz
Intermediate/Advanced and Advanced/Intermediate
Yoshi Shibata, Instructor
http://reg.ucsc.edu/catalog/html/programs_courses/phyeCourses.htm
Application of Aikido Principles
Experienced and skillful practitioners of Aikido around the world are exploring ways to apply what they are learning in their Aikido training to the challenges of contemporary life, especially such principles as blending and redirection of energy, centered presence in the face of attack, and non-resistant but assertive response. A few examples include:
Understanding the Magic of Conflict – Tom Crumm
Training in Conflict and Communication Skills – Judy Ringer
Aiki Extensions - an international association of Aikidoists integrating the principles and strategies of Aikido into their professional practices (e.g., therapy, education, counseling, peace making, mediation, body work).
“Aiki is not a technique to fight or defeat an enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family. ..A mind to serve for the peace of all human beings in the world is needed in Aikido, and not the mind of one who wishes to be strong or who practices only to defeat an opponent.”
Morihei Ueshiba / O'Sensei, founder of Aikido