Equality & Diversity course timetable

This year, to mark World Suicide Prevention Day, Yvonne McPartland, Deputy Head of the Staff Counselling Centre, will be delivering a session on suicide prevention for staff in Cambridge.

The shocking reality is that suicide is the most common cause of death in men aged under 50 and the suicide rate is currently increasing after many years of decline. This equates to more than 6,000 deaths by suicide annually in the UK and Ireland.

What impact will Covid-19 have on suicide numbers?

The session is designed to give staff the confidence to challenge the taboo around suicide that makes it such a difficult subject to broach, with colleagues, family members, friends and even total strangers: what is it OK to say, what should I be looking for and what should I do next?

The session will increase awareness around suicide, dispel some myths and share some lessons from experience at the Staff Counselling Centre. It will also remind staff what the centre can offer them.

The message is that having a conversation could really save a life.

Resources and further information:

• Information on Staff Counselling webpages: https://staff.counselling.cam.ac.uk/reflections/world-suicide-prevention-day-see-say-signpost
• Sources of support in an emergency: https://staff.counselling.cam.ac.uk/other-sources-of-support/emergency-contacts
• Suicide awareness training from Zero Suicide Alliance (online module): https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/
• Article: Impact of Covid on Suicide rates https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa202/5857612

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. -- YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long. While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend. -- YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Delivered in a safe and supportive environment, this session offers individuals the opportunity to learn about the different factors that might create and perpetuate a work environment in which harassment and bullying occur, and strategies for how to address this.

Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Delivered in a safe and supportive environment, this session offers individuals the opportunity to learn about the different factors that might create and perpetuate a work environment in which harassment and bullying occur, and strategies for how to address this.

Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

A series of four, hour-long workshops facilitated by Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. These sessions were designed as stand-alone workshops that complement one another - so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops are delivered via Zoom as a mixture of informational slides and reflective activities to give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Each workshop begins and ends with a brief guided mindfulness or relaxation exercise.

Workshop 1: The Concept of Wellbeing This workshop starts from the premise that wellbeing is not the absence of suffering, but a sustaining engagement with activities that buffer us against life's stressors. In this workshop, we will focus on wellbeing in the context of our own lives, taking in our interactions with others; our engagement with the time and place we live in; our relationship with ourselves; and the values, principles, and beliefs that make life meaningful for us. Through reflective exercises, we will consider what we might like to do differently, to support our long-term wellbeing.

Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Delivered in a safe and supportive environment, this session offers individuals the opportunity to learn about the different factors that might create and perpetuate a work environment in which harassment and bullying occur, and strategies for how to address this.

Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

A series of four, hour-long workshops facilitated by Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. These sessions were designed as stand-alone workshops that complement one another - so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops are delivered via Zoom as a mixture of informational slides and reflective activities to give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Each workshop begins and ends with a brief guided mindfulness or relaxation exercise.

Workshop 2: Self-Compassion Self-compassion is a way of relating to ourselves with kindness, even when we experience the inevitable failures and setbacks that are part of life and learning for everyone. In this workshop, we will consider how self-compassion can help with nervous system regulation and increase our resilience. We will address common points of resistance to the idea of self-compassion, and introduce some simple ways to cultivate a compassionate relationship to ourselves.

Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions.

This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long.

While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend.

YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Delivered in a safe and supportive environment, this session offers individuals the opportunity to learn about the different factors that might create and perpetuate a work environment in which harassment and bullying occur, and strategies for how to address this.

Zoom joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

A series of four, hour-long workshops facilitated by Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. These sessions were designed as stand-alone workshops that complement one another - so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops are delivered via Zoom as a mixture of informational slides and reflective activities to give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Each workshop begins and ends with a brief guided mindfulness or relaxation exercise.

Workshop 3: Mindfulness and Emotion We often regard emotions as inconvenient, or unprofessional. But our emotions can give us important information about our environment, and if we are able to identify them and tolerate them, we are less likely to 'act out', to become overwhelmed, or to get stuck in cycles of unhelpful behaviour. This workshop invites us to expand our emotional vocabulary and to be curious and non-judgmental about our emotions, with the view that the more we know about how we feel, the more choice we have in how we respond to our feelings.

Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Love and the Law – An insider’s look at the legal battle for marriage equality in Australia

Following a few short introductions from the LGBT+ Staff Network Committee, we’ll be joined by Matthew Psycharis who will be talking about his first-hand experience in the legal fight for marriage equality in Australia.

We will then have the opportunity to meet each other informally over ZOOM to discuss the talk amongst other topics of interest.

In many of the world’s liberal democracies, we may now take for granted the simple proposition that two consenting adults, regardless of sex or gender, may be lawfully married. The recognition of marriage equality speaks to a more fundamental principle – that our law ought not to discriminate between persons on the basis of gender, sex or sexuality. And yet, until only a few years ago, Australia had outlawed same-sex marriage (‘SSM’). In 2016-2017 this became a bitter battleground, which, after stasis in Parliament, ultimately culminated in a High Court constitutional challenge and a legally-mired national plebiscite.

Matthew was one of the lawyers who advised the SSM campaigners, and who ran the court case challenging the lawfulness of the government’s stance. His legal team was comprised entirely of volunteers and was arrayed against the full resources of the Australian Government. In this Chatham House talk, he will describe how a strategy of marriage equality didn’t just mean marriage equality at all costs – in the eyes of the campaigners, it had to be done the right way. With dignity. And that meant a constitutional showdown with a government committed to dragging the question of legal equality through an ugly public vote. It also meant dealing with opposition from within the legal profession. It’s a story of how, when pursuing change, means can be just as important as ends.

Biography of speaker – Matthew Psycharis:

Matthew is a lawyer, originally from Australia. Before coming to Cambridge, he worked as a litigation lawyer at a leading Australian law firm. He advised on a wide range of disputes and regulatory investigations. In a pro bono capacity, he led a series of legal teams in high-profile constitutional disputes, involving human rights, LGBT+ rights, as well as advising NGOs on issues concerning offshore refugee detention and the drafting of anti-discrimination legislation. Matthew worked as an Associate (judicial assistant) to a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. And, before coming to the law, trained as an economist, working at the Department of Treasury and Finance. Now, Matthew is a second-year PhD researcher at the Cambridge Faculty of Law, researching the use and abuse of referendums and popular votes. He is also a Director of the Cambridge Pro Bono Project.

Pronouns: he/him/his

A series of four, hour-long workshops facilitated by Kate Ahl of the Staff Counselling Centre, designed to help participants build sustainable practices to support their wellbeing and resilience in the face of life's inevitable stresses. These sessions were designed as stand-alone workshops that complement one another - so anyone may attend all four workshops or just one on its own. The workshops are delivered via Zoom as a mixture of informational slides and reflective activities to give participants a chance to explore aspects of wellbeing in the context of their own lives. Each workshop begins and ends with a brief guided mindfulness or relaxation exercise.

Workshop 4: Freedom and Responsibility The feeling of being 'stuck' can cause great distress. This workshop looks at how we can identify opportunities for choice and freedom even in situations where our options may seem very limited. We will consider ways to take up our responsibility to ourselves, by making deliberate choices about how to use our time and emotional energy, bolstering our sense of dignity and autonomy.

Zoom joining link will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions.

This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long.

While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend.

YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions.

This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long.

While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend.

YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Stress and Anxiety Workshops

Overall Aims of 4 weeks

• Help recognise your signs of stress and anxiety
• To ‘normalise’ stress, anxiety, worry
• To understand the power of our individual attitude towards stress & anxiety
• To foster resilience and coping with stress and anxiety
• Be given the time in our busy lives to consider our individual responses to stress and anxiety

Week 1 - This first workshop will be an opportunity to learn about stress and anxiety and begin to think about our own experiences. Come prepared with a pen and paper as there will be some self-reflective exercises.

• Introduction to stress and anxiety
• Simple breathing technique
• Considering ‘good versus bad’ stress
• Sources of stress
• Difference between anxiety and stress
• Individual symptoms

Delivered by Euan Ambrose from the University Counselling Centre

Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long.

While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend.

YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS.

Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Come along to this session if you’d like to develop some practical tools for becoming a white ally and build a strong antiracist identity. The training will be split into two 1h sessions. This will allow us to make space for discussion while not making the zoom meeting too long.

While the session may be most helpful to white colleagues, everyone is warmly invited to attend.

YOU MUST BE AVAILABLE TO ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS.

Joining instructions will appear on your booking confirmation emails.

Stress and Anxiety Workshops

Overall Aims of 4 weeks

• Help recognise your signs of stress and anxiety
• To ‘normalise’ stress, anxiety, worry
• To understand the power of our individual attitude towards stress & anxiety
• To foster resilience and coping with stress and anxiety
• Be given the time in our busy lives to consider our individual responses to stress and anxiety

Week 2 - The focus of this workshop will be on worry and anxious thoughts and how they impact on our wellbeing. We will look at strategies to help address worries directly as well as activities to distract and soothe us. There will be two relaxation exercises and time for Q&A at the end.

• Introduction – The worried mind
• Progressive relaxation exercise
• How worry and anxious thoughts impact on our wellbeing
• CBT strategies to manage worry
• Assessment and action process
• Soothing and distraction
• Rest and relaxation
• Guided meditation

Delivered by Sarah Hughes from the University Counselling Centre

Joining instructions will be provided on your booking confirmation email.