PMC wellness support for students with disabilities is part of our enhanced disability services that promote self-efficacy, skills-building, wellness, and academic success. Our team of wellness coaches and counselling interns have training and experience in mental health and wellness. They offer short-term individualized wellness, emotional and psychological support with a focus on learning, applying, practicing, and generalizing skills to the school environment.
Students are encouraged to use their strengths while learning new compensatory strategies to address barriers and difficulties that may be getting in the way of academic success.
Wellness Coaching
PMC wellness coaches offer single-session or short-term (four-to-six sessions) individualized wellness, psychological and academic support for students with disabilities.
Their educational background is typically in counselling, social work, or occupational therapy with knowledge of student-centered and strength-based approaches. Wellness coaches offer advice and guidance with an emphasis on skill-building to promote increased levels of wellness and academic success. The primary focus of their work will be on addressing patterns of chronic procrastination that impact academic progress and performance. The wellness coaches are meant to complement the services offered by learning strategists that focus primarily on academic skill building.
Services offered by wellness coaches include but may not be limited to:
- Helping students set wellness and academic goals.
- Teaching basic cognitive reframing and reappraisal techniques to promote a “growth” rather than a “fixed” mindset.
- Identifying new actions and strategies that can be included in the student’s repertoire of behaviours.
- Introducing the use of values to increase motivation and lead to value-based committed actions.
- Teaching stress management and breathing techniques (balanced, calm, and energizing breath).
- Promoting emotional regulation by introducing mind-body strategies.
- Teaching how to use the zones of regulation to promote a greater capacity to tolerate emotional and cognitive discomfort.
- Teaching problem-solving skills.
- Revisiting time management and procrastination strategies while encouraging students to attend our weekly procrastination online group.
- Promoting ongoing self-monitoring and self-regulation to increase accountability, skill retention, and stress management in the academic setting.
Wellness Counselling
Wellness counselling interns are supervised by a registered psychotherapist and use evidenced-based practices and psychotherapeutic approaches to help students with disabilities address symptoms of mental health while focusing on academic functioning. Typically, students can access up to six (6) sessions during the academic year.
Wellness counselling services offered by counselling interns include but may not be limited to:
- Establishing a therapeutic alliance to promote self-understanding and self-trust.
- Performing a needs assessment and establishing a treatment plan.
- Emphasizing the use of psychoeducation to understand one’s disability.
- Managing difficult emotions and improving emotion regulation to promote distress tolerance.
- Increasing self-awareness about the impact of thoughts and emotions on behaviours.
- Learning new ways to relate to thoughts and emotions.
- Adapting psychotherapeutic interventions to promote psychological flexibility.
- Improving communication skills and relationships while maintaining healthy boundaries.
- Managing one’s disability and symptoms of mental health.
- Developing new strategies and identifying new actions to address patterns of behaviours that no longer work.
- Exploring values and increasing motivation.
- Incorporating time management and organizational skills to promote self-monitoring.
How to Access Wellness Support
Please reach out to your PMC Coordinator to access wellness supports, discuss which supports would best suit your needs, or with any questions.