IE Mental Health Awareness Month 2026: A Month of Emotions

Grief is not a problem to solve. It is a natural response to loss that can take many shapes, appear unexpectedly, and coexist with joy, numbness, anger or gratitude.

In this interactive and reflective workshop, we will explore how grief shows up in our lives, why emotional awareness matters, and how we can support ourselves and others through loss. You will learn to recognize primary and secondary emotions, deepen your emotional self-care, and understand what healing might look like, without timelines, rules or pressure to "move on".

This workshop is part of IE Mental Health Awareness Month: A Month of Emotions, and takes place during the Week of Sadness, a space to honor difficult emotions and the wisdom they carry.

As part of the IE Mental Health Awareness Month, this training is exclusively designed for IE staff and faculty who work closely with students and wish to strengthen their skills in self-care, burnout prevention, and student support.

Working in higher education often involves sustained emotional demands, complex interpersonal dynamics, and challenging conversations with students. This therapist-led training offers a practical and reflective space to explore how to maintain sustainable working rhythms while supporting students effectively and responsibly.

The training consists of a 4-session programme, delivered as one-hour sessions across four different days, to allow for continuity and integration over time:

Tuesdays in February

Dates: February 3, 10, 17, and 24

Time: 13:00–14:00

Participants are expected to attend all four sessions, either in person or online, as the content is progressive and interconnected.

The programme is structured around two core areas:

Self-care and burnout prevention
Understanding personal vulnerabilities, emotional triggers, and stress responses, while developing sustainable routines and assertive communication strategies within the academic context.

Conflict management and student support
Practical tools for managing difficult conversations with students, addressing challenging behaviours, and navigating conflict in a clear, respectful, and well-boundaried way.

Sessions will combine theory with role-plays and case consultation, allowing participants to reflect on real situations from their professional context and apply concrete communication tools.

• In person
• Online

Living away from home can be exciting; but it also brings unique challenges, from missing home and family to navigating new cultures and routines. This hands-on workshop helps participants explore homesickness and adjustment stress through reflection, exercises, and group discussion. Attendees will identify personal triggers, share coping strategies, and practice tools to feel more connected and grounded.

Real experiences, real strategies, and real support for everyone living far from home.

As part of the IE Mental Health Awareness Month, this opening event invites the IE community to reflect on the relationship between technology, attention, and mental wellbeing in today’s hyperconnected world.

The session will explore how constant digital stimulation shapes our ability to focus, connect, rest, and be present, as well as the emotional and psychological consequences of living in a permanently “on” culture. Within this broader framework, the OFF February initiative will be introduced as an invitation to rethink our relationship with technology and reclaim moments of presence and intentional disconnection.

Rather than promoting a radical rejection of technology, the talk aims to raise awareness, encourage critical reflection, and open a conversation about balance, agency, and care in the digital age.

This event will be open to the general public, and attendees are welcome to invite others who may be interested in the topic.

In this experiential workshop, we will explore and connect with our emotions through art. Using creative expression, we will work on grounding in the present moment, making sense of what we feel, and practicing emotional acceptance.

Through the creative process, we will explore emotional connection with ourselves and others, which is at the core of Affection Week. The focus is not on artistic skill or results, but on the process itself as a way to better understand and relate to our emotions.

This is not individual therapy, but a guided group workshop. There is no right or wrong way to create, and sharing is always voluntary. No previous art experience is needed.

You don’t need to bring any materials; everything will be provided. Please come in comfortable clothes and bring socks.

Romantic expectations. Dating apps. Mixed signals.

Exciting? Yes. Confusing? Also yes.

This St Valentine’s Day, join us for an interactive workshop exploring how ideas about love, dating, and connection shape how we relate to others—and to ourselves—in a digital world. We’ll reflect on common pressures around romance, attraction, validation, and rejection, and why these experiences can feel so intense today.

You’ll leave with:
New ways of thinking about love beyond clichés
Greater awareness of how dating apps and expectations affect us
More clarity around what you want, need, and expect from connection

Open to all IE students and staff
Reflective, interactive, and judgment-free

Let’s talk about love—without the filters.

This workshop invites students to explore the impact of comparison culture on mental health, identity, and self-esteem. Participants will examine how social media and societal expectations shape self-worth, reflect on the gap between expectations and reality, and learn strategies to reconnect with their own values, confidence, and unique path forward.

This workshop is part of IE Mental Health Awareness Month: A Month of Emotions, and takes place during the Week of Anxiety, a space to honor difficult emotions and the wisdom they carry.

As part of the IE Mental Health Awareness Month, this practical and interactive session invites students to better understand their emotional world and develop tools to relate to their emotions in a healthier way.

In a fast-paced environment where we move from one stimulus to another, emotions often remain unprocessed. This workshop will focus on building emotional awareness as a first step towards emotional regulation.

The session will cover:

Emotional identification as the basis for regulation (“name it to tame it”)

The role and function of pleasant and unpleasant emotions

Emotional validation (for ourselves and for others) as a key pillar of emotional regulation

An introduction to self-compassion

Practical regulation techniques, with a focus on distress tolerance, including:

Managing anxiety (grounding and exposure)

Radical acceptance for situations that cannot be changed

Working with demotivation through task breakdown, values clarification, and self-reward

This workshop is designed to be practical, reflective, and accessible, offering students concrete tools they can apply in their daily academic and personal lives.

As part of IE Mental Health Awareness Month, this student-led event invites participants to explore the role of artificial intelligence in therapy and emotional care.

Organised in collaboration with the Public Speaking Club and the Big Data & AI Club, the session will create a space for students to think out loud, reflect critically, and engage with complex questions around AI, psychological support, and human presence.

The event will feature two expert voices — one from psychology and one from AI ethics — who will help frame the discussion and add depth to the conversation, without turning it into a technical panel or formal debate.

In high-pressure academic environments, it’s easy to confuse achievement with self-worth. This reflective mental health workshop invites undergraduate and graduate students to explore how achievement culture can shape identity, anxiety, burnout, and perfectionism.

Through guided reflection and discussion, the session offers a compassionate reframe of success, encouraging students to question productivity-driven self-value and external validation. Participants will be invited to explore who they are beyond grades, performance, and constant achievement, and to reflect on healthier ways of relating to ambition and self-expectations.

This workshop is especially relevant for students who identify as high achievers, struggle with perfectionism, or feel pressure to constantly perform, but it is open to anyone interested in developing a more balanced and sustainable relationship with success.

As part of Anxiety Week within the IE Mental Health Awareness Month, this workshop offers a practical and compassionate space to explore academic anxiety in high-pressure university environments.

Feeling overwhelmed, behind, or under constant pressure is a common experience at university, even when it seems like everyone else has it all together. While a certain level of anxiety can help us stay engaged and motivated, unmanaged academic anxiety often leads to procrastination, exhaustion, and reduced performance, gradually impacting self-confidence.

This therapist-led workshop focuses on understanding why anxiety shows up, why it is important to make space for it, and how to respond to it with kindness rather than self-criticism. Grounded in evidence-based approaches, the session introduces practical tools to work with anxiety rather than against it, including values-based action, self-compassion, and strategies to stay engaged even when things feel difficult.

Participants will be invited to rethink anxiety not as an enemy to eliminate, but as a meaningful signal that, when approached with curiosity and acceptance, can help us better understand our needs, navigate academic challenges, and move forward with greater clarity, flexibility, and care.