Kind Mind is a health and wellbeing column committed to sharing stories of recovery, transformation, healing and hope. Columnist Simone Côté is a Master of Arts in Education and Society graduate from McGill University. Her Master’s thesis focused on art and wellness. A personal essay by Simone Côté It took me the majority of my Master’s program to figure out why so many young people are at such a great risk for mental health problems. Other people often agreed with me about the severity of the issue, but, like myself, weren’t able to give scientific language to the problem. At one point in my research, I had discovered that not…

Kind Mind is a health and wellbeing column committed to sharing stories of recovery, transformation, healing and hope. Columnist Simone Côté is a recent Master of Arts in Education and Society graduate from McGill University whose Master’s thesis focused on art and wellness. The ongoing reality which today’s youth find themselves in is unsettling and increasingly stressful. Throw in a pandemic, and we’ve arrived at the present day. Statistics Canada says youth employment continues to lag behind in Canada’s COVID-19 economic recovery. Unemployment remained high in September, with its rate currently sitting about ten per cent lower than what it was in Feb. 2020. Recent research from Elsevier publishing highlights the negative psychological…

Kind Mind Introducing Kind Mind, a health and wellbeing column committed to sharing stories of recovery, transformation, healing and hope. Columnist Simone Côté is a recent Master of Arts in Education and Society graduate from McGill University whose Master’s thesis focused on art and wellness. Throughout the years, my counsellors have always commended me on how actively I engage in my treatment, how willing I was to try what they recommended. Journaling, scrutinizing negative self-talk with opposing evidence, listening to music I enjoy, creative writing, meditation, yoga — these were all things I practised in order to work out the intense trauma-based fear responses I had learned in childhood. It…