STEM Student Mental Health Webinar

Hack Your Brain: Staying Healthy & Balanced as a Student

This webinar recording is no longer available.  Please stay tuned for future mental health webinar opportunities.

 

Missed the webinar?  Email Racquel Jemison for a copy of the handouts and resources shared during the presentation.  


Webinar Description and Speaker Bio

As you navigate through your undergraduate or graduate STEM studies, are you coping with life’s demands in a healthy way? Being a student can be incredibly stressful. Financial costs, hectic schedules, academic rigor, career planning, and social pressures are all compounding stressors that can very easily lead to both physical and mental illnesses if not properly managed. Join Dr. Lindsay Bira, Clinical Health Psychologist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio, for this webinar to learn what happens when the brain is under stress, how the brain plays tricks on us under stress, and what to do to prevent mental health symptoms from taking hold. Strategies for managing and controlling issues such as low mood, fear/anxiety, insomnia and sleep difficulties, and more will be discussed – all with the Chemistry/STEM student perspective in mind. The brain is tricky, but we can get smarter to help it function better.

What you will learn:

  • How to recognize your own stress and your brain’s common tricks in response
  • How to reverse mental health issues that begin to take hold, such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia
  • How to build emotional intelligence over time through easy practices that regulate mood and heart rate

Speaker Bio: Dr. Lindsay Bira

Lindsay Bira, Ph.D., is a clinical health psychologist, TEDx speaker, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio.  She has clinical research specialty in behavioral medicine and PTSD/trauma.  She speaks often on the topic of mental health and wellbeing, serves as a consultant on projects that seek to incorporate mental health, and runs a private practice where she treats adults and teens for a range of issues.  She received her Ph.D. in clinical health psychology from University of Miami.  She completed residency with Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine before completing an additional 2-year fellowship in trauma psychology.  Dr. Bira has been featured by TEDx, Texas Public Radio, Women’s Health Magazine, Headspace, Science, Nature Biotech, and more, for her work in stress, PTSD, mindfulness, brain health, and personal growth.  She is passionate about breaking stigma around mental health and values platforms that allow her to bridge the gap between complex research and global understanding.

Resources and Handouts

  • Webinar Resources and Handouts - Email Racquel Jemison for a copy:
    • Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise Instructions
    • Effective Communication Tips
    • Thinking Errors and Unhelpful Thinking Styles
    • Sleep Hygiene Rules
    • NAMI Suicide Facts and Prevention
    • Defining your Values

Additional ACS Resources