Wellness Week 2022: From Surviving to Thriving

The Office of Faculty Wellness invites the entire UT Southwestern community to participate in the third annual Wellness Symposium – Wellness Week 2022. During the week of May 16-20, 2022, participate in interactive workshops, engaging lectures, and mindfulness experiences.

This year, we explore wellness in all its different forms, from mental and physical to professional and institutional wellness. UT Southwestern is dedicated to supporting the people who support our mission of educational, research, and clinical excellence. The past two years of this pandemic have been tough. Let’s take some time to move from just surviving to thriving at UT Southwestern!

Event Dates & Times

Webinars
- Daily, May 16-20, Noon – 1 p.m.
Interactive In-person Workshops
- Monday and Wednesday, 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Tuesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Keynote Presentation: Friday, May 20, 2022, Noon – 1 p.m.

Telling Stories to Heal Ourselves, Each Other, and the World

Post pandemic, many of us have begun to rethink how we live our day-to-day lives – the food we eat, how much we sleep, and the time we spend with people and things important to us. Alexandria and Akin Ayodele discuss how to reframe the narrative and build a positive rapport with the unconscious mind to build sustainable habits that support a healthy work-life balance. This discussion will uncover the reward in personal ownership and accountability required to avoid burnout and live a genuinely balanced life.

Speakers:

Alex Ayodele

Akin Ayodele

Alexandria Ayodele worked as a licensed esthetician and natural beauty expert in her previous life. Alex then began specializing in problematic skin and soon discovered that the only sustainable way to maintain great skin is to keep a healthy gut. With a passion for health, she felt that her purpose was bigger than providing facials and teaching clients what products to buy. She left the beauty industry and enrolled at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, where she became a licensed integrative health coach. Alex believes health and wellness begin with understanding and knowing who you are, being able to identify your needs, restoring rather than escaping, and overcoming the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving your goals. As a health coach, she helps clients detox their bodies, lives, and lifestyles. They learn self-discipline and accountability. She guides them in discovering sacred ways to eat, sleep and acquire healthy self-care practices that are bio-individual to their exclusive needs.

Akin Ayodele, Head of Business Development for Sapoznik Insurance, A World Company, opens new channels for business opportunities by forging relationships with community leaders and organizations. Prior to his business career, Ayodele spent nine years as a starting linebacker in the National Football League, playing for the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, and Buffalo Bills. Akin followed his passion for giving back by co-founding The Dream Builders Foundation, a nonprofit organization that matches NFL players with local charities to benefit at-risk youth. As a motivational speaker, he inspires youth groups, educational organizations, and corporations by sharing his belief in the power of perseverance, positivity, and hard work.

Monday, May 16: Mental Wellness

Noon – 1 p.m.

Taking a Breath Across our Campuses: Taking a Moment to Process the Past Year
Event Type: Virtual

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The stress of the pandemic has greatly impacted the entire UT Southwestern community. In honor of mental health awareness month, leaders from Parkland Health, UT Southwestern, Children's Health, and our student and resident peer advocate groups will lead simultaneous discussions. The goal is to help you process and debrief the effects of the the COVID-19 pandemic on our academic and clinical communities.

Choose the breakout session and group to fit your needs:
For confidentiality and psychological safety purposes, this session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Stacey Merlin, M.S., M.A., NAJC, CCTP, BCC

SPARKS Program Manager
Parkland Health

Adam Brenner, M.D.

Distinguished Teaching Professor, Psychiatry

Alyson Nakamura, M.D.

Professor, Psychiatry

Jessica Roumillat, LCSW

Clinical Ethicist

Elaine Beardsley, MN, ACCNS-P, CPEN

Clinical Resiliency Specialist

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Supporting the People Who Support the Missions: How Managers and Leaders Can Help Identify and Support Those in Distress

Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.100
Capacity: 25

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At some time in our lives, we all experience personal and work stressors, as well as major life changes that can affect our job performance. As a leader, the emotional health and wellbeing of your employees can impact the overall success and welfare of your team. This session is designed to offer a supportive space for leaders to learn about available resources.

Speakers

Laila Cooper, LCSW

Manager, Employee Assistance Program

Jaime Harry, LCSW

Office of Faculty Wellness Program liaison
We Get By with a Little Help From our Friends: How to Support Your Peers Through Difficult Times

Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.106
Capacity: 42

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Leslie Leach, Staff Support Program Manager with Children’s Health RISE, introduces a program of one-on-one confidential peer support after medical errors, adverse events, and traumatic codes/deaths, and the secondary trauma that comes with working in healthcare. She will discuss the importance of supporting with empathy, and share practical tips for creating these safe spaces for one another. As we continue to experience a collective response to ongoing global traumatic events, normalizing this support becomes more crucial than ever.

Speaker

Leslie Leach, MSN

RN Staff Support Program Manager at Children's Health

2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Juggling Our Work-Life Responsibilities: Knowing Which Balls are Plastic and Which Ones are Glass

Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.200
Capacity: 50

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Caregiving and our personal responsibilities can be a challenge to juggle with our professional goals and dreams. Come join this interactive panel discussion with working faculty caregivers sharing how they integrate their work and home life.

Moderator & Speakers

Moderator Susan Matulevicius, M.D., MSCS

Assistant Dean of Faculty Wellness, Office of Faculty Wellness, Faculty Affairs
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology

Jenny Francis, M.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
2022 UT Focus Scholar

Andrew Day, M.D., MPH

Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery
Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine
2022 UT Focus Scholar

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Mindfulness
Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.106
Capacity: 42

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Even pre-pandemic, health care providers experienced high levels of burnout and distress. Since the onset of the pandemic, rates of anxiety and depression in health care workers have increased significantly. Studies show that active participation in mindfulness practice helps prevent burnout and restore wellness to individuals experiencing these conditions. Health care providers, while aware of the topic and its potential, remain unfamiliar with actual benefits provided by the practice of mindfulness. This activity teaches you more about mindfulness and improves the ability to implement it in your professional and personal lives.

Participants will:
- Learn and recognize fundamental mindfulness practices.
- Appraise and choose practices that are suited to them personally.
- Discover the process of actively embodying and internalizing on an experiential basis the basic teachings and practices of mindfulness.
- Engage in group practice of fundamental mindfulness skill-building exercises including breathing awareness, body scanning, walking practice, and mindful movement.
Speaker

Preston Wiles, M.D.

Assistant Dean for Student and Resident Wellness
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Yoga for a Lifetime: A Practice that Supports Aging with Rejuvenation, Instead Deterioration. Mind, Body, Brain, and Heart Connection

Event Type: In-person
Room: Bryan Williams M.D. Student Center (MA), Multipurpose Room
Capacity: This session is full

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Yoga is accessible to everyone, no matter what your body type, age, or stage of life. A calming, gentle sequence of poses helps access the main joints in the body promoting activity and vitality in muscles, facia, and tissue. The sequence connects your body and mind, using breathing and silence as a way to channel a meditative state of mind, promote relaxation, release stress, clear the mind, rewire the brain, and resting the body.

Speaker

Christina Siepiela

Founder, Kasa Yoga, Dallas

Tuesday, May 17: Professional Wellness

8 a.m. - 9 a.m.

Everyone's a Leader: How Personal Leadership is the Key to Professional Wellness

Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.200
Capacity: 50

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It's easy to get caught up in the feeling that "leaders" in your environment are causing circumstances you don't like. You can point to their decisions and actions as confirmation. But there is one leader who matters more than the others when it comes to your professional well-being, and that leader is you. In this interactive session, you will learn ways to grow as a leader by finding direction and purpose in your personal leadership style.

Speaker

Mike Caracalas, PCC

Office of Faculty Wellness
Case-based Explorations of Patient/Clinician Relationships

Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.106
Capacity: This session is now full

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In medicine, we are trained to find the “right” answer to medical problems. Although the right answer remains important, connecting and caring must be essential components of a trusting relationship. They also hold the key to professional wellness. During this facilitated discussion, the group will uncover different and new perceptions about the patient and provider feelings and their experiences with each other.

Speaker

Laura Kirk, M.S.P.A.S., PA-C

Assistant Director of Advanced Practice Providers, Ambulatory Services

9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Fostering Environments that Increase Belonging and Embrace Authenticity
Event Type: In-person
Room: Eugene McDermott Plaza and Lecture Halls (D), D1.200
Capacity: 50

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In this session, we explore the intersection of Diversity and Inclusion and wellness. A 60-minute session introduces basic diversity and inclusion concepts, encourages participants to reflect on their own identities and those around them, assesses the historical cultural remnants that shape our outlook on wellness, and implement a few strategies that help promote environments of inclusion by embracing wellness.

Learning objectives:
1. Understand and define the concepts of diversity and inclusion, and highlight historical marginalization and individual cultural impacts on our perception of wellness and seeking wellness resources.
2. Gain greater insight into how to become more aware of our own beliefs, attitudes, and emotions concerning these concepts.
3. Understand and reflect on our own identities and positionalities and how they affect our workplace interactions.
4. Assess and implement tangible strategies to promote environments that are psychologically safe, authentic, and inclusive.
Speakers

Keneshia Colwell

Office of Institutional Equity and Access

Laila Cooper, LCSW

Manager, Employee Assistance Program

Jaime Harry, LCSW

Office of Faculty Wellness Program liaison