Iota-Tau Continues Push For Mental Health Awareness With Dr. Lauren Cook
By James Cunningham
Over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, the Iota-Tau chapter of Sigma Pi has made it their top priority to emphasize the importance of mental health to the entire St. John's community. Earlier this year during the fall semester, the brothers spent Mental Health Awareness Day encouraging strangers to write notes of kindness to be handed out to other random strangers later in the day. This was only the beginning of the chapters push towards bringing mental health awareness more light.
On March 20th, 2023, Sigma Pi hosted Dr. Lauren Cook of CAMPUSPEAK to lead a discussion with the entire St. John's community on the importance of mental health and how to implement mental health care into our lives. Dr. Cook is a clinical psychologist, speaker, and author who travels the country enlightening students and organizations on becoming mentally healthy and creating more inclusive spaces. She achieved her Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University.
Dr. Cook spent her time at St. John's teaching students her course, "Name Your Story: How
to Talk Openly About Mental Health". She provided the community with an open and inclusive space to discuss and learn about our mental health, reminding students that they are never alone in their struggles. She provided excellent insight on how to navigate the difficult road that life at a college university entails. The discussion was broken down into three parts: Name It, Face It, and Embrace It. Dr. Cook provided us all with knowledge on how to recognize symptoms of poor mental health, and then how to incorporate self-care and wellness into our lives each and every day.
Dr. Cook was nothing but excellent in her teaching at St. John's. We as the Iota-Tau chapter of Sigma Pi would like to once again thank Dr. Cook for her time and her empowering presentation. We would also like to remind those around us her message: when you are struggling, you are not alone! Too many of us suffer in silence every day. Together, we can break the stigma surrounding mental health.
Sigma Pi and the Iota-Tau chapter will continue to push towards breaking the stigma. We strongly encourage other organizations and universities to consider bringing in Dr. Cook for a mental health discussion, or to even just open up a discussion amongst their community. One conversation can save a life.