Mary Clements: Mental health exists on a continuum

Mary Clements speaks to Holland College second-year Journalism students on mental health on Oct. 23. Clements is a counselor at the Canadian Mental Health Association. Yakosu Umana photo.

By Yakosu Umana

Mary Clements told the students to feel grounded on their chair and find a focus point in the room or close their eyes.

 Take a deep breath and feel your spine lift your body, she said.

“Each inhale and exhale an invitation to chill out for a minute. There is no right or wrong way to feel.” she said.

“If you notice any thoughts coming in, notice them and put them in the path of your breath. Feel the environment around you.”

Clements brief meditation session was to encourage mindfulness amongst the students.

She spoke to the Holland College journalism students this Wednesday on mental health.

“It describes a person’s emotional and psychological wellbeing,” she said.

There are several factors which determine mental health, she said. 

“What’s your ability to enjoy life, what’s your resilience like, do you have balance, what’s your potential for growing, healing and learning, do you have flexibility.”

Trauma can affect someone directly or indirectly, it’s a matter of perception, she said.

“Trauma is not exactly what happens to you, but how you perceive the event.”
People cope with trauma differently, she said.

“There is no right or wrong way.”

Clements emphasized on how indirect exposure to trauma affects journalists.

Vicarious trauma is trauma from indirect exposure to traumatic experiences, she said.

“It’s whenever we are exposed to difficult or disturbing images, or traumatic stories and the impact it could have on us.”

Journalists are particularly prone to this kind of trauma and don’t realize it, she said.

“I don’t think many people in this line of work realize the capacity of stress and trauma, through what you’re covering.”

Mental health illnesses such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, depression and psychosis are the mind’s coping mechanisms to trauma, she said.

Sometimes we feel fine but our bodies tell us otherwise, she said.

“Our bodies are amazing when you listen and pay attention.”

Towards the end of her presentation, Clements handed out a self-reflection test for students to reflect on their mental health.

One student said he didn’t realize how much mental health issues he went through, prior to taking the reflection test.

Clements was open to speak privately with any student after her presentation.