Rebekah Charlton takes participants through a session on health and wellbeing. A new series is being offered through Tararua REAP.
Rebekah Charlton takes participants through a session on health and wellbeing. A new series is being offered through Tararua REAP.
Helping people explore ways to improve their mental wellbeing and find balance in their lives is the idea behind a workshop series being offered through Tararua REAP.
Facilitator Rebekah Charlton, from Halcyon Wellness, said the Health and Wellbeing series was designed to provide tools for people to use to support wellbeing, especially their emotional or mental wellbeing.
A new series of six sessions will be starting on February 1, running from 7.15pm to 8.30pm.
Rebekah Charlton at Halcyon Wellness, where she will hold the sessions. Photo / Leanne Warr
She ran the first series of workshops last year, but at first didn’t know what to expect from participants.
“When I decided to do the course, I wasn’t quite sure where the need was.”
While the initial idea was based on the principles of ‘te whare tapa whā', or the balanced, holistic picture of health, she didn’t know what people wanted within it.
The first session she ran, participants were given questionnaires, and the results were something of a surprise.
“Most people weren’t here to lose weight, or to find an exercise programme. [Most of them] were here to improve their mental and emotional state, especially in reducing stress and anxiety.”
Each session would cover one of the four cornerstones of health - physical, spiritual, emotional and social health - and link back to what participants could use around their emotional wellbeing.
Charlton said every person was different and their way of living was different, and the sessions recognised that.
Rebekah talking to participants about emotional wellbeing, recognising that every participant has different needs and different ways of coping.
“It’s not about coming along and being told what you need to change in your life. It’s about looking at what you enjoy, what you need as a person, identifying that, and then finding some extra tools and strategies to support you within what you’ve chosen.”
People’s needs around mental wellbeing was not something that was generally talked about in New Zealand.
Charlton said a lot of the time people were expected or conditioned to push through, rather than stopping and thinking about what they really needed, such as taking time out.
That was why the sessions were important.
“[It’s] about empowering people to go, ‘I’m important and I know what I need to do to keep myself well’.”
About a quarter of the population was understood to be declining in their wellbeing, and with many losing faith in the health system, they were looking for ways to keep themselves well in a general sense.
“Stress impacts all disease. If you can learn ways to cope with your own stress, with life stress, then you’re going to be happier and healthier across the board.”
Charlton said having tools and strategies and understanding how a person’s brain worked and “how you work as an emotional human being” helped people cope with life’s ups and downs.
“As much as we might be struggling with our physical side, it’s often other cornerstones that we need to strengthen to support what’s going on there – it’s all connected.
“It’s understanding that, and looking at how we maintain balance; how we are able to identify when we are out of balance.”
“From the outcomes captured at the last series, everyone found more balance and ways to reduce their stress and anxiety.”
The workshops not only gave people a safe place to be able to share ideas and discuss different coping strategies, it also gave them a space to stop and identify within themselves whether they were out of balance.
Rebekah also teaches yoga, which can help people cope with stress.
The cost for the six sessions is $60 and registrations are through Tararua REAP.
Charlton said there were also options available for those who might be stretched financially which they could discuss with REAP.
