Two Guelph women dedicated to the cause of battling mental health are offering a unique way to fight the struggles that come with it.
Former oncology nurse Cecile Gough and artist Ellen Ringler are mixing their skill set to offer a workshop with a focus on using art and connection to the community to help build resilience in those participating.
“A lot of people find this time of the year pretty tough,” says Gough adding that at this time of the year, people generally tend to isolate themselves.
Gough who also works as a resilience mentor for women focusing on rebuilding their life after experiencing loss, says the whole idea of the workshop began after she began to isolate herself.
Gough says she ran into her neighbour, Ringler at the beginning of the year and the two decided to take walks outside regardless of the weather and soon came to the realization that without each other support, they wouldn’t have pushed each other.
The two say with the walks, they were able to discuss their mental health challenges and how they recovered from them.
“It was through these chats that we realized we had something of value to share and decided to put our heads together and create a workshop for women,” says Gough who then created the Beyond the Winter Blues - Building Resilience Through Creativity and Community workshop with Ringler.
The workshop offered on March 1 at 10 C aims to use self-expressive exercises through writing, storytelling and tactile exercises to lift the spirits of individuals and allow creativity to readily flow.
“I think I’ve always approached mental health with sort of a creative mindset and I’ve learned to manage mental health through drawing, music and all sorts of other things creative,” says Ringler.
“I think it’s just a way of expressing emotion and feeling and connection.”
Gough says when one is going through mental health struggles, it is difficult to recognize activities that might be beneficial for oneself.
“Both Ellen and I had found that to be true in our challenges facing mental health,” says Gough.
“Getting together in a group gets you out, gets you in the community.”
Gough says battling with her personal struggles toward recovery with late-stage Lyme disease taught her a lot about resilience.
“It was written off in my system and it was expected to have a very poor outcome and then I’ve had a really amazing outcome which is one of the things I’m teaching that I’ve learned along the way and what's helped me,” says Gough.
Gough says the 20 per cent of the proceeds from the workshop will directly go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
She says once the initial kick-off, they will look into offering such workshops throughout the year.
