Asbury Student Congress (ASC) and the Executive Cabinet (EC) are hosting conversations regarding mental health. The first event in this series was the Vulnerability and Shame Panel hosted by Student Governance Association (SGA) on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The session began with a viewing of Brené Brown’s TED Talk titled “The Power of Vulnerability” and then was followed by an open discussion on vulnerability and shame. During the discussion, panelists answered questions such as “How do you deal with feelings of unworthiness” and shared other experiences related to shame and vulnerability.
Both faculty and students were represented on the panel. The panelists were Anna Lee Brown, a licensed Professional Clinical Counselor from the Center for Wholeness and Wellness, Greg Haseloff, the Associate Dean for Spiritual Life and Campus Chaplain, senior Josiah Shuffet and sophomore Mattie Albertson. The panel was moderated by the Vice President of Student Governance, junior Jonah Fern.
“I had sat down and talked with Heather Dongell about how I wanted to start this conversation,” said Fern. “On ASC and EC we have a goal this year to lean into the mental health conversation because it’s such a big problem right now and we want to address that. We had talked about having a panel on vulnerability and how [vulnerability] can help us both personally in our mental health but also in our relationship with God.”
Fern shared that Brené Brown helped him on his own journey with vulnerability, and that Brown’s works inspired the panel. Along with viewing Brown’s TED Talk, each person who attended the event was given a copy of Brown’s book, “Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.”
Panel attendees were given this resource, but can expect more events related to mental health from SGA in the future.
“As the pulse of the student body warrants for more events, we’re planning on putting on more,” said Fern. “A lot of [the events] will have to do with mental health and having these tough, courageous conversations.”
