Manulife EFAP Wellness Sessions
Outlined below is a listing and brief description of the Wellness Sessions that are available through the NSTU Employee and Family Assistance program provider, Homewood Human Solutions™.
Please note: Wellness Sessions must be requested at least six to eight weeks in advance. These sessions should be scheduled between 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Any sessions scheduled outside these times will have a cost associated with them. Sessions require a minimum of 10 participants and should not exceed 35 participants. Additional costs will apply should you have a larger group.
Click here to request a Manulife EFAP Wellness Session – Please contact the NSTU Central Office if you have not received a response within three business days.
Family
Helping Your Child Succeed at School
Every parent wants their child to be happy and successful at school. Many parents struggle with knowing how to support their children with school-related activities. This session will invite participants to seek a partnership between each child, the school, and themselves. This partnership will create a positive structure at home to support their children’s experience at school and focus on ways to reward effort rather than outcomes.
Foundations of Positive Parenting
This practical and interactive session will provide participants with the principles and tools of positive parenting focused on children’s skills in social development and well-being. Participants will also be given an opportunity to review and discuss strategies for bringing positive parenting into the home.
Life Skills
The Art of Relaxation
Today’s life is fast-paced and leaves little time to relax and decompress. Greater pressure is being put on all of us to do more. The result is that many of us have lost the ability to sit still and simply be with ourselves. This session will explore personal stress triggers and review some practical, easy techniques to make brief relaxation moments a natural part of everyday life.
Establishing Work-life Harmony
Many of us feel overwhelmed by competing work and family demands. This session will help participants identify their key work/life stressors, clarify their values, and develop skills and strategies to effectively prioritize their time and energy.
Making Shiftwork Work for You
Shift workers know first-hand the challenges of fighting the body’s natural sleep-wake pattern and the strain that shift work can sometimes put on their health and wellbeing. This session will help participants identify the challenges and stressors that are unique to shiftwork, as well as strategies that may be helpful in improving sleep, eating healthy, and establishing routines that are helpful.
Managing Your Time and Energy
Time is a precious resource. The phrase “time = money” is certainly true in a business setting. Individuals require balance in their work lives so that they can meet both their job requirements and personal needs. Is it possible to manage time at work to be both satisfied and successful? This session will explore answers to this question.
Assertiveness: Negotiating Respectful Inter-personal Boundaries
At work, and at home, individuals are regularly negotiating their own needs with those of others. Choices need to be made between competing priorities. When boundaries are set, while consulting with key stakeholders before making decisions, cooperative relationships are created. This session will outline how to consciously set time, task, and role boundaries in order to create successful relationships.
Building Resilience: Understanding Challenges, Learning Strategies, and Accepting Change
Research shows that individuals can improve how well they adapt to challenges and adversity. This session will help break negative thought patterns and offer healthier ways of thinking and behaving. Participants will be introduced to a variety of effective, practical tools to improve physical health, respect mental/emotional health, and cultivate a strong social support network.
Healthy Sleep Habits
Everyone feels much better after a good night’s sleep; our thoughts are clearer, our reactions faster, and our emotions are less fragile. This session will introduce participants to the effects of sleep deprivation and review some key strategies to promote healthy sleeping habits.
Forgiveness: Letting Go and Moving Forward
It can be difficult, or near impossible, to forgive someone who has hurt or wronged us. Holding on to these resentments can have negative effects on our health, our well-being, and our ability to experience joy and happiness. This session will explore what it means to forgive, how to move from a place of anger to a place of peace, and how this process can free us from our past hurts.
The Journey to Wellness: One Step At a Time
Many of us use the beginning of a new year to renew our commitment to living a healthier lifestyle, but how often are these resolutions kept? This session will examine what wellness means and provides simple steps to help participants set their own health goals and keep them ontrack for achieving their personal definitions of wellness.
Change / Stress
The Fundamentals of Change and Transition
Change is a fact of life, but letting go of the familiar can be challenging. When individuals understand the need for change, and are resourced to manage it, they can transition with greater ease. Participants in this session will explore strategies, frameworks, self-care tools, and resources to navigate the change process successfully.
Stress Busters
When stressors overwhelm us, effective techniques can help to bring us back to equilibrium. This session will explore all aspects of the stress response, focusing on practical tips and tools to bring us to optimal stress levels, thereby helping us to maximize our energy and performance. During the half-day workshop, participants will gain additional stress management strategies and have opportunities to discuss how these skills can be applied in their daily lives.
Work / Career
Improving Workplace Communication
Successful work groups are comprised of individuals who know how to communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders in a variety of settings and circumstances. This session will review the key skills that enhance our ability to work well with others by providing information about speaking confidently and assertively, creating a supportive communication climate, listening effectively, and asking clear questions.
Professionalism in the Workplace
People form judgments about others in the workplace based on behaviour, attitude, speech, and appearance. The impressions that individuals communicate to others (positive or negative) can help move them ahead professionally, or can slow down their career progress and even create conflict in the workplace. This session will give participants an understanding of the importance of professional behaviour in the workplace and what it involves.
The Emotional Effects of Retirement
Planning to retire can be a source of both excitement and anxiety. Whatever the emotional response, retirement marks a transition to a new life stage and lifestyle in which daily routines, identity, and roles all change. This session will introduce participants to the emotional effects of retirement. Participants will get an opportunity to reflect on what their ideal retirement looks like and what they can do to make it happen.
Building Working Relationships
Every time people interact, there is an opportunity to build or damage a relationship. Improving the quality of relationships in the workplace can enhance productivity and reduce conflict. This session will review three key tools that can build relationships, will provide coaching on how to use these tools effectively, and will assist participants in developing strategies to address relationship challenges.
Respectful Relationships in the Workplace
Creating a respectful workplace is everyone’s responsibility. This workshop will raise awareness around what respectful behaviour looks like, promote the adoption of a professional attitude, assist with the development of effective communication skills, and suggest common standards for respectful behaviour.
Mental Health
Beyond Stigma: Increasing Our Understanding of Mental Health in the Workplace
In today’s society, there remains a lack of awareness, and sometimes bias, regarding mental health problems. This wellness session will assist participants in enhancing their understanding of the personal and environmental factors that can have an impact on mental health, the common signs and symptoms of mental health troubles, and the most appropriate prevention and intervention strategies.
The Science of Happiness
Scientific studies have shown that 50% of our individual differences in happiness are determined by our genes, 10% by our life circumstances, and 40% by our intentional activities. This one-hour session will introduce participants to some of the research-based “happy habits” that can be adopted to increase levels of happiness and well-being.
For further information
Phone: 902-477-5621 or toll free 1-800-565-6788
email: ManulifeEFAP@nstu.ca
Please contact the NSTU Central Office if you have not received a response within three business days.