EMPOWERmental Well-Being Treasure Box

Aims of the tool

The tools you will find here are ready to be adapted and applied with your groups as a facilitator, yet we’d like to remind you that you may also use them for your personal well-being. By using the Treasure Box, we invite you to become part of a creative and caring community, supporting our own well-being all the while supporting others.

This is what EMPOWERmental is about: reminding us to move, breathe and create.

Description of the tool

EMPOWERmental Project is focusing on developing our mental and physical balance, using embodied techniques, art tools and creative play. It is based on the research of the Tandem Europe supported Co-Warming project (2019-2020), on the many years of professional experience with adults and young people of our team (Fanny Hajdú, Flóra Eszter Sarlós and Tímea Szőke), as well as our personal experiences as humans and facilitators.

We believe that stress is a natural part of life and as such, our goal cannot be to eliminate it, but to support our well-being on a daily basis. And whenever stress appears in our bodies, learn to notice it and choose the most fitting practice from the variety of our tools to release it at that specific moment. EMPOWERmental Project is rooted in the belief that facilitators and youth workers, just like the young people they support, deserve tools to cultivate their own mental well-being. Because by caring for ourselves, we’re better able to care for others.

Therefore, we designed the 8-day EMPOWERmental Body-Mind Balance Through Arts Retreat Training to guide youth professionals to mental balance and creative expression through arts. This retreat was an invitation to pause, reflect, and connect with yourself and others while learning practical, art-based embodied methods to support both facilitators and the young people they work with.

But our goal is to support not only those who could participate, but all facilitators used to pour into others’ cups first. We aim to equip you with creative practices you can use to support both yourself and the people you work with. In this Treasure Box, together with participants of our retreat training, we are sharing some of our favourite practices to support the well-being of groups and individuals.

You can find more information on EMPOWERmental Project here: https://www.empowermentalproject.com/