The West Vancouver Youth Services team will soon be facilitating Teen Y-Minds!
This mental wellness program, for youth ages 13 to 18, teaches tools for managing anxiety, stress, and other difficult emotions.
- free dinner provided every week.
- End of program outing that we will decide as a group.
- Meet like-minded youth
- Learn more about yourself and what coping strategies work for you!
Learn more about when Y-Minds is being offered in West Vancouver by contacting Shakila Amiri.
Upcoming Y-Minds
Learn to Cope with Stress
Wednesdays | February 7 - March 20
4 - 5:30 p.m.
West Van Youth Hub
Learn more.
More information
The West Vancouver Youth Services team has started a wonderful partnership with the YMCA to offer Y-Mind Teen in West Vancouver.
Y Mind Teen is a free seven-week mental wellness program delivered across BC. This program supports teens ages 13 to 18 who are experiencing symptoms of anxiety to learn and practice evidence-based strategies to cope with stress and anxiety. The topics in the program are derived directly from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
The West Vancouver Y Mind Teen will be led by trained mental health professionals, and gives teens the chance to connect with others who are experiencing similar thoughts and feelings.
In the seven weeks, the guiding principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) will be broken up this way:
Session 1
Joining the Journey: To support participants to cope with anxiety we will be reflecting on the experience of anxiety, specifically on our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. Breaking anxiety down and encouraging curiosity and self-reflection of thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations will better support their ability to try the mindfulness skills in the following sessions.
Session 2
Connecting with the Present Moment: Helping participants understand how their mind and body works when they are in danger or perceived danger — both of which present similarly to anxiety. With a focus on past and future thoughts that can dominate our minds, this session supports the practice of connecting with the present moment as a tool for coping with symptoms of anxiety.
Session 3
Practicing Acceptance: Cultivating a greater awareness of how we try to avoid and/or control our inner experiences in a valid attempt to relieve ourselves from distress, discomfort, and pain. This session introduces “acceptance of our inner experiences” as a tool for symptoms of anxiety.
Session 4
Practicing Willingness: Growing our awareness of the pain that comes when we struggle with distressing or painful thoughts and emotions. This session participants will be introduced to “willingness” as a tool for symptoms of anxiety.
Session 5
Learning to Unhook from Thoughts: Building self-awareness around fusing to thoughts and learning how to unhook from these thoughts. In this session, participants will be introduced to "Unhooking" (diffusion) as a tool for symptoms of anxiety.
Session 6
What is Important to You?: Supporting participants in identifying what they value and how their values can guide their actions. In this session, participants will learn about the concept of values as a way to support them to follow through with decisions that they make in life, even while experiencing unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and/or physical sensations.
Session 7
Reviewing the Journey: Creating space for participants to reflect on their seven-week journey together. This session allows for participants to integrate their learning on mindfulness, acceptance, willingness, diffusion, values, and committed action and how all of these strategies can be used to cope with stress, worry, and anxiety.
McCreary Centre Society is continually collecting data on the efficacy of this program. While running this program, we will ask youth for their voluntary consent in completing a pre-program and post-program survey. The survey asks questions about their current levels of stress and anxiety in different aspects of their life. The youth are given ID codes in place of their names, to ensure anonymity. We explain to youth that the benefit of their participation is that they help further enhance the development of the Teen Y-Mind program, and by request, they can view their two surveys at the end of the program and track their progress!
All inquiries may be directed to Shakila Amiri.
