Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a form of therapy treatment that is proven to help a wide variety of problems, including depression, anxiety, and even alcohol and drug use. But does that mean that you can only use CBT techniques under the supervision of a therapist? The simple answer is: no. July to August of 2020, CandleX hosted a 5-week CBT course online that helped participants to understand what CBT is and how they can apply it to everyday life. With the help of the course material from University of Reading on Future Learn, participants were given weekly material, including readings and exercises to expand their knowledge of CBT. CandleX hosted a weekly virtual meeting to go over the concepts that were learned, as well as to answer any questions that might have come up during the week. We also provided two different types of groups to facilitate learning: small groups of 4, where participants could discuss the exercises and have smaller, more intimate chats; as well as a large group where general information and concerns were discussed. There were some obstacles that CandleX faced, including low turnout. “Some weeks only one person came, other weeks 3-5,” stated Melena, the video meeting facilitator. That was not to say it was all bad though, “The ones that came were able to share a lot about personal anxiety and how it had affected their lives,” she continued. The video meetings were unique in that everyone was able to share different techniques that they had learned, including journaling, mindful breathing, and facing their fears. Beyond themselves, the group learned how to talk to a potentially suicidal friend and how to appropriately support the person, whether it be to listen to them or help them seek help immediately. These types of skills can be incredibly important when you have a close friend or loved one with thoughts of completing suicide. The course had outside factors that made it difficult, including the CoVid-19 pandemic. This might have contributed to the low turnout, as many are experiencing increased complications with health, including mental health, as well as job/money insecurity. The low turn out also enabled a more intimate setting, where members might have felt more comfortable sharing than if they were in a larger group. In the future, there will be adjustments made to encourage more participation and hopefully an in-person meeting to encourage the group to feel comfortable sharing with one another. For those who are interested, you can still find this course here and sign up for future learning https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/an-introduction-to-cognitive-psychology-as-an-experimental-science CandleX’s Resources Are you or a friend in a Crisis? Crisis Support Your questions on mental health | CandleX Classroom https://www.candlex.cn/classroom Depression stories from our community members (both adults and teens) CandleX Column | Community Writing https://www.candlex.cn/community-writing Pretreatment CandleX Wechat Groups all ages, add our admin: niama_elazzab for 15-22 year old, add our admin: amaraprenderyya Peer Support Group biweekly meetings and biweekly hangout

Throughout September and October, in recognition of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10 and the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Day on October 10, CandleX focused on suicide prevention, a complex and serious issue. It is mind-boggling to think that on average six people completed suicide today in Beijing, and six people yesterday, six the day before that, and there will be another six die by suicide tomorrow. By the end of 2019, nearly 140,000 people will have died by suicide here in China. As a community, we do not just talk about suicide. On October 15th 2019, we collaborated with BARE to bring this special event to Beijing’s community. BARE’s founder, Helena, founded BARE to connect people in safe spaces that allow them to remove their protective armor, and encourage them to build meaningful relationships without the need to feel self-conscious about the things they feel behind-the-scenes but rarely have a chance to express. BARE aims to connect people and remind us that we are not alone and provides the support they need to cope with the challenges of the modern world. Together, we organized a special discussion about the lived experiences of adults and practitioners affected by suicide. We know that people who have direct experience with suicide have an important role to play in suicide prevention. These individuals, including suicide attempt survivors, can generate hope for people at risk. The goal of the event was to break the taboo of talking about suicide. We know this can’t be done in one evening, but we are hoping to get the conversation started. There were four panelists for the discussion: Xiaojie, Dr. Bojean Hu, Andrew and Helena. Xiaojie is the founder and director of CandleX. She has been the facilitator for the CandleX peer support group since its inception in 2015. She joined the panel to share her experiences of working with people in crisis from the psychosocial support aspect. Dr. Bojean Hu also involved in the panel. She is a psychologist who works for United Family Healthcare. She is an American born Chinese and moved to China in 2016. Dr. Hu integrates Western traditions and Eastern mind-body practices. She joined the panel to discuss the clinical perspective of suicide. Eryn joined the panel to share her personal experience with suicide. She has been a member of the Beijing community for nearly 20 years. She has a flourishing career in education. Andrew was on the panel as a community member and is relatively new to Beijing. He hopes that by sharing his story he can help others dealing with suicidal thoughts. He has a successful career in the IT field. Helena, our collaborator and founder of BARE was the panel discussion moderator. The panel discussion was scheduled to last for about an hour, while it unexpectedly lasted well over two hours with lots of questions and even answer period after. It is a fact that many people do not talk about the warning signs and of the ways to help their loved ones if they are having suicidal thoughts. It's common to think that by directly asking about suicide, we might plant the idea into our loved ones' heads. This just isn’t true. Having the courage to ask, “Have you thought about killing yourself?” can actually save lives and just by listening to people express their feelings and pain, not trying to fix it, can be healing in and of itself. We hope that the audience will take what they learned and spread the words with their friends and family. This will truly be the only way to break the taboo. Remember, you do not need to be afraid by asking about suicide. You don’t have to solve the problem, just be there to listen and provide support. Thanks to Crossboundaries for allowing us to use the beautiful space. In case you know anyone that needs crisis support in English, you can contact Lifeline Shanghai. References: 1. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/suicide-rate-by-country/ #mentalhealth #depression #suicide #Beijing #China #psychosocialsupport

On March 20, 2019, CandleX was invited to present a workshop on bullying at the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB). There were approximately 260 students in attendance from grades 6-12. It was an exciting day in which Melena, a long term volunteer with CandleX, presented an anti-bullying workshop aimed at educating the students about bullying. Topics covered ranged from different types of bullying to how to prevent bullying. To facilitate this, Melena used interactive activities, visuals, and dialogue to help the students understand what bullying is, how it can be avoided or confronted, and what the difference between rudeness and bullying is. She provided antidotes from her own life, including how she had faced bullying in the past. This was complimented by sharing CandleX’s mission and the different resources that are available to students in Beijing. CISM is leading the way in anti-bullying education and invited CandleX to the school to facilitate an open conversation about what bullying is and how it differs from simply being rude or mean. This workshop complimented “pink shirt day”, which was held at CISM to raise awareness of bullying, particularly cyber bullying. Presentations like these are helpful for students in many ways. They can both bring awareness to obstacles that students are likely to encounter, and provide them with tools that they can apply. The presentation started off by explaining the difference between rude and mean behavior, which happens every so often, and bullying. Bullying is intentional and aggressive, often with a power imbalance, an intent to harm, or repeated acts of threats or violence. The school has a wide variety of students from various cultural backgrounds, and students contributed to an open talk at the end of the session. Melena asked them to speak up and offer their opinions on what bullying could look like and how the students may have experienced it, including a discussion on why some students are bullied, including personal appearance, race, age, weight, intelligence, etc. The take home lesson from this event was that in order to be more fulfilled and learn more about the world and avoid bullying, students should be open to other cultures or backgrounds and reach out to others for friendship so that you can gain a better understanding of why they act or behave in a certain way. The objective of this workshop was to provide the students with an awareness, as well as tools, that they could apply in their daily life to combat bullying or to prevent themselves from exhibiting bullying behaviors themselves. CISM itself has been proactive in supporting these children’s mental health and wellbeing, including bullying behaviors. We welcome more schools to get in touch for collaborations on their anti-bullying campaigns on campus. Please get in touch by e-mail (info@candlex.cn) to organize a workshop. #mentalhealth #depression #bipolardisorder #Beijing #China #psychosocialsupport #bullying #cyberbullying

On November 28, 2018, CandleX was invited to present a workshop on mental health wellbeing of students at the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB) as part of the school’s one week long Mindfulness Week. There were approximately 350 students in attendance, who were in grade 6-10 and between 12-16 years old. The auditorium was full, and the energy was palatable when Xiaojie, the Founder and Executive Director at CandleX started the presentation. The main goal of this presentation was to help the students to understand the importance of mental health, and to facilitate a conversation about emotional wellbeing in the school. To better facilitate this, Melena used interactive activities, visuals, and dialogue to help the students to understand the severity of depression, anxiety, bullying, and how to seek help for both themselves or others who might be suffering. This was complimented by sharing CandleX’s mission and the different resources that are available to them. There is more attention being brought to mental health, and CISM is helping adolescence and teens to understand mental health and well-being from an informative and proactive approach. Presentations like these are helpful for students in many ways, as they can both bring awareness to certain obstacles that they might be experiencing and providing them with educational tools moving forward. The presentation started with a warm up, where asked to close their eyes and were told to raise their hands if they had experienced or agreed with casual questions. These questions began quite light, but gradually went to deeper questions about the student’s mood. As with most students their age, they were experiencing a large range of emotions, from frustration and anger, to happiness and joy. These students were often quite open about admitting these negative feelings, where many students would raise their hands when asked about feelings of sadness or anxiety. This agreed with many studies on adolescence who are facing large pressures and expectations academically. Students were encouraged to explore different aspects of emotional wellbeing, including intensity of emotions, symptoms of anxiety and self-esteem, improving self-esteem, and different mindfulness approaches to help anxiety or depression. The hope of this talk was to provide students with tools that they could use to in their daily life and to facilitate a discussion on mental health, which included a questions and answers portion at the end of the presentation. CISM is proactive in supporting these children’s mental health and wellbeing, which is important for individual development. We welcome more schools to collaborate on campaigning for mental health on campus. Please get in touch to organize a workshop. #mentalhealth #depression #bipolardisorder #Beijing #China #internationalschool

On 12 June 2018, CandleX collaborated with Rotaract in organizing a mental health workshop at Peking University. Specifically, the workshop focused on depression. Some of the participants shared the reason they decided to come to the workshop, their experience and opinion on mental health and more. Here are some of their stories. How did you learn about the workshop? Participants heard about this event either via a friend or our Wechat account. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our account, where we post regular updates of our past and upcoming events. If you missed out on this one, don’t fret. There will be many more to come! Why did you decide to come to the workshop? Most participants were there out of pure interest. Some had been learning about depression and mental wellbeing for some time now, while others were curious in exploring what this field was all about. One commented that understanding this field would be beneficial in her line of work, as it helped her better communicate and understand the people she worked with. What do you hope to learn from today’s talk? Some of the participants didn’t have any expectations, and they simply just hoped to learn something new. Others hoped to learn about coping methods when under pressure, to better properly relief burdens, and to discuss such topics with people in the local community and connect with people. What is your experience with mental health like? There was a variety of answers to this: some are under a lot of stress, some had experienced or have experienced depression themselves and some have lost loved ones in the past. No matter the answer, one thing was for sure: everyone has come in contact with depression or mental health in all shapes and forms. This only goes to show how pervading this subject is in our society, and the need for such discussion. Is mental health a relevant topic of discussion? Why? A common theme between the participants’ answers was that the discussion surrounding mental health is extremely relevant, now more than ever. In order to be a “whole person,” one must be both physically and mentally well. Whilst the physical part of it is more noticeable and so most people care more for it, the mental part of is often neglected. Yet, mental wellbeing is just as important, if not more. Discussion helps people mitigate pressure. Living in Beijing, people lead fast-paced lives. Amidst the hustle and bustle, there is no luxury to pause and breathe. It is an especially relevant topic in the time now because pressure is very big, both in work and school. By learning ways to cope with stress and anxiety, you are more likely to be successful in leading a healthy life. Discussion is also important to healing. Another participant raised the point that for those that are experiencing depression, many choose to not talk about it to others, denying the existence of such problems and retrieving to a “dark place”. But, this participant identified that such decisions would only worsen the situation, and that only by socializing and opening up, allowing yourself to be vulnerable can you heal. Discussion overcomes taboo. One of the main reasons that were identified as to why there are so few platforms and so little resources that provide mental health support is because of the social taboo surrounding it. For those that see this problem, the best way to combat this is by attending and supporting community workshops like this one because it opens up discussion and eliminates the taboo nature of it. What do you think could be done better in providing mental health support in our community? A participant said that if not dealt with properly, more issues with arise. It is important to provide platforms to discuss and give advice to one another in helping them cope with mental health issues properly. Workshops as this CandleX one is the perfect example of how the community can get together to overcome this social taboo. Some also said online resources would be useful. Click here to find a compilation of online resources and hotlines CandleX put together for your convenience. One raised a good point that besides discussing mental health more, children should also be exposed to mental wellbeing at a younger age. If done in an appropriate manner, it would be very digestible for younger students to understand the importance and relevance of it in their daily lives, too. If you’ve missed Mara’s presentation this time, do not miss the next one. We’d like to thank our friends from Rotaract for providing this opportunity and hosting this brilliant event with us. We hope everyone that participated learned something new from the talk, and we look forward to seeing even more of you at our event. #Community #workshop #support #Beijing #China

CandleX is proud to have successfully organized our mental health for teens Workshop, 3 years in a row with Elite Scholars China! This event is our effort to continue our mental health for teens program. On Sunday, May 27, we traveled to the ESC Center to speak to a group of 13 students. These young adults are all international school students that will departing to the US in September for university. After a taxing junior year, they are all excited to get a taste of college life. However, the curiosity comes with traces of inevitable uncertainty. After all, it will be the first time these teenagers will be living truly independently. To better the transition into college, Melena, being the workshop facilitator from CandleX, spoke to these students about what to expect, coping strategies and the importance of wellbeing. She even recommended some apps that are handy when it comes to making friends and meeting new people. One of the main points she touched upon was the idea of ‘Culture Shock.’ This was especially relevant and useful for the students because they will be living abroad and will be immersed within a foreign culture. The difference between habits and culture will become immediately apparent, and the best way to adapt to this is to be open-minded and cautious of one’s own words and actions. Another tip Melena gave was the importance of learning how to say no. College is not only difficult because of its academic workload, but also because of its social demands. The environment of needing to conform in order to fit in makes many young adults vulnerable to peer pressure. Figuring out one’s personal moral standards is vital in knowing when to saying “no,” and having the admirable courage to say no is something one learns through the four-year experience. It is students’ responsibility to take care of their personal health. Not only physical, but also mental wellbeing. In difficult times where students may need to seek help- whether it is depression, suicidal tendencies or just negative thoughts- it is crucial knowing where and who to turn to for help. Universities do provide Mental Health support, with therapists students may wish to speak to. If not, students may choose to speak to a close friend either in college or from home, their parents or a trusted teacher or professor. American schools try their best to provide as much resources as they possible could. From residential advisors, academic advisors to upper classmen to professors, the sources one may seek for help from is vast and almost-endless. Sometimes it may seem as if nobody will understand, or worry that you will be a burden to others, but speaking out and seeking out is critical to healing and improving mental wellbeing. Learning progressive relaxation is key to maintaining a stable and healthy mindset. Take a few minutes each day just to yourself: slow down, breathe, relax. Sunbathe, read a book, do something you love. It may seem insignificant at the time, but in the long run, the positive effect will prove to be unbelievably immense. If you want to invite us to provide mental health services, please contact us at : info@candlex.cn #Community #support #teenagers #Beijing #teens

On 20th May 2017, CandleX ran a mental health workshop for Chinese students who are soon to go to top universities in the USA. It’s reported that around 450,000 Chinese went overseas for education in 2014 (2015年出国留学发展状况调查报告，2015). Many are teenagers that are moving overseas for the first time in their life, at the stage of transitioning into their early adult life. Although it’s exciting, many have been experiencing tough times, especially their first year in school in a foreign country. In order to prepare the students for possible adversities for their life abroad, we were invited to run a workshop for the 2017 students by ESC to give them the knowledge to understand these new challenges, and the tools to respond to them. This is the second time we ran the workshops for ESC (Elite Scholars of China) students before their departure. These workshops have the objective to discuss culture shock, self-care, how to help others who may be experiencing distress, and how to stay emotionally healthy. As always, we use heavy student participation throughout our workshops to ensure that the students can incorporate the knowledge quickly and efficiently. We’ve collected the feedback from the participants to assess our workshop’s outcome and benefits. According to the results, more than 80% of participants reported that they “absolutely” find the workshop useful, and have thus gained the skills needed to take care of themselves. The information on depression and suicide was well received, as they reported. It’s a quite a difficult topic to bring up to students who are leaving in just a few months’ time to go off and pursue their hopes and dreams, but we are happy to see that an education company like ESC have taken an extra step to make sure that their students not only enter top universities, but that they complete their studies as well. If you’d like to promote mental health to your audiences, please contact us at: info@candlex.cn #Beijing #depression #bipolar #China

CandleX seeks to raise awareness about depression and bi-polar disorder. It is important to, as a community, increase our resilience to mental illness and reduce the associated stigma. CandleX would like to scale up our interactive presentations and workshops in and around Beijing’s local international community so as to assist in this transition. WORKSHOP FORMAT Our interactive workshops can be conducted in schools, communities, organizations, and companies. Each presentation or workshop session is between 90 and 120 minutes long and includes activities such as a formal presentation, movie screening, and an open discussion tailored to the audience with role-play and group games incorporated. See below, for a summary of the Depression Workshop provided for The British Council of Beijing. CandleX strives to continue raising the awareness of mental illnesses and hopes that more people will join in. Together, we are more aware of our own mental well-being, and cultivate self-acceptance and self-love, we learn to help one another when our friends, family members or colleagues fall into a depressive mode, and, as a community, we become more resilient against depression. We’d like to invite you all be part of the light that shines into the dark corners. Here are the 3 simple ways that you can contribute: Talk to your HR manager and we can come deliver a workshop for the staff. Talk to your friends community, and we can come to your event and make a presentation. Talk to your school counsellors and management, we can come to your school to deliver a workshop for the students. #mentalhealth #Beijing #bipolar #depression

On the 1st of March 2017 CandleX gave a special workshop for international students at The Regent’s International School in Bangkok, Thailand. This event was the first, but surely not the last one outside of China. The workshop was held during a psychology class for upper class students. The twenty or so students, coming from a variety of countries, were all 16-17 years of age, thus already preparing for the tertiary education. The main topic of the lecture was ways of dealing with depression and involved a variety of activities, such as body movement, group exercises, and discussion. The event was led by Xiaojie Qin – the founder and executive director of CandleX, hosted by local psychology teacher. The workshop began with a viewing of a documentary that CandleX made back in 2015. The documentary touches upon the topic of depression and is called “The Tiny Little Box: A Documentary on Depression”. While watching the short documentary, they students are asked to find answers to the questions about mental health that that they were asked to write down at the beginning of the workshop. The students had a chance to reflect on the documentary, ask questions about it and discuss their thoughts and feeling. Later on everyone separated into several groups and had discussions based on their personally chosen topics. The topics chosen by students were: how to deal with depression, how to help others who have depression; culture and depression (as students all come from different nations and backgrounds, they were keen on bringing up their cultural upbringings and religious perspectives towards mental health); the causes of depression. The students also had a chance to learn about ways to deal with one’s emotions, how to release stress and agitation, and where to find resources when dealing with difficult time. The students were very attentive and interested in these matters, as quite a few of them would like to continue psychological and mental health work themselves. The students were also introduced to the activities of CandleX in China, its approach, and support of the international community. This workshop was a great step towards expanding the organization’s work abroad and it is expected that both attendees of the events and the volunteers at CandleX will continue the spread of mental health awareness and support around the world. #Beijing #depression #mentalhealth

On the 19th of February, 2017 CandleX held a Mental Health workshop for international students who are currently studying and/or interning at CET programs (Middbury program in China, Beijing Internship and Beijing Language). The workshop was intended to help students prepare for a new life in Beijing and teach them the best ways to handle various challenges, such as culture shock, isolation or distress. This workshop also focused on adapting to a foreign culture and how overwhelming such an experience may be, especially for those staying in China for a short term. It is well known that people who stay in a foreign country for a short period are at more risk to feel distressed, as they do not have a lot of time to get used to their environment, especially for young adults. The approximately two-hour-long workshop was filled with both educational information and improvised jokes, lightening the mood of an overall heavy discussion. The event was attended by around 40 university students, who were mostly of US citizenship, but coming from various cultural backgrounds. These students are all from top universities and are staying in China for only a short-time. The event was led by two co-facilitators from CandleX – Xiaojie Qin (founder and executive director) and Melena Slaven (mental health consultant). Various psychological topics, such as emotions, mental health, mental disorders and ways to care for oneself and others were included in the workshop. The event began with a basic introduction to the range of human emotions and their understanding – emotional intelligence. The students became familiar with a wide variety of emotions, their intensity and where in the body one might feel a certain emotion. An important take-away from this part was that there are no good or bad feelings/emotions, only good or bad reactions to those feelings. One should accept the whole array of feelings as part of one’s complex life. The next part of the presentation dealt with the experiences of culture shock that many foreigners may face when coming to China. Everything is different – the food, the environment, the language. It may, unsurprisingly, cause anxiety and even alienation. Everyone experiences the culture shock differently and the presentation vividly showed that it may take a longer time for some people to get used to the new environment or that feeling of anxiety may come and go with time. A very specific topic to Beijing – smog, was also touched upon. It was no surprise to the students that pollution may affect one’s mental health. However, it makes it much worse for those who already have an illness, as smog may only aggravate the symptoms. The following part of the workshop talked a lot about the differences between simply having a bad day and a depressive disorder. In many cultures depression is still a taboo topic and is not recognized as a serious disease. The students were given a lot of statistical facts and information about mental health around the world and various symptoms of two leading mental disorders – depression and bipolar disorder. The last part of the workshop touched upon the strategies of taking care of oneself during difficult times. A slew of different ways and principles were introduced that may help the students assist their own emotions and those around them. A lot of information has been taken from CandleX Classroom series where anyone can learn more about mental health. The main lesson from this workshop was that expats who are staying in a foreign country for a short-time usually have a lot more difficulties adapting than those who reside somewhere long-term. One not only needs to quickly learn the culture and the opportunities new city provides, but also find ways to take care of oneself when there is a lack of a regular social or medical support. If you work with students, and you are looking for ways to promote mental health for them, please contact us via info@candlex.cn Join us to build the resilience against mental illness. #Beijing #mentalhealth #teens #teenagers #workshop

Since CandleX started, we have been invited to provide mental health workshops and presentations in and out of school for teenagers. Given the concerning prevalence and severity of mental health issues amongst teenagers, we are now offering more support to this age group. CandleX’s Mental Health for Teens Program: Goals: to reduce social stigma of mental health on campus; to provide tools and local resources for mental health wellbeing; and to raise awareness of the importance of peer support Public education: delivered through talks and interactive workshops Target group: schools and education agencies that work with teens Teenagers in China Research shows that students in China have some of the highest-ranking results in academic proficiency. However, this success comes at a price. Chinese teenagers are also reported to have some of the highest stress and anxiety levels in the world, higher than not only their counterparts in the West, but also neighboring South Korea and Japan. Like their international counterparts, Chinese high schoolers face academic difficulties, vigorous exam preparation and competitive university application process. China’s high schoolers and college students are experiencing high levels of anxiety and stress. While preparing for the exams, the students also feel pressure from their parents and teachers to deliver high results and bring honor to their family through succeeding in college entrance exams. As the majority of adolescents in present-day China are single children, they are under even more pressure and fear disappointing their parents and family. In addition, the teenagers in China face some problems that are unique to this nation due to the changing social environment. Due to the rapid economic and political transformation, the youngest generation cannot keep up with the rising competition in the academic and career life, thus leading to anxiety and chronic stress. There is also a lack of mental health services. The students do not receive sufficient mental health education in the schools. Therefore, their families have difficulties dealing with the troubling emotions. Moreover, even if available, pupils rarely take advantage of the services at schools, as they tend to be unaware of their own issues. This is one of the most important problems and CandleX would like to step in to help combat the overwhelming social stigma towards mental health in China. The previous problems cause much distress to the students, however, the undermining of the psychological issues and even social isolation or bullying from their peers that comes with it pushes many more into the darkness. Foreign Teenagers | Beijing’s context In addition to the local Chinese students, there are many foreign students who come to China on short-term academic exchanges or internship programs. These adolescents face a different set of troubles, from feeling societal isolation to adapting and confronting cultural shock. A similar situation may await the Chinese high schoolers, who wish to go to a college abroad. They also need to learn new cultural and communicational skills to function well in an unfamiliar environment. These students, who lack mental health preparation for the move abroad, are the target group of CandleX’s services. CandleX’s Effort CandleX has been doing its best to provide emotional help for the teenagers (high schoolers, exchange students, students preparing for college and so on) in China through various personalized workshops and talks. By talking and giving names to the emotions, the students may feel more comfortable in facing negative moods and even learn how to manage their emotional well-being. Mental health presentation at Dulwich College 2016 Since CandleX began, it has been actively providing help for teenagers in China (and abroad). The service mainly consists of workshops and interactive presentations for international and Chinese students. In the past year, CandleX has given talks and workshops in various institutions around Beijing such as international high schools (Dulwich College Beijing), preparatory institutes for American colleges (ESC Scholars) and CET who provides services for foreign interns in Beijing. The contents of the workshops were customized to each student body. Some of the workshops focused more on cultural shock or ways to adapt in a new foreign environment, in the case of Chinese students heading to the USA or international students doing short-term internships in China. Other workshops dealt with emotional release, ways to deal with academic stress, depression, and approaching university life. Mental health workshop with CET 2017 For more information on our previous work, head over to www.candlex.cn/teens/ or click on “read more” at the bottom to find out What CandleX offers? We aim to raise awareness and reduce stigma through interactive workshops and talks, and providing tools and local resources of mental health services. Depending on the needs of the school or company, we are able to tailor our workshops for a more focused theme: Emotional wellbeing Resilience building Stress reduction Improve mental health environment in school Anti-bullying Suicide prevention #teenagers #beijing #mentalhealth

Depression in Beijing is hidden, unspoken, and paid little attention. On August 19th 2016, in an attempt to respond to that, Culture Yard, situated in the beautiful HuTongs of BeiXinQiao, hosted a screening of the CandleX documentary entitled “The Tiny Little Box.” This CandleX production was shot in Thailand in 2015, and follows the struggles of depression for four individuals, as well as the stories of two mindfulness practitioners. Uchechi from Culture Yard opened the event by welcoming the CandleX team of XiaoJie, Peter, Brad, and Luna. Peter then introduced CandleX’s current and past projects, and the documentary. After the documentary screening, Xiaojie led a group discussion on various topics related to depression. As the people in the documentary gave their testimonies, you could see the responses from the audience. Everyone was nodding, as if to say, “I know that feeling,” some were even whispering to the person next to them saying, “I can’t believe someone has had the exact same experience as me.” The documentary opens up the conversation about depression and gets people speaking. This is why CandleX is devoted to sharing this documentary with others. Through an open dialogue, we all find peace and positivity, and sometimes we need these video testimonials to help us open up and find positivity in depression. If opening a dialogue about depression is our goal in the fight against depression, then what should this dialogue be about? After the screening, the floor opened for some group interaction. A man shared his personal strategies for beating his own depression. Another spoke about the efforts in China geared toward improving mental health. Another shared some great resources everyone can use in their daily lives to overcome their depression symptoms. The atmosphere was light and engaging, and at times, even fun; not the types of words usually associated with depression. What became apparent was that if we keep the discussion positive by talking more about specific strategies and success stories, then it will breed more hopefulness and optimism. And it is with that positive emotion that we can make depression become a topic more people will be willing and able to talk about. #TheTinyLittleBox #depression #Beijing #China #mentalhealth