The Pension and Benefits office is pleased to offer the following live webinars for 2024, brought to you by Compsych. Be sure to mark your calendars with the events that interest you. There is no cost to participate, and the recordings of these presentations will be available on this website after each session. Webinars are approximately 45-60 minutes in length.
Upcoming Webinars for 2024
May 7, 2024: Relaxation “Micro-Moments” and Winding Down Techniques
1:00 p.m. (Eastern)
The problem with most attempts to adopt stress-management or self-care routines is that they require time, effort and planning. The reality for many people who have stressful jobs is that they are too physically exhausted and mentally depleted by the end of the day to initiate activities commonly recommended to reduce stress in their lives. The trick is to intervene via multiple “micro-moments” of relaxation or mindful practices which only take 15 to 60 seconds. These moments of relaxation help bring stress levels down during the workday and interrupt the steady escalation of stress that creates physical and mental exhaustion.
This webinar is for anyone who has a stressful job and is exhausted by the day’s end.
Self-help Webinars
February 27, 2024: The Art of Patience
You see examples of impatience and patience throughout each day; when you’re stuck in traffic, when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store or when your children are taking too long to get ready for school in the morning. Even if you don’t rate your own level of personal patience as being very high, the good news is that with practice, you too can learn to be more patient in your life.
This webinar is for anyone interested in learning how to become more patient in their lives.
Social Skills Refresh! How to Have Good Conversations in Social Situations
This webinar helps those who are concerned about reconnecting with people socially because they think they’ve lost their social skills, or anyone who has always wanted to feel more confident having conversations.
Whether in your personal or your professional life, are you the kind of person that brings out the best in others? Do people shine around you, or do they tend to withdraw, hesitant to show their best? Some people seem to have a knack for challenging, motivating and inspiring their friends, family members and coworkers. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to do your part to make sure others are at their best around you.
This session will present a variety of techniques to gain control over your screen time, and will include an overview of best practices for making any behavioral change.
Most people have no idea how much their clutter affects them. It can affect their productivity, their self-esteem, their social life and even their weight! People who live with excess clutter say they can’t find the energy to begin to clear it. They constantly feel tired and overwhelmed. When surrounded by clutter, it is impossible to focus or have clarity about life. In this workshop you will learn that clutter is not the result of sloppiness, laziness or incompetence but several surmountable obstacles. Recognizing the source of your clutter problem can empower you to address the problem directly and without shame.
Certain individuals appear to succeed against all odds. Despite severe hardships such as living through war, witnessing the death of a loved one, having a chronic illness, being a victim of abuse or dealing with unemployment, certain people not only adapt but actually thrive. These people possess a quality known as “resilience.” This workshop will examine the characteristics of resilience and discover ways to introduce greater resilience into our lives.
Longer hours, increased responsibilities, constant change, accelerated pace of business, intensified pressure…But this doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and enjoy your work. This workshop will help you not only to survive but also thrive in today’s high-pressure world. By unleashing your energy, igniting your enthusiasm and finding fun in your job, you’re sure to maximize your work performance and even enjoy it!
Consuming social media, reading newspapers, following your favourite political pundits and watching TV can help you feel informed and engaged. If you’re not careful, however, you may use media in unhealthy ways. This training can help you implement healthy media consumption habits that don’t damage your mental and physical well-being.
We can do anything we set our minds to. But sometimes it can feel like our brains are working against us when it comes to achieving our goals. Plans to learn a new skill, to get in shape or to save money keep getting pushed back in the hopes that the Future You will handle it “someday.” Join us to learn strategies to keep self-motivation going.
Do you admire people who always seem excited and passionate about what they do? Whether it’s in their personal life, professional life, or both, some people are able to bring passion into their lives, while others struggle to find that spark to really get them going. Do you want to wake up every morning with great anticipation about what the day will bring?
This workshop is about looking within yourself to find the “buttons” to push to bring out your passion.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities wisely. This webinar will touch on the best principles and practices to help you organize your time better while being more efficient day-to-day.
A recording of this webinar will be emailed to all those who sign up.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
The approaching holiday season brings many expectations. Often this makes us feel like we are being pulled in a hundred different directions. There are office parties to attend, family get-togethers to schedule, children’s holiday recitals and gifts to buy. The holidays can be one of the happiest times of the year, yet it can also be one of the most stressful. Maintaining balance and keeping stress from overwhelming you are the keys to an enjoyable holiday season.
Wednesday October 30, 2019 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Whether working with individuals who are experiencing trauma, grief, loss, illness or other stressful concerns, the people whose role it is to help others in distress are often perceived as dedicated, hardworking, selfless and compassionate. This training will raise awareness of the need to maintain appropriate self-care despite the demands of work and/or the pressures of home life. The course will offer specific tips to encourage self-care in order to maintain a high level of functioning both personally and professionally.
Thursday, June 27, 2019 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Your body responds to the way you think, feel and act. This is often called the mind/body connection. This webinar will teach participants how the body influences emotional and mental functioning, and how to identify symptoms of a possible mind/body disconnection. Participants will learn methods for achieving balance in life and ways to express feelings appropriately. This webinar will describe the importance of taking care of your health, and of consulting with a physician.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018 – 1p.m. (Eastern)
An overview of all the services your EAP provides and the methods by which you can access them.
Financial Advice
In difficult economic times, many people struggle to keep up with monthly bills, let alone make progress on debt repayment. This webinar will focus on developing financial plans and strategies to address the dual goals of having a plan for paying off debt, while also contributing to building personal wealth.
Although most people think estate planning is for just the elderly, it is actually important to everyone else, too—especially for those with minor children, substantial assets or unusual circumstances. Estate planning can allow one to make decisions on who receives his or her estate, make arrangements for disability, medical care and guardianship for minor children. Properly done, estate planning can remove many burdens from surviving family members during a stressful time.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Did you spend more for the holidays than you intended? Did you go into debt, maybe at unfavorable terms? Are you worried about how you will pay these debts off? Would you like to avoid being in the same position next year? Holiday shopping can sink even the best budget if one is not careful. And post-holiday credit card bills can cause high levels of stress. This workshop will help you figure out how to get out of debt quickly and cost effectively, and take steps to make sure you don’t end up in debt again next year.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Financial goals are the specific long- and short-term objectives to be attained through financial planning and management efforts. This training will teach participants to understand the importance of having realistic financial goals clearly defined; recognize the importance of managing finances to address goals; develop achievable steps to stay on track; and take appropriate action to monitor progress toward financial goals and make adjustments as needed.
A recording of this webinar will be emailed to all those who sign up.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Moving from a career into retirement can be a challenging lifestyle adjustment. Many adults look forward to the benefits of retirement living but then often find themselves facing difficult issues. Participants will learn about various aspects of retirement living and planning, such as the potential emotional impacts of retirement and financial planning considerations.
Family and Friends
Understanding How Your Emotions Impact Interactions With Older Loved Ones
Many emotions arise when we think about our loved ones’ aging or needing care. Emotions can include anger, fear, sadness, resentment and hope. In communicating with the older adults in our life, we need to be aware of the emotions we’re experiencing and what they represent, to ensure that we have healthy, productive interactions. When we haven’t fully processed our feelings or thoughts, they sometimes come out in negative ways, whether it is through negative behaviours, thoughts or language. This webinar will teach you tools to understand the function of emotions, the impact they can have on interactions with older adults and how to communicate more effectively.
Most children experience the death of a family member or friend by the time they complete high school, and one in 20 children face the death of a parent or guardian by age 16. In response to death, children have feelings of grief similar to those of an adult, but they understand loss differently as their minds have not matured and they express these feelings differently because they have not yet learned coping skills.
This workshop will explore how children of different ages respond to loss and how parents or caretakers can best respond to a child’s grief.
Communication is a fine art that we often take for granted. It takes more than physical and verbal abilities to communicate. It takes energy along with the ability to offer support and demonstrate understanding and compassion when communicating within your family. Whether it’s an expectation, emotion, question or other message, openness and willingness to communicate improves overall quality of family communication.
November 24, 2020 – 2:00 pm EST
The National Association for self-esteem defines self-esteem as:
” The experience of being capable of meeting life’s challenges and being worthy of happiness.”
While this sounds remarkably simple, developing and maintaining healthy self-image is a challenging task.
This webinar will discuss how poor self-image can account for many problems that have a greater impact upon adults. It will touch on how to start young children on a path towards confidence in who they are and increase the likelihood of a more satisfying, self-assured life for them as adults.
September 23, 2020 – 2:00pm EST
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
In a relatively short time frame, computers have gone from being a space-age dream to an everyday reality for many people at work, home and school. Children are learning how to use computers at younger ages—many are more computer-savvy than their parents! How does a parent support the need for their children to be familiar with computers in today’s society without letting the computer dominate their child’s time?
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 – 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
This course is designed to help adult children and their aging parents or loved ones deal with those sensitive topics that make conversations difficult. How do you talk with your parents about issues associated with aging such as money, moving, health, wills, driving and safety? The course will discuss approaches and strategies to effectively address these and other concerns that impact the elderly adults. Various examples will be used as exercises to prepare participants to respond to these challenging
situations. The training will also discuss ways to involve siblings and/or whether to get assistance from elder care professionals.
A recording of this webinar will be emailed to all those who sign up.