Workshops / Talleres
Whole Person Health and Well-being Without a Prescription
Workshop Presentation Steve Peterson
This workshop will explore how control of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems affects immune response and transient physiological conditions, and is a mindful proactive approach to whole person health across the lifespan. Diaphragmatic Breathing is a tool for not only achieving mindfulness but also has physiological benefits for immediate and long-term health outcomes. Participants will engage in diaphragmatic breathing exercises and meditation to experience the disruption of the sympathetic nervous system and engagement of the relaxed physical state of parasympathetic response. Failure to control anxiety and stress can often lead to a disease state. Anxiety and stress, be it social/personal pressure or as a result of a disease state, causes the body to enter a “fight or flight” mode that results in the release of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine. These two chemicals can cause short and long-term damage to tissue and negatively impact body processes. Understanding the causes and effects of these chemical releases, as well as how and why to control them, becomes a behavior modification strategy for immediate and long-term health benefits. Participants will gain these insights and behavior-modifying strategies. This key question will be answered: Are you reacting to stress? Or responding to it? Simple diet strategies will be explored and their benefits as an augmentation to daily mindfulness and lifespan behavioral modifications. Participants will engage in mindful meditation techniques, diaphragmatic breathing exercises, self-reflection, and open-forum sharing of takeaways garnered from the workshop.
The Red Lotus Health Promotion Model: A Values-based Model for Critical Health Promotion Practice
Workshop Presentation Lily O'hara, Jane Taylor
The Red Lotus Health Promotion Model was published in 2007 and has since been used in undergraduate and graduate health promotion courses in Australia, USA, UK, UAE, and Qatar, as well as in research studies and health promotion programs. The Red Lotus Health Promotion Model is designed to support critical health promotion as a public health practice, and responds to the calls in all health promotion declarations from the Ottawa Charter onwards, to move practice away from biomedical-behavioral approaches. The distinguishing feature of the Red Lotus Health Promotion Model is the inclusion of a system of values and principles for critical practice. These values include, but are not limited to: health equity, social justice, holistic health paradigm, strengths-based salutogenic approaches, socioecological science, non-maleficence, and the redistribution of power and decision making. In 2018, we investigated the impact of using the Red Lotus Health Promotion Model as a pedagogical foundation for health promotion courses on the practice of graduates. As a result of this evaluation, a process of peer review, and our own ongoing critical reflection, we have refined the model’s content to enhance its utility. This workshop will introduce the new version of the model, and provide participants with an opportunity to use the critical reflection tool to explore how the Red Lotus Health Promotion Model might be used in their own health promotion practice.
