On Thursday, October 10, we hosted a panel discussion in a full hall of the Impact Hub in Belgrade, initiated by the participants of the Foundation’s pilot project.
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, their initiative “Tell Me About It” organized a forum with the aim of raising awareness about mental health among young people.
Although there were listeners of all ages in the audience, young people did have a particularly important opportunity to hear about this vitally important topic from those who really have something to say about it.
The guests of this discussion were young women with a lot of experience behind them:
- Elena Živić, a master psychologist and psychotherapist of the REBT orientation, a member of the team at the Mental Ball Counseling Center and the founder of Work on It, an initiative that provides psychological support to people on their way to offspring.
- Miona Markovic is an actress from Belgrade who, in addition to her profession, has been actively supporting mental health campaigns for years, openly talking about her personal experiences and providing support and inspiration to all who follow her.
- Maša Vlahović, trainer and coach for the development of potential, with a special focus on team coaching, business development expert and head of strategy and program development at Life & Mind Studio.
The discussion was led by our students, Ana Ranković and Milica Zdravković, while, together with them, Taša Stipsić and Zlatan Vasović participated in the organization of this project, behind the camera and behind the scenes.
The interlocutors touched on several important topics, including the issue of mental health stigma, the role of family and friends in the mental health of an individual, somatic symptoms of psychological problems, collective mental health and psychotherapy. Especially important for the attendees was the moment in which the guests shared their personal, intimate experiences of struggling with their difficulties – problems, the path to a solution, psychotherapeutic experiences, lessons they learned.
Thanks to this approach, the panel discussion outgrew the initially set framework and indeed, at least for a moment, became a safe space in which participants felt protected and free to exchange experiences and impressions and talk about their feelings, which was especially evidenced by a large number of questions for our guests after the event.
Thank you once again to everyone who responded to the invitation of our students, with the hope that we will continue to deal with mental health on other days of the year as we did yesterday.