Wellness Center brings HEART to CVHS

The CVHS Wellness Center is now hosting a new weekly program for students in need: the Healing and Empowerment through Art (HEART) group. The group is run by community partners from the Improving Wellness of Asian Youth 2 (IWAY2) project and seeks to offer students a creative outlet to explore their feelings and cultural identity.

“The purpose of this group is for students to learn more about themselves and then express themselves through art, because there’s some emotions that can be hard to express,” explained HEART facilitator Lien Dao. She says that the group is perfect for students who have experienced any form of stress or trauma in the past. “If we look at the bigger picture, it could also be about reducing the stigma around mental health so people can freely talk about it and seek professional help.”

Dao helps prepare the curriculum for HEART’s hour-long sessions, which are held every Wednesday during sixth period and currently has about five student participants. The group officially began meeting at the end of October, but collaboration discussions between IWAY2 and the CVHS Wellness Center started back in 2021. Lead Wellness Center social worker Sam Frank, behavior and health coordinator Marian Meadows, and social worker Sophie Lau had to work out logistics like scheduling and finding a space on campus for the sessions with school administration.

Due in part to planning delays, the group, originally meant to be ten sessions long, had to be cut down to six. Still, each week’s unique agenda is packed with various artistic activities focused on culture and healing. For instance, one session included scrapbook-making, breathing exercises, and a gratitude and self-care reflection activity.

“When you come here, we facilitate the group, but if you don’t feel like following our instructions you can feel free to not [do so],” said Lau. “We facilitate the HEART program… [to let students] be creative and build a support system. This is a safe space for them to share things that otherwise would be hard to share at home.” She added that, like therapy, “they can choose to share something personal or not… everything is confidential.” 

Sally Luu, a CVHS alumnus, also helps Lau facilitate HEART meetings. Both work as health educators at the nonprofit Public Health Institute, which is collaborating with the Korean Cultural Center of the East Bay to run IWAY2. 

While it is too late to join this semester’s HEART group, they are excited to host another group next semester; it will be fully ten weeks long and welcome any number of both new and returning students. 

In addition, they are planning to expand their program to other school districts in Alameda County, such as Fremont and Pleasanton, as well as Canyon and Creekside Middle Schools in Castro Valley. 

At the end of next semester’s sessions, students will have the option of creating an art project in any form—drawing, music, dance—to show off in a community gallery.

Luu encourages any students interested in joining HEART to reach out: “When I was in high school, we didn’t have a group like this. We didn’t even have the Wellness Center,” she reflected. “Having this group allows us to acknowledge how important it is to take care of ourselves and our mental health.”

Students do not have to be artists or fit any specific demographic to join; if interested, they can contact the Wellness Center. Students will then go through a screening process and be placed on a waiting list for next semester.

The Wellness Center is also looking to start multiple new groups in the spring, including its own therapeutic art group, as well as a mentoring group for boys of color and specific trauma and anxiety groups.

“There’s information on the groups on the [Wellness Center] website,” Frank said. Students looking for support should “visit us during passing period. Share your interest in the group and come by during break sometime.”