MEET OUR BOARD

MEMBERS

President:

Adelinne Whittenhall

Vice President:

Fabian Ortiz

Secretary:

Alexia Aguayo

Treasurer:

Sonia Ramos

Journal Directors:

Jacqueline Olguin

Amy Mack

MEET OUR NEW

ADVISOR

Tips on Managing Stress 3

#Art4MentalHealth Interview 4

#Art4MentalHealth Testimonials 6

Psych 361: Art Therapy Department

of Psychology Hallway 8

Peep Our Gear: T-shirts 9

Meet Our Faculty: Dr. Pirlott. 10

Narrow Your Job Search 12

Eat a healthy diet. Caffeine becomes

everyone's friend around this time, so

make sure to balance it out by eating

plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole

grains.

Try some muscle relaxation.

Exercise by tensing up all your mus-

cles, holding for a few seconds, and

then relaxing them.

Breathe. Consider breathing exercises such

as this: take a deep breathe in through your

nose, hold the breath for a few seconds and

then exhale through your mouth.

Exercise. Even just ten minutes a day helps.

Yoga is a great alternative.

Listen to some relaxing music. Try to take

some down time to yourself and try to calm your

mind.

Make sure to get plenty of sleep. For the av-

erage person, seven to nine hours is sufficient.

#ART4MENTALHEALTH: INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR NICOLA DEMONTE

Written by Michelle Hoskins

#Art4MentalHealth was made part of this years annual Depression Screening in the form of a art station in which students were invited to sketch on two large canvases. This is not the first time #Art4MentalHealth has been joined with an event.

Q: How did #art4mentalhealth start at Saint Xavier University or come to be a part of The Counseling Center’s Depression Education and Screening Event?

According to Professor Nicola Demonte,

#Art4MentalHealth began as a response to similar

campaigns that were spreading in other parts of

the world. Wanting to bring a similar campaign

here to the U.S., he began to test the waters by

opening up a Tumblr and Twitter page with the

hashtag #Art4MentalHealth in the year 2014.

Struggling to create a hashtag and gain a follow-

ing, his hopes were that other mental health pro-

fessionals and organizations around the world

would see it and join in the collective

sharing of people’s art work. Over the first years

of the sites’ existence, they began to gain much

attention from organizations worldwide like the

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, The

Refugee Art Project, and M.E.C.C.A.

At Saint Xavier University,

#Art4MentalHealth has become one of the many

different mental health awareness movements of-

fered to college students, especially during Men-

tal Health Awareness Month which is in May.

Partnered with the college’s Counseling Center,

#Art4MentalHealth continuously brings a variety

of fun art therapy activities to their students, and

has been known to collaborate with others such as

Jazz students to really provide a fun relaxing ex-

perience here at Saint Xavier University. His

hopes for #Art4MentalHealth is to not only see

#Art4MentalHealth grow, but to also raise public

awareness through art on issues like battling stig-

ma and promoting wellness,

individually and through society. He also hopes

to encourage more psychologists, art therapists,

counselors, etc. in promoting and sharing art ther-

apy techniques, and giving people a platform to

share their artwork. In this interview, Professor

Nicola Demonte will share with you his own ex-

periences he had during one of Saint Xavier Uni-

versity’s most recent #Art4MentalHealth events.

Q : What first made you interested in bringing

such a cause to this event?

A: I was really pleased, surprised, and excited to

see people come in. At one point, the event took a

life of its own. A positive, natural response was

happening that people needed. They may or may

not have been aware of self-expression. I was al-

so pleased to see the people and connect with dif-

ferent students.

Q: What is one thing you hope to see people

take away from #art4mentalhealth?

A: Take this, make this your ownand shape it so

that you may benefit the student body and raise

awareness about mental health issues, raise

awareness about art therapy, increase awareness

about creativity and mindfulness to help reduce

stress and increase happiness… increase commu-

nity engagement, reduce prejudice and stigma,

and increase inclusivity among different people

from the student body that maybe wouldn’t have

come in contact with one another because of dif-

ferent cultures and backgrounds.

NICOLA DEMONTE

#ART4MENTALHEALTH: INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR NICOLA DEMONTE

Q: Where would you like to see the

art4mentalhealth hashtag represented on cam-

pus?

My goal is to take this from an internet based ap-

proach/program and bring it into the real world to

see how SXU students can make it their own. I’d

like to continue to increase the engagement with

the faculty and the students but also bringing in

the music school and psychology department that

have traditionally have been independent aca-

demic spheres to increase collaboration.

TESTIMONIALS: REFLECTIONS OF MY PARTICIPATION IN #ART4MENTALHEALTH

I connected with Nicola Demonte through

a mutual passion and understanding of the healing

value of art and The Arts. In my school counsel-

ing education, I was drawn to the medium of art

as a tool for counseling. When I viewed the edu-

cation video with Natalie Rogers, daughter of

Carl Rogers, demonstrating one of her counseling

sessions using pastels, it was powerful to me. Na-

talie spoke very little and was so patient in letting

her client take her time with her artwork. This is

where I witnessed how art can speak where words

cannot. As a club advisor, I had used music with

students as a means of connecting to others via

sharing songs (favorites, ones that had meaning,

ones that lifted, ones that represented them, etc.);

music is a universal language after all, and is par-

ticularly fascinating when heard in a different lan-

guage. Songs are powerfully emotive. They can

catch you by surprise, even. I presented “Using

The Arts to…Let It Out” to my school counseling

colleagues to use music for the students that need-

ed that extra TLC, and needed a safe and fun re-

latable outlet to express themselves... differently.

Personally, I have always turned to art in

times of stress and I would share it online. Nicola

Demonte understood this as he used art with his

Alzheimer patients and even took it a step further

outside the box by teaching Art History to his pa-

tients to trigger memories/emotions. I loved this!

I thirsted for articles of using art in medicine, art

in healing, and art in relieving stress and anxiety.

I read articles on music and its effects on the

brain, on the body, and in healing. Nicola taught

all of this. I would have taken his courses if I

lived closer! And so, when asked, I was more

than happy to participate in spreading awareness

of how art heals and can be a tool in everyone’s

mental health tool kit. We all have the power to

express our feelings with art, to release pent up or

tamped down emotions through the freedom and

joy of creating.

Written by: Susan Day-Holsinger

#Art4MentalHealth

I scrolled through all of the posts to the

#Art4MentalHealth and viewed mine in particular. I

had photos of clouds, flowers and sunsets, “art at-

tacks” as I have called them of colored pencil sketch-

es, acrylic paintings, and pastel colored drawings

(Exotic Bejeweled Beauty is one of my favorites.)

Additionally, I have shared cartoons, articles and

songs to echo a mood or feeling that I wanted to share.

Perhaps, something made me smile and I wanted oth-

ers to smile, too. Or, maybe there was a tragedy that

tugged at all of our hearts and a particular song’s lyric

or melody resonated the shared heartbreak. I even,

spontaneously was driven to create in the sand after I

finished a run on the beach. I started to pluck rocks to

form a person’s head and then took green seaweed to

make a brain and spread the seaweed outward to form

a peace sign. I had to do it and did! This was one of

my favorite contributions to #art4mentalhealth.

We Are All In This Together

Whether I was sick, frustrated, stressed or distressed, I

created. I sent my energy outward onto paper. I

knew, or rather understood the enormous value in us-

ing art rather, The Arts as a tool for aiding our mental

health to produce wellness. The beautiful thing about

doing this is the ripple effect in the lives of all who

benefit from the artwork. The creator benefits with

the mindfulness and emotional release that comes with

the creating and the viewer benefits from the mindful-

ness that comes with art appreciation. (I read an arti-

cle once that student doctors use art appreciation as

part of their training to sharpen their observation

skills. That is ingenious!)

The contributors to #art4mentalhealth had the oppor-

tunity to spread the word of their mission and purpose

and give voice to their

artists, while the rest of the world mindfully experi-

enced/enjoyed the creations of its artists. I learned of

so many organizations that used art as its vehicle to

accomplish its goal. One group’s sole mission was

lifting homeless artists out of poverty by assisting in

the sales of their art through @ArtLifting. I learned of

@RXhibition’s mission to brighten chemotherapy in-

fusion rooms with art to aid in healing and reduce

anxiety. I read all about how @SplashesOfHope

paints fantastical murals in children’s hospitals and

even in prison family waiting areas to brighten and lift

spirits with its colorful artwork. I viewed the art of

voices that probably felt would never be heard

through @RefugeeArtProj.

My world has been forever expanded by my par-

ticipation in this Twitter campaign and once

again, I marvel at the power and connectivity of

art.

#Art4MentalHealth

Create on, my friends.

Bejeweled Beauty, #art4mentalhealth drawing by Susan Day-Holsinger.

DESIGN SUBMITTED BY SILVESTRE PÁRAMO

Silvestre Páramo, third year transfer

student from Joliet Junior College.

“ When I was making the design I was more concerned

with what people outside of Psych Club would see and

make them say “Oh! That’s an interesting shirt!” to get

people more interested in or asking about Psych Club. For

this approach to the Psychology Club T-shirt, I decided to

give the roots of psychology a redesign by updating them

to a modern, yet classy feel for the club. From left to

right: Skinner, Piaget, Wundt, Freud, James, and Erikson,

I have implemented six of the most influential and im-

portant people in the field of psychology to represent our

club. “

We will be designing and ordering shirts once a year, so start thinking of any pictures, designs, quotes, etc. We will

be taking all submissions and casting votes through the Psychology club members.

MEET OUR FACULTY: Angela Pirlott Ph.D.

Interview was conducted by Amy Mack

Dr. Angela Pirlott has been an assistant

professor at Saint Xavier University since

2015.

Q: What made you want to work in the psy-

chology field?

Understanding human behavior has always fasci-

nated me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve al-

ways had why questions running through my

head—why do people do what they do? So that’s

what lead me to psychology, and ultimately to

social psychology. Nearly all human behavior is

social behavior, and social psychology allows us

to ask and answer nearly every question about

human behavior.

Q: What area of psychology do you specialize

in? What do you like the most about that area

of interest/why did you choose that specialty?

Probably like many other psych majors, I had

always wanted to “help people” and so originally

I thought I wanted to go into clinical psychology.

However, as an undergrad, I had the opportunity

to do my own research project and that’s when I

fell in love with research. I realized that I wanted

to understand the “bad things” that happen in the

world, so that if we understand why they happen,

we can work to eradicate them. And so that’s why

the main focus of my research is understanding

prejudice and discrimination. I think that’s one of

the most important things psychology has to of-

fer.

To answer the question about what made me want

to teach… As faculty members, we’re conducting

research and interacting with others who conduct

research, which means we’re always on the cut-

ting-edge of the new knowledge produced in the

field. And we get to bring that cutting-edge

knowledge into the classroom. What I love about

teaching is finding those research studies that

blow students’ minds. I love talking about an

amazing new study and watching students’ eyes

get big and hearing them say “whoa..” or shake

their heads in disbelief. It shows they have

learned something new that might have changed

the way they think about the world, and they will

take that knowledge out into the world with them

and hopefully share it. Ultimately, that’s what

college is all about, and being a part of that pro-

cess is a real honor.

Q: Do you have any research projects right

now?

Currently I’m working on a series of projects that

seek to explain why some heterosexuals are prej-

udiced against LGB people. I’m also working on

a project with Marilee Cervantes-Bautista that

seeks to understand LGB individuals’ fear-based

prejudices against other sexual orientation groups.

My other program of research seeks to understand

human mating behavior. Along those lines, Laura

Vogrig and Chanelle Wilcox are conducting a

meta-analysis of sex/gender differences in mate

preferences, and Shelby Olita and Beata Czewien

are conducting a meta-analysis of sex/gender and

sexual orientation differences in mate prefer-

ences.

Q: Have you had any experiences in your ca-

reer that have had an impact on you?

To be honest, I didn’t realize, as an undergrad,

how important the process of finding a graduate

program in which you have a good “fit” with your

research mentor is. I was unprepared and that

made a challenging transition to graduate school

and wasted a lot of my professional time in

graduate school. That’s why, as a faculty mem-

ber, I always want to make sure students have the

most information possible to set themselves up

strategically to apply to graduate programs and

make good choices about the programs they

choose to attend.

Q: Do you have any interests or hobbies out-

side of psychology?

Who has time for hobbies?! J/k…When I do have

time, I’m currently obsessed “nesting,” meaning

that I love watching “fixer-upper” and “DIY”

shows as I’m currently in the process of settling

into and decorating our new home.

Q: Do you have any advice for current psy-

chology students?

Always try to be the best student you can be. Do

well in your classes, be engaged in your classes,

seek out opportunities to form relationships with

faculty members, and take advantage of every

opportunity outside the classroom. The psycholo-

gy major is one of the most popular majors at

most universities around the country, which

means the field is incredibly competitive. This

means you need to do well not only in the class-

room, but gain experiences and form relationships

outside the classroom as well.

And also remember that the ultimate goal is learn-

ing, not “getting good grades.” When you gradu-

ate, if you have great grades but learned nothing,

what was the point of going to college? What

matters is all the amazing things you learned that

you can take with you.

MEET OUR FACULTY: Angela Pirlott Ph.D. Interview was conducted by Amy Mack

Looking for a Psychology related

job or internship?

Dr. Timothy Ritchie gave a recent presentation on how to narrow a job search using an online search en-

gine. This was very kind of him, considering it makes easier for us all to use so we do not get overwhelmed

just in the searching process. Rather than scrolling through hundreds of jobs, some of which do not pertain

to your search at all, there are a few things you can do to narrow your results.

There are many different search engines, but this directory is based on using Indeed.com. Directed

searches for jobs usually give better results than open-ended searches.

On the home page, type in the keywords you find appropriate and the location of where you want to

search. But before you hit “Find Jobs”, click on the “Advanced Job Search” under the “Find Jobs” button.

Now there will be a few different options for searching such as, keywords, exact phrases, specific com-

panies, title words, etc. This allows you to focus more on the areas of interest for you. There is also a

search bar for you to enter specific words for things you may not be interested in.

Next choose Job Type (i.e. full-time, part-time, internship, temporary, etc.)

Then you can choose where to show jobs from (i.e. all websites, only employer websites, etc.)

You can add desired salary range.

Finally, location, age of job listing, and how many results per page.

There is a filter column to the left of the results and you can narrow it down further by experience

and such. Eliminate the jobs that do not fit you. Bookmark pages and save names and numbers for

those that do fit what you are looking for.

Dr. Ritchie also suggests writing down 3 - 5 reasons why that job would be a good fit for you. Sub-

mit your resume to those companies you are interested in and only post it on the webpage if you

know there are opportunities there for you.

One can not simply post a resume and wait to get contacted, it takes a lot of effort to find a decent

and interesting job that suits you. With these helpful tips, it shouldn't be so intimidating, and hope-

fully it makes your search a little easier.

Happy Hunting!

Professor Demonte

Dr. Pirlott

Dr. Ritchie

Susan Day-Holsinger

Silvestre Páramo

Email: sxupsychclub@gmail.com

facebook.com/sxupsychclub

@sxupsychclub