Special Events

We are now taking submissions for the 2026 Art of Healing Showcase. Submit your creations and expression of healing, growth, resilience, and strength on this years theme of DREAM! Art submissions chosen will be displayed in the Art of Healing Showcase on May 20th from 4:30-6:00pm and in the Counseling Center for the next academic year. For more information and access to the submission form scan the QR Code on the flyer or click this submission form link.

This peer-facilitated space will help students to develop supportive relationships, reduce stigma around mental health and increase self-advocacy in interpersonal and academic spaces. Students will have the chance to create a personal Thrive Kit!

No Registration Required! Join as many or as few as you need! 

Our Friends Helping Friends Workshops are peer-facilitated programs hosted by the Counseling Center Peer Mental Health Educators! Join one or all of our Friends Helping Friends workshop to learn more about mental health, develop coping skills, and be a space of community with other UCI Students! All workshops are free, no registration required, and you do not need to be a client of the Counseling Center to join! These workshops are offered both in-person or via zoom. 

Why Make Things? is an experiential workshop series developed to promote handmade crafts as not just hobbies but also as techniques for coping with and participating in life. With embroidery as the medium, each workshop targets a different reason for why making things is beneficial.

• Workshop 1, Stitch to Heal: Addresses making as a technique for managing emotions, promoting authenticity of the self, increasing well-being, and experiencing the flow state. Learn how to answer the question “Why Make Things?” regarding wellness and self-care.  Learn to recognize signs of the stress response and activate the relaxation response, and how making by hand can activate the flow state. We will explore the importance of play in the lives of humans, and how play makes you authentically you.  Participants are invited to consider the act of making by hand as a form of mindfulness and an act of self-care, helping practitioners slow down and be authentically present in the moment.
• Workshop 2, Stitch to Repair: Explores the magnitude and impact of pollution from the fashion industry and introduces sustainable alternatives to fast fashion, including ways to repair and extend the life of clothing.  Explore fast fashion culture, how it began, what sustains it, and its impact on the planet.  Learn how to recognize fast fashion brands what you can do to push back against textile waste.  Stitches taught in this workshop are darning and sashiko, each used to repair and reinforce clothing to lengthen its life and decrease the need for replacements.
• Workshop 3, Stitch to Advocate: Highlights making by hand as a way to advocate for social justice.  Crafting, specifically fiber arts, provides an avenue for people to use their voices to bring awareness to and/or express dissent with issues. It is a way to feel connected with one’s authentic self and to ground oneself in times of chaos, and a way to bring people together and express the strength of their collective voices. Examples of “craftivism” (activism through craft) will be explored, and participants are invited to consider ways to express their voices through the embroidery project associated with this workshop.

Workshops can be requested individually or in a group of any 2 or all 3.  Participants will be provided with materials (embroidery tools including needles, fabric, embroidery floss, embroidery hoops) and instruction on how to use them as well as how to do 1-2 embroidery stitches. Participants are invited to plan and begin work on a simple embroidery design during the workshop, and are expected to continue working on their projects as the workshop is presented.

Intentional time in the workshop is devoted specifically to introducing the materials and teaching the stitches. NO experience is necessary, and students who do not consider themselves creative and/or who have no previous experience with sewing or needlework of any kind are particularly invited to give this a try. We will focus on coping with anxiety and building frustration tolerance, and learn to appreciate mistakes and imperfection in handmade work. Fear and self-consciousness, frustration and self-doubt are crucial parts of learning new things and your experience of these feelings in this context means that you are on the right track!

For more information or to book a workshop, please reach out to Dr. Jessica Eldridge jessica.eldridge@uci.edu.

• Please call the Counseling Center at (949) 824-6457 to request a Coach or when the Counseling Center is open, request can be provided to the front desk administrative staff person at 203 Student Services 1 (across from Starbucks).
• Coordinator will receive these requests for services.  
• Coordinator will make contact with student to determine appropriateness of peer coaching services.  If determined appropriate, Coordinator will match student with Coach. If other services are deemed most appropriate, Coordinator will provide alternative options (e.g., counseling services at the Counseling Center).
• Please know that it is first-come/first serve given limited spaces available. 
• Feel free to contact the Counseling Center to be directed to Coordinator if having additional inquiries about the C.O.A.C.H. peer program and connection to services.