World Mental Health Day/Student Listeners
Whether you’ve just started at Winchester, or you are a returning 2nd or 3rd year, sometimes we all need a little help and support along the way. It’s not always easy to know who to reach out to, but talking to, or hearing from, a fellow student who understands all the ups and downs of student life can be a great way to offload anything that is concerning you.
Student Listeners is a peer support scheme run by Winchester students, for Winchester students. All Student Listeners are trained in listening and helping skills to provide them with the knowledge and confidence to offer informal and confidential support to fellow students.
To request to meet with a Student Listener you can email studentlisteners@winchester.ac.uk. A Student Listener can meet you anywhere on campus during term time between 9am and 5pm. You can meet the same Student Listener up to 3 times and if you feel you'd like more meetings you can discuss this with your Student Listener or email the Student Listeners inbox to request further meetings with a different member of the team.
If you know one of the Student Listeners you can include this when you email to ensure your meeting is with a different member of the team. The email inbox is managed by staff so you can be reassured that your initial request will be confidential and not seen by any of the students that you might already know.
If you yourself are interested in becoming a Student Listener you can also email StudentListeners@winchester.ac.uk to register your interest. Recruitment and training for the Student Listeners roles are usually ran once a year. Please note that the roles are voluntary but you will get the opportunity to train in basic counselling skills. This could prove a valuable opportunity to try this out and gain some skills if this is an area of interest for future work for you. The training is experiential and may also improve your knowledge of yourself and how you speak to others in day to day life! You will also get a training certificate and will be able to add the scheme to your Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR) upon completion of one years’ commitment.
