Dedicated to the mental, physical and spiritual health of TRU community members, the Wellness Centre has organized several events over the years tackling sexual and reproductive health. Most recently, they hosted a second part of their sexual health workshop on March 26, this time with a focus on pleasure. Running from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Old Main, the event was open to all students interested in learning more about the particulars of pleasure in human sexuality.
As young adults, many TRU students may be relatively new to the world of sex and sexuality. Workshops like this provide a safe space to generate conversation amongst an audience that is, arguably, most in need of it. In tandem with their research-led initiatives and collaborative efforts with offices like the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response (SVPR), the Wellness Centre uses programs like this to push ethical sexual attitudes both on the TRU campus and beyond.
A unique feature of the workshop is that it is made by students and for students, with the student wellness ambassadors taking the lead in researching, organizing, and presenting their findings. According to wellness centre coordinator Chelsea Corsi, this student-to-student approach was intended to reduce the power imbalance in the process of sexual health education.
“I’ve led workshops like this myself, and I could lead this one too,” Corsi said. “But for me, the strength comes from having students talking to students.”
The student wellness ambassadors presented a 94-slide presentation to workshop attendees, tackling topics from consent to hormones, gender-affirming care and body image. The presentations were both engaging and informative, supported by impressive scientific research.
Despite its length and late timing, the event kept attendees well-engaged throughout. There was a noticeably high degree of participation, and students seemed to have felt increasingly comfortable sharing their feelings and perspectives freely as the program continued. Guests initiated captivating conversations surrounding the ethics of pornography, the utility of sexual kinks, how to understand body reactions, and more, leading the program to feel more like a casual dialogue than a presentation. Differing opinions were respectfully shared, and the conclusions reached were often more nuanced and insightful than they had started with.
The fact that attendees were so comfortable contributing was not a mere coincidence. The event emphasized maintaining a shame-free, nonjudgmental, and open-minded space where ideas and experiences could be shared without fear of backlash. As a result, the engagement level was high, and nearly every student present had something to contribute at some point throughout the evening.
“Sometimes it’s hard to articulate in a report, or just by stating how many students [attend] these events,” Corsi said. “But when you see it—when you’re a part of it—you can feel the connection.”
The ambassadors created pleasure-based activities between the presentations and discussions, which allowed participants to engage practically with topics such as consent, ethical pleasure, and self-image. The activities ranged from role-playing scenarios to self-affirmation exercises.
One interesting activity, created by wellness ambassador Anzhelika Mostovshchikova, focused on mindful eating, which was based on work by American professor Jon Kabat-Zinn. Participants were encouraged to eat a strawberry while paying close attention to how each sense was engaged in the process. The goal of this meditative task was to get people thinking about the steps of being mindful when approaching pleasure.
Tackling conversations around sexuality and pleasure can sometimes be difficult. Still, Corsi has found that a combination of passion and practice has allowed her student wellness ambassadors to succeed in this task.
Monty Armstrong, a student wellness ambassador and fourth-year psychology major, finds their passion in their past experiences or lack thereof. As a queer person, they believe that the sexual health education in the earlier stages of their life was not only inadequate, but unrepresentative of the complexities of real-world experience. The call to take charge in events like this came from their belief that this gap in sexual education was not only unfair but also dangerous.
“No one sets you up for success with your sexual health,” Armstrong said. “There are people who don’t know they can be assaulted in a relationship. Some people don’t know what a ‘no’ looks like or what a freeze response is. And it’s not even their fault. So, for me, it was a way to educate myself and to help other people.”
The event offered free food, snacks, and prizes at night’s end. But the real draw, according to many of the students present, lay in the simple promise of good company and friendly conversation.
Yet the room was noticeably sparse, with fewer than 20 students in attendance. This low turnout was a combination of several issues, said Corsi, including the late hours and the stress of finals season. But there is also the factor of discomfort or shame, which may hold some back from engaging.
Recognizing that not every student would attend events like this for countless reasons, the Wellness Centre has a few supplementary outreach programs to bring more TRU community members into the fold. These efforts include Bladder Chatter, the newsletter published for the on-campus washrooms, and direct student outreach and dialogue around campus, on the streets, and in student residences.
In these highly divisive times, Corsi is fighting to get the word out there because, she believes, the value of inclusive sexual education cannot be overstated.
“A university setting is where students are open to exploring new ideas,” Corsi said. “They’re open to exploring things about themselves they haven’t thought about before, and it really is like this awakening. That’s why I love this work. I think it’s really important to offer these opportunities so that students can really discover who they are and feel safer.”
To learn more about the Wellness Centre and what it offers, visit their website here.