Mental Health Awareness Month

Rest As Resistance

Saturday, May 9, 2026

10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

1882 West Indiana Ave, Salt Lake City, UT 84104

Reclaim your peace.
Embrace radical resistance through rest and resiliency.

About the Event

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Beloved Community is partnering with Black Physicians of Utah Mental Wellness Alliance, Ignite Utah, and The Other Side Village and leaders in the mental wellness space for a day centered on rest, resilience, and collective care.

This event is designed to:

Address burnout in a real and practical way
Create space for conversations that are often left unspoken
Offer tools that can be integrated into everyday life
Build a stronger, more supported, and more connected community

Why This Matters

The impact of burnout and high-performance pressure is accelerating amongst those who lead, serve, and advocate for others. Those working within community advocacy and activism are increasingly facing the challenge of being asked to do more; do more, more often; and do more, with less. Oftentimes in spaces imbalanced by socioeconomic disparities, cultural stigmas, limited resources, and unprocessed stress and trauma.

What You'll Experience

Schedule of Events

10:00 – 10:30 AM
Attendee Check-in

10:30 – 11:30 AM
Panel Discussion: Rest, Resilience, and Reclaiming Your Peace

11:40 – 12:35 PM
Breakout Session 1

12:40 – 1:10 PM
Lunch

1:20 – 2:15 PM
Breakout Session 2

2:25 – 3:20 PM
Breakout Session 3

3:30 – 4:00 PM
Closing Remarks & Social

Join us for an experience that blends clinical insight, with hands-on practical tools to support sustainable mental well-being. We’ve built an entire day dedicated to resiliency, healing, and community wellness.

Throughout the day, you’ll engage in:

Guided somatic practices including breathwork and movement
Journaling and reflection exercises
Conversations around high-performance anxiety and burnout
Skill-building sessions focused on boundaries, capacity, and sustainable leadership
Opportunities to connect with others navigating similar challenges

From expert-led discussions to hands on break-out sessions, this is your space to rest, recharge, and reset.

Breakout Sessions

You Don’t Have to Carry It All: Capacity, Boundaries, and Collective Care

Sonya Martinez-Ortiz, LCSW, RYT 500 • Breakout Session 1

This experiential group session invites participants to reconnect with their existing strengths, wisdom, and capacity. Grounded in a healing justice framework and sensorimotor psychotherapy, we’ll briefly explore how stress and vicarious trauma live in the body, and how care can be practiced across different domains (body, mind, spirit, relationships, and community).

Through practice and discussion, participants will have the opportunity to build awareness of their internal cues, and experiment with sustainable ways of staying connected to themselves and others. Together, we’ll explore “anchors” for ongoing care—micro practices, connection practices, and cyclical practices—that support choice, boundaries, and collective wellbeing. This is not a space for deep processing, but for resourcing, reflection, and leaving with something practical to carry forward.

Beyond Self-Care: Boundaries, Capacity, and Burnout

LaShawn Williams, MPA, EdD, LCSW • Breakout Session 2 & 3

This session explores burnout beyond surface-level self-care by focusing on the relationship between personal capacity, boundaries, and chronic stress. Participants will reflect on where they may be overextended, under-supported, or disconnected, and learn practical strategies to restore balance through intentional boundaries and sustainable self-care. Includes guided reflection and simple mindfulness practices.

Pausing the Productivity Machine

Niecie Jones, PhD, LMFT • Breakout Sessions 1, 2 & 3

The call has been coming from inside the house to use rest as a primary part of your resistance. Have you been listening? Come to this space to reflect on your current rest practice and where you can expand yourself by doing less. You will respond to guided prompts on rest in writing and have the opportunity to share your reflections with an intimate community.

Elements Toward Awareness

Iberty Mojica Gedeon, CMHC • Breakout Sessions 1, 2 & 3

This session utilizes a series of bilingual prompts designed for journaling, movement, and intrinsic healing.

English Summary

This session focuses on “Knowing ourselves is loving ourselves.” Through a step-by-step process of pausing, movement, and breathing, participants will engage with 13 “Conscious Elements.” These prompts guide individuals to shift their perception, recognize the magnetic power of the heart, and distinguish between being and having. The experience culminates in “Healing Poetry” and mindfulness practices that bridge the gap between our finite environment and our infinite inner experience, leading to liberty, harmony, and wisdom.

Resumen en español

Esta sesión se centra en la premisa “¡Conocernos es amarnos!” A través de un proceso paso a paso que incluye pausas, movimiento y respiración, los participantes trabajarán con 13 “Elementos hacia la conciencia”. Estas pautas guían a la persona a cambiar su percepción, reconocer el poder magnético del corazón y entender la diferencia entre ser y tener. La experiencia culmina en “Poesía Sanadora” y prácticas de mindfulness que conectan nuestro entorno finito con nuestra experiencia interna infinita, alcanzando así la libertad, la armonía y la sabiduría.

Gentle Yoga

Lebo Goad E-RYT, RPYT • Breakout Sessions 1

Anthony Reed, E-RYT 500 • Breakout Sessions 2 & 3

An all-levels yoga practice offering gentle movement, grounding breath, and meditation to help you slow down, reconnect, and access a sense of deep rest. You’re invited to move at your own pace, rest when you need to, and be part of a shared space that is grounding and supportive.No experience is needed—come as you are in comfortable clothing.

Exhale

Camille Nugent & Davina Hanchuck • Breakout Sessions 1, 2, & 3

This is a powerful vinyasa flow that builds heat, challenges your focus, and invites you to stay present with what’s rising in your body without needing to push past your edge. You will move continuously and use your breath as an anchor through it all. Expect a fluid, creative flow that feels strong and expressive, while still giving you space to listen and adjust in real time. You’ll move energy through your body and leave feeling grounded, open, and more connected to yourself, with a clearer sense of what you’re ready to release.

Rest, Release, and Restore: Healing in the Body

Sherrá Watkins, PhD, LCMHC-S • Breakout Sessions 1, 2 & 3

This session centers the bodies and minds of advocates, caregivers, and community leaders who show up for their communities every day, often at great personal cost. Many carry stress in both visible and invisible ways. Guided by Dr. Watkins, participants will be introduced to Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping, a body-based practice that uses gentle tapping on specific acupressure points, along with focused awareness and emotional processing, to support stress relief, grounding, and restoration. Rooted in multicultural perspectives on healing and activism, this session offers practical tools to help participants deepen self-awareness, reconnect with rest, and build sustainable ways of caring for themselves while continuing to care for their communities. Participants will leave with a technique they can use immediately — in their bodies, in their work, and in their communities.

You will explore: