Join the BC Brain Wellness Program for our annual hybrid World Brain Day celebration! This year’s event will explore the interconnections between the mind, well-being, and resilience throughout life, especially as we head into older age. Enjoy an engaging session of presentations and activities with Dr. Julia Henderson, Sandra Tjoa, Mady Mooney, and Cynthia Friesen!
More details below!
Details:
Date: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location: This event will be offered online on Zoom and in person in room 3402 (Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health)
Please Note: : For those in-person, supplies for the art session with be provided, for those online, please have supplies to create on-hand if you would like to participate. If you cannot attend in-person anymore, please cancel your in-person attendance spot. Light refreshments will be provided.
Events Schedule:
12:00 - Countering Ageism, Cultivating Creativity, and Promoting Citizenship and Well-being through the Arts
Dr. Julia Henderson will share evidence about the role of creative and expressive arts in supporting health and well being during later life. Along with her graduate students, Dr Henderson will discuss some of her recent and ongoing research with older adults that experiments with co-creation, especially theatre and performance. Dr. Henderson will discuss how artistic engagement can be used to counter ageism, foster a sense of community (especially across generations), and meaningfully (re)shape notions of aging, older age, and practices of care, as well as support activism.
12:35 - The Quick Reset: What to Do When Stress Hijacks Your Mind
Has stress and anxiety left you feeling scattered or overwhelmed? In this short session by Sandra Tjoa, you’ll learn 3 simple, effective skills to bring yourself out of a chaotic mind and back into your body. These practices are designed to move you from mental overwhelm in times of stress and anxiety to clarity and calm so you can better access your inner clarity and intuition.
1:10 - Let's Get Into a Creative Flow!
Join Mady Mooney and Cynthia Friesen for a guided art session, where you will be encouraged to manifest your thoughts, feelings, and emotions as a creative response!
1:45 - Refreshments and Social
Speakers
Dr. Julia Henderson
Dr. Julia Henderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at University of British Columbia. She is a registered occupational therapist and holds a PhD in Theatre. Her research with older adults uses arts-based methods, especially theatre, to redress cultural ageism and promote citizenship. Julia is Chair of the North American Network in Aging Studies, Co-chair of Community Engagement with UBC’s Edwin S H Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, and an investigator with the Concordia University-based SSHRC Partnership Project, “Aging in Data.” Julia’s research has been published in many journals, such as Frontiers in Health Services, Leisure/Loisir, Canadian Theatre Review, and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. She also has recent chapters in Aging Studies and Ecocriticism, The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and Aging, and Pandemic Play: Community in Performance, Gaming, and the Arts.
Cynthia Friesen
Having grown up in a musical family, Cynthia Friesen pursued her ARCT in performance as a student at the conservatory in Toronto, studying both piano and voice. Throughout her years as a professional in television and radio production, exploring music was a part of daily rhythms but it wasn't until the opportunity came to conduct a children’s choir at her church that she was mobilized to return to teaching. She is delighted to balance a coaching practice of voice students at her home studio with two community music partners. Facilitating the music classes for the BC Brain Wellness Program offers opportunities to support creative aging and life enrichment for participants. In addition to leading the BCBWP Creative Expression Team, Cynthia conducts the Junior Choral Program for St. James Music Academy, sits on the board for Room 217 Music Care and the Community Programming Advisory Committee for UBC’s Chan Centre for the Arts.
Mady Mooney
Mady Mooney holds a masters degree in psychotherapy and spirituality with a specialization in art therapy. She conducted her research on chronic pain and art therapy in women diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
In the past she has worked in the private sector as well as in public health, specifically at the Cross Cancer Clinic in Edmonton. She offered individual therapy and facilitated group art therapy for cancer patients and their family.
Presently she is in private practice in Vancouver offering one on one sessions as well as group sessions, both online and in person, in addition to workshop facilitation. In her practice she sees clients who are exploring issues such as anxiety, stress, depression, life transitions, and abuse.
She is primarily a client centered therapist and as such believes that you have an innate wisdom and capacity for self healing and personal growth. Together with you she would like to explore how you may find that connection through the arts. As well, She draws on a variety of theories to create an integrative approach using techniques that “fit” the client.
When she is not working she enjoys being an artist; She paints and loves photography.
Her husband, who has been diagnosed with Movement Disorder, and her spend each spring and fall in Amsterdam, enjoying her family, the arts and the culture. She feels fortunate to have three children and two young grandkids.
Sandra Tjoa
Sandra is dedicated to working with people who’ve had prolonged stress, intense emotional states, and chronic pain, especially when no other treatments they’ve tried have been working. Her wholistic approach has helped get rid of headaches and migraines, relieve chronic back and joint pain, and lift unhealed trauma – and helping people feel less anxious and depressed, has given them more energy to focus on family, friends, and things they love to do, free from physical and emotional pain.
For more than 20 years, Sandra has worked with countless students and clients to point their health and life in a new direction moving forward from high blood pressure, sleepless nights, concussion symptoms, and long-term conditions such as Parkinson's, cancer, and various autoimmune diseases, leading them to pain-free and joyful living.
Her personal journey of healing from grief, depression, and developmental trauma informs her deep commitment to her practice. She offers deeper healing intensives through small group and private programs, using the principles of Qi Gong and Tai Chi to master Qi, our life-force energy. Sandra's holistic approach transpires from the combination of her B.Sc. in Human Biology and Human Kinetics, her medical career as a Registered Respiratory Therapist, and extensive training with masters worldwide.