Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Mental Health: EUR's UNIC Student Dialogues

On the 21st of April, Erasmus University Rotterdam hosted its annual UNIC Student Dialogue, with this years’ student-led conversation tackling a very current topic: mental health across cultures. The EUR Living Room was the setting for an afternoon of open and honest exchange. Students gathered both to listen and to speak: to share how their cultural backgrounds shape the way they understand and experience mental health.

What are the UNIC Student Dialogues?

The UNIC Dialogues are a series of student-led conversations organised across all UNIC universities under a common yearly defined theme, with this year’s theme being internationalisation. The UNIC Dialogues are a low-threshold way for students from our ten universities to give input on matters that concern them and help shape and improve their campus and the work of UNIC.

The format is accessible, and made to hear students: no formal panels, no passive listening. The goal is genuine student input that feeds into campus life and the wider UNIC network.

The Conversation

Guest speaker Clint Steenveld, a clinical psychologist, helped frame the discussion: mental health conditions are not experienced or interpreted the same way across cultures. What gets called anxiety in one culture may be seen as a sign of a transitionary period in another. In some cultures, seeking help for mental health issues is still stigmatized or seen as shameful, an attitude students carry with them even if they move abroad. Students drew on their lived experiences to bring these ideas to life, fostering the kind of conversation going deeper than just answering wellbeing surveys.

The event was organized in collaboration with EUR's Student Wellbeing team, in the Student Living room, a space made to relax and connect, and the one place on the EUR campus where studying is not allowed.