New ‘You Affirming You’ workshops help students confront self-criticism
November 1, 2026 John Baker Brown
“You Affirming You” interactive workshops empower students to recognize and challenge self-criticism by creating realistic and compassionate self-affirmations. The workshops are offered by Amara Chukwunenye (left) and RaiNesha Miller of Emory’s Counseling and Psychological Services.
It’s not uncommon for students to be their own toughest critics, to wrestle with low self-esteem or to be dealing with various types of stress.
But it is possible to practice self-compassion even in the midst of it all.
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has introduced a new workshop called “You Affirming You” — YAY for short. The workshops empower individual students to confront negative thought patterns about themselves.
Research has found that self-affirmations cultivate a sense of general well-being and positive self-worth among college students and other adults by reducing symptoms such as anxiety and negative moods.
“In our interactive workshops, students learn to transform critical, automatic self-talk into realistic, compassionate statements as self-affirmations they can use,” says RaiNesha Miller, licensed psychologist with the CAPS team and co-facilitator of YAY workshops. “These self-generated affirmations ultimately aid in supporting students’ confidence, resilience and emotional well-being.”
YAY is a one-session, hour-long, in-person workshop that CAPS offers twice each semester. The material discussed is the same in each session, so if a student misses the first, they can join the second. Students may repeat the workshops, which are intentionally scheduled during times in the semester that tend to be most stressful for most students, such as right before midterms and significant breaks.
“We don’t simply offer tips. We have created a curriculum that teaches students the psychology behind negative self-talk and the use of alternative thoughts to overcome them,” says Miller. “Our YAY curriculum is grounded solely in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is an established psychological approach that helps counter negative thought patterns.”
Each workshop is structured around four key areas:
- Introduction to CBT foundational principles of thought, emotion and behavior connection
- Explanation of the connection between CBT and self-affirmations
- Teaching how to recognize automatic negative thoughts and transform them into positive affirmations
- Generating personal self-affirmations and making them believable
“YAY workshops are part of our CAPS Outreach Programming, which is designed to increase community engagement and mental health education beyond the traditional walls of therapy,” says Amara Chukwunenye, a licensed psychologist with CAPS. She is a co-coordinator of community engagement and outreach education for CAPS and co-facilitates the workshops with Miller.
“The workshops encourage community gathering by bringing together a variety of students for an hour of interactive mental health education as they learn to confront a common challenge that so many of us face: self-criticism,” Chukwunenye adds.
The final workshop for fall semester is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 17, from 12- 1 p.m. in the Alumni Memorial University Center (AMUC). Only 10 time slots are available, so interested students should sign up as soon as possible.
Counseling and Psychological Services, a part of Emory Campus Life, is dedicated to enhancing the student experience by promoting the overall well-being of Emory students. “You Affirming You” workshops are co-facilitated by RaiNesha Miller and Amara Chukwunenye.
