"The Q-Life team expresses tons of enthusiasm and passion around their role as Q-Life leaders, which certainly comes across to students in a positive way. They contribute to the "lifestyle" edge which is highly pertinent to young adults today, especially regarding exercise, nutrition, and social media "
Q-Life Graduate
"All the Q-Life leaders are very sincere communicators. You get the sense that they are being very honest and genuine about their past experiences (good and bad), as well as about their intention to help people of all walks of life be their best selves."
Q-Life Graduate
"I appreciate the Q-Life leaders sharing their past experiences and drawing parallels with people of different walks of life, such as making comparisons between athletes they have worked with vs. an academically-minded student studying for a hard exam."
Q-Lifer
"The Q-Life team is superb. Their messages are based in both scientific fact and clinical/ life experience, which give them both depth and reliability. All the leaders make a good complementary team. Very knowledgeable and passionate as a Q-Life leader"
Q-Lifer
MEET THE Q-LIFE CHIEF SUPPORTER
Darren is passionate about improving the resilience and health in a fast changing work world. Darren is a professional Exercise Physiologist and has worked in the health and performance field for nearly 25 years. He is Owner of a Consulting Company in Halifax dedicated to helping people leave flourishing lives. He has consulted within corporations, with top level executives, Olympic Medalists, World Champion athletes and thousands of employees.
Darren has a weekly column on resilience in the Chronicle Herald and his most recent book can be found on amazon “Are you ready?” an easy approach to enhancing your resilience.
Darren is an adjunct professor in the school of health and human performance at Dalhousie University. He has, and is, conducted research in resilience, and high performance sport. Currently Darren is leading a three study in resilience in university age students.
Darren has also been a reviewer for the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance as well as The Physician and SportsMedicine Journal.
Not only does he teach resilience but practices it daily.
Q-LIFE COACHES
Dr. Cawley was the Regional Mental Health Coordinator responsible, on behalf of the member institutions of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU), to coordinate and facilitate the development of a sustainable post-secondary mental health strategy. She was completing her PhD in psychiatry at McGill University.
Q-LIFE COACHES
Dr. Jonathon Fowles is an exercise physiologist whose work in the Centre of Lifestyle Studies at Acadia University, examines the effects of exercise on health in athletes, the elderly and persons with chronic disease. Dr. Fowles has worked with many national organizations to promote practical strategies to implement exercise recommendations as part of quality practice. He was the scientific lead for the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) Physical Activity and Training for Health (CSEP-PATH) manual and he has spearheaded initiatives with many national and regional health organizations to increase capacity for physical activity counseling by health care providers, receiving recognitions for his efforts as a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2018), the Lawson Foundation 60th Anniversary Award of Excellence (2017), the Diabetes Care Program of Nova Scotia Dedicated Leader Award (2016) and the CSEP Professional Standards Program Recognition Award (2015). Dr. Fowles is currently the Chair of the National Advisory Council for Exercise is Medicine Canada.
Q-LIFE HELPER
Dr. Bagnell is currently the Chief of Psychiatry at the IWK Health Centre, as well as professor and head of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Dalhousie University.
Dr. Bagnell is a clinician researcher and a founder of the Treatment of Anxiety Group (2005) and the OCD Clinic (2013) at the IWK Health Centre. Her research interests are in promoting earlier intervention for mental health disorders, with a focus on schools and web-based programs with the goal of improving health outcomes in youth.
What is living the Q-Life?
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Dr Leanne Stevens, Dalhousie University Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award - Dalhousie Association of Psychology Students/Mentor Of the Year
I encourage our first-year students to complete the Q-Life program for many reasons. The transition from high-school to university is filled with new challenges, changes, and stressors—the ability to adapt, learn, and grow from these experiences is essential for mental wellness, academic success, and personal growth. The skills students can learn through the Q-Life program will help them far beyond their first year of university.
Dr Colin Guthrie, Mental Performance Consulting Group
The Q-Lifes systematic and multidimensional approach to assessing, preparing, monitoring, and developing resiliency in the individuals I work with, is a critical part of the journey for executive coaching or high-performance team development.
Verity Turpin, AVP, Student Affairs Dalhousie University
The Q-Life Program is an important component of our stepped care model at Dalhousie. The program builds our students’ skills so they remain healthy and thrive as they pursue their academic goals, despite all the bumps that come along the way
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
Resilience helps to boost a students confidence, increase their belief in themselves and unlock their full potential.
"The Q life came just when I needed it. I love the encouragement it provides to “charge my r-battery” in order to take on my daily tasks as a student. "
Q-Life Graduate
"Awesome course. Thanks for opportunity to do it 😁 "
Q-Life Graduate
"I absolutely loved the course and will definitely promote it as much as I can to others!"
Q-Life Graduate
"I really enjoy the companion. It has everything I need and allows me to actually participate and work through exercises. I like how it also summarizes the main ideas so when I need something I can look back on it. "
Q-Life Graduate
Frequently Asked Questions
Yup. Easy to access, easy to follow and tons of learning about yourself and resilience. There is an active private group as well where live sessions will occur if you are interested.
It is 6 weeks. The first week is the assessment, 6 weeks of videos along with your guide and then another week to do the assessment.
- The assessments will take 15 minutes each
- We ask that you journal and log as often as possible. That can be as little as 1 minute a day or as long as you want
- There are about 6 hours of videos broken up into small chunks that are easily digestible
- Resilience screening is becoming common place in the interview hiring process
- Your name is on file when you complete this and you can recognize your accomplishment on your resume
