About Wellness Services
Smith College Wellness Services provides interdisciplinary, culturally sensitive and inclusive health promotion services designed to enable our diverse student population to fully participate and thrive throughout their college experience. We are sensitive to how the components of our lives, from our identities to our lived experiences, impact our health and well-being.
Open Hours
Wellness open hours are hosted by professional staff members to provide confidential one-on-one support to Smithies. These hours are a great chance to get support and build healthy habits—we’re happy to talk about a range of topics including but not limited to sleep, gender identity, healthy relationships, substance use and harm reduction, and self-care.
If you would like an appointment with a health educator/peer mental health supporter, you can sign up here or contact wellness@smith.edu.
Core Values
As a center, we value:
- The whole person: mind, body, soul and spirit
- Treating all individuals with respect and dignity
- Pursuing social justice and health equity
- Understanding wellness as an individual and community pursuit
About Us
What Is Wellness?
Wellness is a lifelong journey, valuing everything we are as living beings, in the full complexity of our positive and negative experiences. We are whole people moving through the world as the world moves around us; as such, these definitions must grow and change along with us. Through our department, students can explore the multiple facets of wellness, including their physical, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing.
Our Mission
Our mission is to advocate and promote student wholeness by providing inclusive and accessible peer support through wellness initiatives to protect students and help them define what wellness looks like in the context of their lives.
Our Wellness Philosophy
Maintaining physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being is a moving target—this work requires intention and care. We support the work of exploring and developing well-being in the context of our identities: physical, social, emotional, spiritual, ancestral, community, environmental, intellectual, financial and occupational life components.
Part of wellness involves addressing issues that impede wholeness and access to care on the individual and community level by naming and working to dismantle stigma and systemic ableism, capitalism, classism, fatphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia and other forms of oppression in our community.
We believe in a community care model with an emphasis on connection. Well-being and self-care are the responsibility of the whole community. Well-being is dependent on the engagement of a wide range of stakeholders including one’s teachers, spiritual leaders, friends, families and the institutions with which one is connected.
Binder Library
The Smith College Binder Library provides education around safe chest binding and a discrete environment to try on a binder before buying one. We have a wide array of sizes and colors. If finances are a barrier, we’re happy to help you apply for funding. If you need assistance finding the right fit, a staff member is available to provide support.
What is the binder library?
The binder library is a free, discrete resource for Smith students to help assist in selecting the right binder and checking fit. We have a collection of binders from both TomBoyX and GC2B in a wide variety of colors, sizes (XS to 4XL), and styles, as well as a staff person who can help assist in measuring and finding the right fit.
Can I have a binder from the library?
The binders are for trying on and determining the right size; we cannot give them away. We have a handful of second hand binders we can give away. If buying a binder is a financial burden, we can help you apply for funding through Smith or other organizations.
Where can I get funding for a binder?
The Emergency Medical Fund, found on the Smith Social Network, covers up to $80 in funding for binders per student per year.
Who helps out?
The binder library was funded by the Resource Center for Sexuality and Gender and is maintained by the Wellness Department. In Spring of 2022, the staff binder librarian is Sunny Windorski (they/he). Sunny graduated from Smith in 2020 and has first hand experience binding; they are happy to help in any way they can. Feel free to reach out at awindorski@smith.edu.
How does privacy work?
Binder library appointments are scheduled in the same block as one on one wellness appointments; this means that you could be coming into the office for any reason. There are a few private spaces where students can try on the binders, including spaces with mirrors and spaces without mirrors.
Is the binder library accessible?
The binder library is located on the second floor of the Schacht Center—there is an elevator that can take you to the second floor if you need it.
Where is the binder library?
We are located in the Wellness Department on the second floor of the Schacht Center.
How can I use the binder library?
Please schedule an appointment. If none of those times work, email awindorski@smith.edu to schedule an appointment.
Is there information on binder safety?
Yes! When you visit the binder library, you can chat with Sunny about binder safety. We also have information you can take home with you.
