Collins has been encouraging law students to cultivate their own sense of wellbeing and mental resilience since joining uOttawa’s Faculty of Law in 2006. Teaching both first and upper year seminars, each of Collins’ classes starts with a brief mindfulness meditation where students are invited to quiet their mind.
“From the very beginning I have tried to be candid with my students about the fact that you can’t produce quality work if you’re working beyond your natural capacity,” says Collins, pushing back against the legal profession’s “hustle hard” narrative.
Recognizing that there’s no universal way to be well, Collins promotes common ingredients such as getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food, exercise, and social connection.
“These techniques supercharge your performance in all areas,” says Collins. “If you could present one magic key to maximize your own potential, it would be cultivating mental and physical wellbeing because everything else rests on that.”
Take her message during exam season: “I tell students to imagine they’re in the Faculty of Music. You’ve practiced and practiced and know everything about a piece. But before your performance you take your instrument and you throw it down the stairs, jump on it, and then go to your exam. That’s what you’re doing to your brain if you’re staying up all night studying.”
Though this metaphor would solicit chuckles, Collins says her advice went largely ignored until a few years ago. That’s when she started delving into the empirical research behind wellbeing and the link to academic performance.
One study from a pharmacy school found that students who got adequate amounts of sleep earned, on average, a full letter grade better than those who were always exhausted. “That’s when I saw the heads pop up,” says Collins. “Law students are critical thinkers, it’s good they don’t just take my word for things.”
Doing some digging, Collins found a huge body of evidence to support her self-care suggestions. “Now I can tell students to take care of themselves because they deserve it and it’s the shortest path to academic and professional success,” she says.
A leader among Canadian law schools
In 2019, Collins’ interest in this research culminated in a specialized seminar called Happiness and the Law, which can be taken as an elective by first-year students. Complementing it is an upper-year seminar on mindfulness and the law taught by criminal lawyer Heather Cross.
With this pair of courses, uOttawa is ahead of other Canadian law schools when it comes to integrating wellness with other core legal concepts. Collins attributes this to the support she’s received from the Faculty of Law over the last several years.
“During the thick of the pandemic I was asked to teach the [Happiness in the Law] course three times,” she notes. “That was a crunch year in terms of resources and we had just made this rapid pivot to online learning. But the faculty really grasped that this was a time when, more than ever, students would need these skills.”
In line with uOttawa’s equity, diversity, and inclusion commitments, Collins has always prioritized integrating diverse perspectives on wellbeing into the fabric of the course. Sometimes this means talking about evidence that goes beyond what has been evaluated by Western science — such as the practice of meditation or Indigenous principles of wellbeing. As an outcome, Collins describes her seminar as a space where students feel comfortable sharing how their culture, identity, and religion intersect with health and wellness.
“I also think it’s critical to bear in mind that a personalized wellbeing practice is not a replacement for social justice,” adds Collins. “If there is systemic racism in the faculty, the answer is not that people experiencing that should go off and meditate. I’m offering a particular kind of toolkit and education but never suggesting that this is a replacement for the systemic changes that need to happen in law school and the profession.”
Looking to the future, Collins shares that one of her ideas is to create an interactive website where uOttawa students and alumni can share their unique perspectives on mental health and wellbeing. She already brings alumni in as guest speakers for her Happiness and the Law course and says students really respond to that peer-to-peer communication.
Overall, Collins says she finds profound fulfillment in this work: “As profs we care about our students. Fundamentally I want them to be happy and successful people, so it’s one of the most satisfying things I’ve done with my career.”
Resources
Joining to promote mental health, the University of Ottawa and the Alumni Association have undertaken a number of wellness initiatives for our community. Need help but don’t know where to start? These links will take you to resources that may be very useful for you.