The Pop & Psy Festival: A Sanctuary of Emotional Resonance

The Pop & Psy Festival is a free, inclusive, and non-profit cultural and scientific event dedicated to mental health awareness and innovation. The 2025 edition takes place from October 10 to 12 at Communale Saint-Ouen (10 bis rue de l’Hippodrome, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine), transforming the venue into a vibrant hub of emotional resonance and creative exchange.

Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, the festival deepens its commitment to emotional truth and public healing. It features roundtables, interactive talks, live concerts, DJ sets, graphic art exhibitions, and hands-on workshops—all designed to destigmatize mental health and foster dialogue between experts, artists, survivors, and the public.

Notable participants include Muriel Robin, Isabelle Carré, Mathias Malzieu, Camille Chamoux, Mahaut Drama, Noam Sinseau, and many others. A highlight of the event is the “Village des Solutions,” showcasing innovative approaches to mobility, energy, digital inclusion, circular economy, food, biodiversity, water, climate, health, and education. The atmosphere is both festive and reflective, offering a rare space where personal testimony and public engagement coexist in healing harmony.

World Mental Health Day 2025: A Poetic Reflection in Times of Crisis

Observed today, October 10, World Mental Health Day 2025 carries the theme: “Access to Services – Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies.” This global initiative calls attention to the emotional toll of crises and the urgent need for compassionate, accessible care.

Each year, World Mental Health Day invites us to pause—not just to raise awareness, but to feel the weight and wonder of emotional well-being. In 2025, the theme resonates with piercing clarity: mental health in catastrophes and emergencies. From climate disasters to displacement, from war zones to personal upheaval, the call is clear—mental health support must not be a luxury, but a lifeline.

This year’s observance is especially poignant in spaces like the Pop & Psy Festival, where survivors, artists, and advocates gather to speak truth into silence. Their lived experiences transform the room into a sanctuary of shared vulnerability and strength. These voices are not statistics—they are testimonies of survival and reclamation.

The World Federation for Mental Health reminds us that 1 in 8 people globally live with a mental health condition, and in times of crisis, that number surges. Yet access to care remains fractured. This year’s campaign urges governments, communities, and individuals to build networks of support that reach into the margins—where trauma often hides.

How You Can Ritualize This Day!

A poetic guide to honoring emotional truth in times of crisis

This day is not just a date—it’s a threshold. A moment to pause, feel, and respond. Whether you are a survivor, a caregiver, an artist, or simply a witness to the world’s ache, here are rituals you can enact to transform awareness into presence:

- Light a Candle for the Unspoken  

  Choose a scent that evokes safety—lavender, sandalwood, or unscented if silence feels sacred.  

  As the flame flickers, name aloud (or in your heart) one truth you’ve carried quietly.  

  Let the light hold it for you.

- Write a Letter to Your Past or Future Self  

Begin with “I see you.”  

Whether you write to the child you were or the elder you’re becoming, let tenderness guide your pen.  

Seal it in an envelope, or fold it into your journal as a private offering.

- Create a Visual Moodboard of Emotional Safety  

Use photos, textures, colors, or found objects.  Include symbols of resilience: a tree, a bridge, a hand, a mirror.  

Let it be messy, intuitive, and yours.

- Curate a Mental Health First Aid Basket: include a satin pillow, affirmation cards, herbal tea, a grounding stone, and a journal.  

Place it somewhere visible. Let it remind you that care is always within reach.

- Share a Survivor-Centered Story  

If you have lived through crisis, consider sharing a fragment of your truth—online, in a circle, or through art.  

If you are a witness, amplify voices that speak from lived experience.  

Honor the storyteller, not just the story.

- Host a Micro-Gathering or Listening Ritual  

Invite one or more people to sit in circle.  

Pose a gentle question: “What does safety feel like in your body?”  

Listen without fixing. Witness without interruption.

- Create a Sound Ritual  

Build a playlist that moves through grief, courage, and renewal.  

Begin with silence. End with a song that feels like breath returning.

- Practice a Grounding Sequence  

Touch something cold.  

Name five things you see.  

Breathe in for four counts, out for six.  

Repeat until your body feels like home again.

- Post a Poetic Reflection  

Whether it’s one line or a full poem, share your emotional truth in a space that welcomes it.  

Use hashtags like #WorldMentalHealthDay #RitualsOfCare #EmotionalSafety to join the global conversation.

I left with impressions.  

Not facts alone, but frequencies.  

A palette of emotional hues:  Lavender for courage, blooming in the voices that dared to speak.  

Charcoal for grief, soft and smudged, marking the spaces between stories.  

Gold for resilience, radiant and quiet, threaded through every testimony.  

To remind us that healing is not a destination, but a rhythm—one we can choose to join, one breath at a time.