Massage and Mental Wellness

This evening in the Wellness Unit a 16 week course sponsored by the Massage Therapy Foundation concludes with a survey and celebration.  Ms. L. Ruth Kalvert obtained a grant  for this project and conducted the course at Fountain House.   Ruth Parson, unit leader, and a group of Fountain House members participated each week.  The course was multi-faceted, including techniques of self-massage, massage, yoga and breathing.  Surveys were taken at the beginning,  midway and at the end to assess the effects of this course on participants’ sense of wellbeing and attitude towards their bodies and minds.  Ms. Kalvert gave each participant two full body massages as well as teaching techniques for self-massage using yoga, breathing and rubber balls of various sizes and textures.  Several sessions were also conducted in a space at the Breathing Project, a yoga school on West 23rd Street.  One session was conducted in a joint class with  the Yoga and Mental Wellness class by Elizabeth Plapinger at the Breathing Project.

We were encouraged to journal about our experiences and a mentor and friend of Ms. Kalvert interviewed us about our experiences.  Several times we massaged one another in a respectful and gentle manner, always getting permission to touch one another.  I felt more connected to my body and found a sense of trust with the persons I massaged or who massaged me.  I realized I am not touched enough and self-massage is available to me as well as courses at the Breathing Project.  There are so many different experiences offered to us at Fountain House and I am grateful for this opportunity to relax my body as well as my mind.  At the celebration this evening, I will report an improved sense of myself as a human being with a body that can be coaxed into relaxing and lifting my spirits.