Feb. 23, 2000


Rubbing Woes Away: Alice!'s Stressbusters Give Wednesday Massages

By Lauren Marshall

For those Columbians who know where to go for a little stress relief, stepping off the elevator onto the 7th floor of Lerner Hall around noon on Wednesdays means stepping into a slice of paradise. Just ask Columbia College junior Lauren Porsch, a Wind Down Wednesdays regular who comes every week for a mini-massage. Lauren, who often feels over-extended from the consuming combination of class work and extracurricular activities, says that she can tackle her schedule week to week, "knowing there is a little relaxation on Wednesday."

Lauren is just one of many of Columbia's own, including students, faculty and staff, who will sacrifice lunch or brown bag it to queue up Wednesdays at noon for a five- to ten-minute mini-massage delivered by a specially-trained student "Stressbuster."

The backs and shoulders of over 3,000 Columbians have been massaged since the beginning of the program over four years ago by Alice!, Columbia's progressive health education program. This year in Alice's new offices in Lerner Hall, "Wind Down Wednesdays" was created, offering a constant time and place for the increasingly popular mini-massages. On a mission to ease tension and promote relaxation for the campus community, Stressbusters and Alice! devote their lunch hour every Wednesday to the stressed. Alice! estimates that their clientele includes an even mix of students and faculty/staff.

Whether your job is studying, teaching, writing memos or painting walls, five minutes can make a difference. According to Jordan Friedman, Alice! 's director, new research appears weekly documenting the value of touch and massage in reducing stress and depression. In addition to the growing popularity of the mini-massage, perhaps the best evidence of the program's success is in the faces of the stress-busted.

"The facial expressions and comments of the just-massaged is more evidence of the relaxation power of just a five-minute shoulder, back and neck rub from a Stressbuster," said Friedman.

On Wednesdays, five chairs manned by five Stressbusters sit in the lobby outside of the Alice! office in anticipation of the people who appear weekly and contentedly wait in line. Clients are greeted by a friendly Stressbuster, a student volunteer trained in basic massage techniques of the back, shoulders and neck, who introduces him or herself as your Stressbuster for the day. Before proceeding, Stressbusters ask their clients if they have a history of back problems.

Stress busters learn the physiology and the art of massage during a two-hour training course administered by Rosalyn Cherry, a licensed massage therapist who practices in the neighborhood. The some 100 student Stressbusters currently on staff volunteer to work on their massage skills and to help people feel relaxed.

According to Victor F. Escamilla, CC '02, becoming a Stressbuster was a natural step because helping people is a life passion. In addition to comforting and helping people to relax, having a clientele of "regulars" who ask for him weekly by name gives him a special sense of purpose.

Although Stressbusting is a privilege restricted to students, this semester some administrators have volunteered to be "guest Stressbusters."

Stressbusters has grown from Alice!'s stress management program, which includes stress reduction workshops, a skill-building group series and residence life training, all designed to help students with the challenges of college life. In the beginning, stressbusting was a roving service. Today, Stressbusters are dispatched to special programs in residence halls, student organizations, campus departments and special events, in addition to their in-house program, Wind Down Wednesdays. Even the Health Sciences Campus has asked for their own regularly-scheduled massage event.

Because of the success of Wind Down Wednesdays, growth of the program might be on the horizon. "The more relaxation at Columbia the better; so, our goal is to continue to reach out and touch even more students and staff in the coming semesters," said Friedman.