A quiet space in the Student Union building helps students feel less stress. In fact, it’s called the StressLess Room.
The StressLess Room in SUN 120 gives students, faculty and staff 20 to 30 minutes to relax, one at a time, by sitting in a heated massage chair with a foot massager. Or they can stretch on the room’s yoga mat or use the aromatherapy diffuser, which comes with a variety of relaxing scents.
“Our radiologic technology program … [was] showing us it as a free, awesome way to kind of reduce stress and stop in, in the middle of studying, or just whenever we wanted to just kind of decompress and have a quiet, calm space,” fourth-year medical coding student Heidi Beliczky said. “I thought the massage chair was very cool.”
Katie Keys, the project director for sexual violence prevention, said, “We are trying to keep it as comforting as possible.”
“It’s really special to be able to have a place like that on campus where students can come in [when] visibly, they’re either shaken up or just at their limit, and when they come out, they’re able to … crack jokes and we’ll be able to have a conversation,” Keys said. “And being able to see that transition is really nice. It’s like validation that it works.”
Retired Health Services Manager Beth Mays opened the StressLess Room in 2005.
Stephanie Jenkins, a registered nurse, said the StressLess room is “very, very popular and very used daily by students. It’s one of our most popular services.”
“It helps me just kind of get away,” second-year kinesiology student Tarra Dawkins said. “It helps me… turn everything off for 25 to 30 minutes. So I go in there, just so I could take a step back and slow myself down when I can’t ground myself in the other ways that I typically would.”
Jenkins said counseling is available to anyone who comes to the room in distress.
“If someone comes in and they’re having an anxiety attack or panic attack, we kind of, you know, talk to them for a bit and then have them use the StressLess Room,” Jenkins said. “Obviously, if they need more resources, we can take them up to Counseling as well, because we work very closely with Counseling.”
Beliczky said she plans to start using the room.
“I’m a single mom and I’m busy, and honestly, a room like that sounds heavenly.”
Users must sign in and are not allowed to bring food or drinks into the room, Keys said.
The StressLess Room is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and it’s free.
