Massage and Reiki in Schools

[Lisa S]

Hi All,
I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a year or so. Thanks to all of you for the depth and breadth of professional information here, what a treasure it is! I start massage school today, and I'm up way too early... but I digress.
I coordinate a program in our local regional high school called the Wellness Room where students (and staff) can come in and receive massage, reiki, craniosacral, JSJ, etc. free of charge during study halls and lunch, or when referred by the nurse or a teacher. It is a fantastic program, and something that is very dear to my heart. I believe this is the only program of its kind in the country, but I would love to be wrong about that. Does anyone else have anything like this in their community? The students are so grateful, and our volunteers are so generous, and there is such a need for this kind of thing with this age group. I'd love to hear from anyone who knows of other programs like this, or anyone who would like to try to get one going.
Namaste'
Rowan

 

[Kratnoff]

Massage and Reiki in Schools

I am aware of Rice University offering massage student benefits, but not for free (it is a reduced fee though).

http://wellness.rice.edu/massage/

They also offer acupuncture ( http://wellness.rice.edu/acupuncture/ ), Nutrition Coaching, Wellness Coaching and a Wellness Library.

 

[Sebastian]

Massage and Reiki in Schools

That's amazing. How did the folks who made that happen make that happen? And what area is it in? And how do you not have all kinds of problems with parents and hand-wringing issues around touch?

 

[johhny boi]

Massage and Reiki in Schools

Hi Ego,
Well, the short answer is we do have some hand wringing, but we also have some healthy fist shaking about not letting our fears keep us back from something that can literally save our kids. So, here is the longer answer:
In 2000-2001 we lost a number of students in a short period of time. There was a car crash, a drowning and a couple of suicides, then 9/11 hit. The community was in crisis and the school seforum.xxxed a "wellness day", bringing in folks from many different places to help the kids get a handle on the situation. Two Reiki practitioners set up tables in the basement and the kids responded in such a positive way that they kept coming. This was the beginning of the Wellness Room. Since then we have brought in more modalities and had our room moved three times. There was a time two years ago when we were in danger of losing the program all together, but we went to the school board and they "received more calls, emails, and letters about keeping the Wellness Room than about any other issue ever". So, we're still here, in Mid Coast Maine, Camden to be exact. The school has about 800 kids in it. The parents have to sign a permission slip that we keep on file and check off any modalities they do not want their kids to receive. All the practitioners are cleared through the state fingerprinting process, like any other volunteer would be. Ideally there are two practitioners in the room at all times. If we can't pull that off due to lack of available volunteers, we can have two kids and the door left open. The kids love this program, and I know it has meant the difference between some of those kids staying in school or not. It's often hard to find practitioners to staff the room, but the ones that do come in find that it has it's own rewards.

 

[~.:Just Me:.~]

Massage and Reiki in Schools

That sounds like a lovely program. I've never heard of a similar program at the high school level.