The Medical and Counseling Care Center (MACCC) is offering students, faculty and staff the chance to unplug and relax, just in time for finals.
The Relaxation Room offers a zero-gravity massage chair, several playlists and some alone time for anyone feeling stressed or overworked.
“This has been a service that we’ve provided now for the last few weeks,” said Abby Pimentel, administrative assistant in the MACCC. “We’ve just started opening it up and just started advertising it. We wanted to open it up to the students and let them know what it is.”
The MACCC staff first started talking about the Relaxation Room to students during Meditations Chapel, and word spread quickly from there.
“People are really liking it a lot,” Pimentel said. “It’s been surprising to me. Several people have already made return visits and want to keep something scheduled. Just having a place on campus where you can shut the door and not be interrupted at all has been helpful to people.”
Katrina Karnes, freshman kinesiology major from Oceanside, California, is one of the students who has taken advantage of the Relaxation Room.
“It really helped relieve tension in my muscles that have resulted from the school year,” Karnes said. “The room was a very nice place to relax in peace for a little under an hour.”
During sessions, an iPad is available for students to choose a playlist of worship music, mindfulness meditation or nature sounds. However, the massage chair is arguably the best part of the experience.
“The massage chair is really interesting,” Pimentel said. “It is different than the ones you see in the mall that just kind of shake. It actually gives a pretty deep massage. It’s a much higher quality chair than what you would see in other places.”
The chair has adjustable pressures and massage percussions that help relax muscles and relieve tension.
“All I had to do was sit down and relax while the chair massaged me,” Karnes said.
This semester, sessions in the Relaxation Room are free of charge, but that may change in the fall. Students can call the Medical and Counseling Center at 325-674-2626 to book a 45-minute time slot.
