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Olin offering massage through this week

April 22, 2014

To help alleviate the stress, Student Health Services is offering students 15-minute foot reflexology and chair massages through this week to help them de-stress before finals week.

The massages and reflexology are free services for students. They have been and will continue to be offered from 6-8 p.m. in different clinics across campus this week.

The massages are part of a new initiative called START, which stands for Stress Tension Anxiety Response Team, Director of Health Education Services at Olin Health Center Dennis Martell said.

“It’s our response to helping students relieve the stress of finals,” Martell said. “It’s about helping them get ready to take their finals and be more academically successful.”

Martell said the health center has been monitoring student stress and anxiety levels for a while, which usually spikes around finals.

He said Olin  has been offering massage therapy for university employees and decided to start offering it to students to help them reduce their stress levels.

The services were offered Monday at Hubbard Hall and Tuesday in Holden Hall .

On Wednesday, only massages will be available in McDonel Hall,  whereas both massages and foot reflexology will be offered Thursday in Brody Complex Neighborhood.

Packaging freshman Ally Murray  stopped by to get a massage therapy and said it helped her relax.

“I think that a lot of times your body just gets so tired and so achy, and ... you just get so stressed and just having the pressures and the reflexology that they do really helps,” Murray said.

Murray said she enjoyed her massage so much she would probably try and get another massage at one of the other locations some time this week.

Actuarial science freshman Bailey O’Connor  said having the massages offered to students was a good idea.

“A lot of students keep this stress in their bodies and tense up ... and so this may help release a little bit and helps the person calm down so you’re able to study and not worry about your physical being,” O’Connor said.

Martell said hopefully in the future, the initiative will expand to include music and pet therapy.

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