If you’d walked into one of TUH-Episcopal Campus’ conference rooms on November 13th or 20th, you might think you had stumbled into a yoga studio. That’s because our Behavioral Health Therapists had transformed the space into a retreat for two special sessions: a 30-minute yoga class and a 30-minute sound bath meditation for employees. There was soft lighting, electric candles, yoga mats, and singing bowls, and staff left feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.
“I wanted to create a space where team members could feel welcome and come together to take care of ourselves,” says Alicia Brodersohn, who led the yoga class on November 13th. In addition to working as a Behavioral Health Therapist, Dance Movement Therapist, and Dual-Role Medical Interpreter at Episcopal, Brodersohn is also a certified yoga instructor, and uses this experience in her work with patients.
“I offer yoga in combination with dance movement therapy,” she explains. “It depends on what patients need that day. Sometimes, they might need to do a little more grounding or centering using yoga and mindfulness techniques. Other times, they just need to express and be more in the dancing world.”
Brodersohn has held staff yoga classes at Episcopal before, but this session was particularly successful. “It was very well-attended,” she says. “The room was full, and there was no space on the mats. I felt like the people who came needed to move around and get their energy out, and since it was right around lunch, I made it an energizing session, so you could get on with your day.”
Support and Safety in Sound-Based Healing
The success of the November 13th yoga class inspired Behavioral Health Therapist, Board-Certified Music Therapist, and Clinical Trauma Specialist Lindsy Burns to plan a sound bath meditation for November 20th.
“I was very encouraged by Alicia offering her yoga practice,” Burns says. “I think healthcare workers are always in need of support from their workplace, and seeing Alicia being so generous in leading a yoga class made me ask myself if there was anything I could give.”
Burns decided to lead a sound bath, which she also offers to her patients. “A sound bath is an intentional space where sound is used for relaxation, and for physiological, emotional, and mental response,” she explains. “Sound baths can be done with different types of instruments; in this particular sound bath, I chose to use singing bowls for their vibro-acoustic properties.
“Sound baths have been used in a wide variety of cultures for thousands and thousands of years, and sound healers, Music Therapists, and music practitioners use their unique array of knowledge and training to facilitate experiences within the sound-based healing modality,” Burns continues. “As a Music Therapist, I apply the knowledge and training that I have to implement sound-based relaxation and healing sessions in ways that are within my scope of practice.”
Whether she’s working with patients or employees, Burns is careful to create a space where participants can experience emotions but also feel safe. “I let people know that, if there’s some kind of emotional release that comes, that’s very normal,” she says. “I also try to put different protections in place, like signals they can use if they need me to turn down the volume, or if they have to exit the room, and I always invite them to be in whatever position is most comfortable for them. I want to make this as positive of an experience as possible.”
A Transformative Experience
TUH-Episcopal Campus has been a leader in implementing this kind of programming for both patients and staff, which Burns attributes to the unique needs of its Behavioral Health population.
“A lot of our patients are able to process and work through things more effectively through experiences, and not necessarily through words,” she explains. “Having creative arts therapies is so important—dance therapy, arts therapy, music therapy—and our staff benefit when we hold these events for them as well. But I think it’s something that there’s a need for across the Health System, and I would love to see it implemented on every campus.”
At the sound bath meditation on November 20th, it was easy to see the benefit for staff. Employees from across Episcopal were in attendance: Social Workers, Nurse Practitioners, Medical Assistants, Clerks, Behavioral Health Therapists, and more. When they walked in, they took their shoes off and sat down on a yoga mat. When Burns invited them to pick a comfortable position and start paying attention to their breathing, any chatter died away, and after leading participants through a vagus nerve massage, she began playing the singing bowls.
The sounds the bowls created were otherworldly: they echoed through the room, reverberating off the walls. They filled the space, the notes melting into one another as the participants lay with their backs on the floor. It was an invitation to let your thoughts wander, and to release stress from your body—and as the sounds continued, it was clear that this was exactly what was happening.
After almost twenty minutes of playing the bowls, Burns sounded the chime she’d said would be the clue that the meditation was finished. She invited the participants to open their eyes, and one by one, they brought themselves back to the reality of the room. But as they gathered their things and put their shoes on, they all seemed so much calmer, so much more grounded, than when they had arrived—and they filed out the door, they all made sure to thank Burns profusely.