Story Massage sessions at Young Epilepsy (St Piers College) are always fun and interactive. And that’s exactly why the Story Massage team deserve our Centre of Excellence Award. Students enjoy singing, dancing, yoga and even creating homemade toiletries combined with massage stories! “I want my sessions to be welcoming and informative, “says Lorraine Leveridge, Wellness Tutor, “so I incorporate Story Massage whenever I can. It’s been a big hit with students and staff.”
Lorraine works alongside Christina Donnelly, Functional Skills Tutor, and a team of staff, to bring the joy of Story Massage to students aged 19-23 with varying levels of ability. The flexibility of the Story Massage Programme allows them to use it in different settings, all with noticeable benefits. These include relaxation, engagement, confidence and self-esteem, improved language and writing skills, and communication.
Engagement and Relaxation
“My wellness lessons begin with a Story Massage,” says Lorraine, “It helps students to settle quickly and relax so they are ready to learn. Some students who struggled to stay in the same room as their peers are now sharing the space with others and will sit comfortably and relax.”
Some of Lorraine’s sessions are split with yoga which also helps with relaxation. She uses this as a time to share information on important events and issues through a Story Massage. Lorraine has created PowerPoints to study topical events such as Epilepsy Awareness Day, Disability Awareness, Remembrance Day, Diwali, Black History Month, World Religion Day and many more.
Improved Communication and Language Skills
Watching the benefits of sharing songs and poems with the Story Massage strokes, has been very rewarding for Lorraine and Christina. “We do a lot of repetition to encourage learning the key words,” says Lorraine, “Sometimes the students finish the punchlines or sing the key words or take over reading the stories. And this includes the students who are usually quite shy or don’t talk. If I forget to play a song or poem, they always remind me!”
With the support of Christina, Lorraine used the Story Massage Programme as the focus for her end of year plenaries with the students at Young Epilepsy. “We discussed our learning as a group,” says Lorraine, “then the students made suggestions for their own massage stories. Some students are non verbal so they pointed to photos, pictures and symbols, and used talkers to choose what they wanted say. I wrote the words up on the whiteboard and we worked together to choose the strokes. We had a lot of fun sharing the massage stories.”
Improved Writing Skills
Christina uses the Story Massage Programme as a writing tool and structures it into Functional Skills sessions relating to what she is teaching or topical events. One student with visual impairment worked with a friend to write a massage story about friendship. They worked together on the words and matching the Story Massage strokes. Another student wrote a massage story about leaving/moving on and how she can stay calm when she feels anxious. She took it home to share with her family. The students have also entered a local poetry competition using the Story Massage Programme and it will be displayed in Crawley as part of the Crawley Poetry Trail.
Confidence and Self-Esteem
“We have noticed the Story Massage seems to help students accept touch in a very positive way,” says Lorraine, “It has given them confidence, and some choose to massage their peers. You can see that they are so pleased with themselves once they have done it. One student used to prefer to do the strokes in the air or on her hands or legs, then after several months, she asked to give her friend a massage. We were all so surprised. She concentrated hard and did the strokes well, then had the biggest smile when she finished.”
Completing OCN Units at Young Epilepsy
During her sessions Lorraine encourages students to complete the OCN (Open College Network) units of Personal Care and Hygiene, Personal Presentation, Choosing Clothing and Footwear, Looking and Acting the park in the Workplace. She searches out songs and poems related to these topics and adapts them as massage stories. “I even found one related to wearing deodorant,” says Lorraine, “that made me very happy! During these sessions, we have fun making our own toiletries such as body scrubs, deodorant and shower gel out of ingredients which are mostly edible!”
Could you be a Centre of Excellence?
Are you inspired by the work of the Story Massage team at Young Epilepsy? Take our Story Massage Online Training and learn to share the joy of the programme in your setting. And then work towards becoming one of the Centres of Excellence and joining our growing community.
