Chairapy is available to students, faculty
Have you ever felt stressed during the day? Have you just needed to go somewhere quiet to relax? “Chairapy” is now available to the students, faculty and staff of USU Eastern.
“Chairapy” is another name for the massage chairs located in the Student Activity Center building room 118.
There are two massage chairs and they operate for 15 minutes per person, Jan Thornton and Tammy Pantelakis from the Disability Resource Center came up with the idea.
This archived article was written by: Valeria Moncada
Have you ever felt stressed during the day? Have you just needed to go somewhere quiet to relax? “Chairapy” is now available to the students, faculty and staff of USU Eastern.
“Chairapy” is another name for the massage chairs located in the Student Activity Center building room 118.
There are two massage chairs and they operate for 15 minutes per person, Jan Thornton and Tammy Pantelakis from the Disability Resource Center came up with the idea.
“We used to just hire a few massage therapists for two hours a day on stress-relief week, which meant only about 24 students would get a massage before the time ran out,” said Pantelakis.
“We figured if we offered it to the students all year, it would be much better,” said Thornton. The best thing about chairapy is that it is long term rather than a 10-minute massage all year.
Thornton and Pantelakis began providing chairapy two years ago, for stress relief week, but now the chairs are available all the time.
The chairs were a lot cheaper than having to pay three-massage therapists every year. The chairs were $14,000, for both; and the ottomens which massage the calves were $250.
“Students are the main reason we decided to get them,” Thornton said. Pantelakis added, “I love the fact that we can offer it to students every day.”
The two agreed that there has been a lot more usage of the chairs this year.
“A lot of students don’t come in because they don’t feel like actually talking to anyone about their stress; with chairapy they can come in and distress without having actual therapy,” said Pantelakis.
“If you have yet to treat the chairs, feel free to come in, we would love to have anyone,” said Thornton and Pantelakis.
To make an appointment for chairapy stop by SAC room 118, or call 613-5337 or 613-5326.
