Sept. 4, 2001
Taking a Complete Approach Toward Wellness
New Facility to Help Community Find Emotional and
Physical Balance
By Greg
Licamele
If you’re tired of sitting in front of a computer or only working
without taking time to exercise or relax, then Gwen Roberts has some
answers
for you.
As director of GW’s 18-month-old wellness program, she’s concerned
that faculty, staff, and students find time to balance their lives.
The new Health and Wellness Center will provide the necessary facilities,
Roberts predicts, for the GW community to find that balance among the
physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions
of life.
“I think a lot of people on campus focus on intellectual, with
social being thrown to the side sometimes,” Roberts says. “With
wellness, people sometimes focus on the physical because you can see
it, but that’s not all there is to it. I think that’s why
so many people are stressed out.”
Roberts and her 14-member staff are prepared to meet with people for
a variety of needs such as measuring body fat, hosting nutritional seminars,
and providing massages.
“It’s actually good for you,” Roberts says of massages.
“It’s the best of both worlds (mental and physical).”
Roberts reports there will be four professional staff members and 10
graduate assistants assigned to the areas of fitness, aquatics, wellness,
and nutrition.
“We’ll have more people here all of the time, so people can
sign up and see a fitness, wellness, or nutrition person almost immediately,”
Roberts says from her second floor office in the Health and Wellness
Center. She says appointments usually last less than an hour, but could
take longer depending on an individual’s needs.
The professional staff will be required to be nationally certified within
a year if they are not already, Roberts says. She adds that most of
the graduate assistants have experience in exercise science classes
so they would be working toward certification already.
Faculty and staff members will have access to all of the wellness program
activities with their annual $295 Health and Wellness Center membership
fee. Roberts says personal training sessions will be available at additional
costs.
The wellness program began in March 2000 and has sponsored basic activities
such as yoga, body assessments, and outdoor activities such as skiing.
Roberts says the yoga program is one of the most popular activities
and since its inception in January, classes are overflowing. With the
new building, Roberts says classes most likely will be held four or
five days a week.
“I sleep better, feel better and I’m more awake at work,”
says Deborah Toy, executive associate at the Sigur Center for Asian
Studies in the Elliott School of International Affairs. “It’s
kind of like a runner’s high. It helps my overall wellness.”
Toy, who participates in wellness programs three or four times a week
after work, says she enjoys the power yoga, high-lo aerobics, and body
sculpting programs.
Roberts repeats the theme of balance and encourages faculty, staff,
and students to develop more than one area of their life.
“It could be talking about nutrition or going to a yoga meditation
class,” says Roberts, who earned her master’s in public health
from GW. “It could be sitting outside in the Health and Wellness
Center plaza and just relaxing for 15 minutes to get away and regroup.
I’m hoping the Health and Wellness Center won’t just be a
place that people come to sweat. It’ll be a place to come and become
well and balanced, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually,
as well.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
