Massages and straight talk? Take a trip to Malley

By Allegra Eslick

Where on campus can a Santa Clara student get massages, cope with debilitating issues, learn about "Straight Talk With Queer Abby," and receive information on how to live a healthy life? The Wellness Center, located within Malley Fitness Center. Health educator and staff psychologist, Dr. Jeanne Zeamba, explains what the Wellness Center is and what it can do for Santa Clara students.

"We aim to promote health and wellness," Zeamba said. "It's important as students to attain the mind, body, and spiritual dimensions of wellness."

According to their pamphlet, the Wellness Center strives for eight dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, environmental, multicultural, and occupational.

The center offers a wide variety of services to assist students in achieving these eight dimensions. There are annual campus-wide health awareness campaigns such as Alcohol Awareness Week, Celebrate Every Body Week, "Take Back The Night," a campaign for sexual assault awareness, and "The Clothesline Project."

"We try to do a lot of outreach education for the students here," Zeamba said.

For "The Clothesline Project," which occurs during the winter quarter, students decorate different colored T-shirts in order to represent an act of violence against women.

Zeamba describes the project as "a way to raise awareness that this really does happen- it's a powerful display of these devastating tragedies and crimes." Zeamba is also working with ASSCU and the Office of Student Life in order to offer a free self-defense and empowerment class for women. The class, which takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 5:00 p.m. in the Williman Room of Benson Memorial Center, will teach the fundamentals of self-defense and street smarts.

According to Zeamba, one of the biggest and most popular campaigns of the Wellness Center is the informative newsletter "Potty Talk," which is posted in the rest rooms of residence halls. Another popular addition to the Wellness Center campaign is "Straight Talk With Queer Abby."

"Queer Abby is our advice expert on relationships- it's a catchy name and one to educate the community on queer issues, dating, intimacy, and sexual health questions," Zeamba said.

"Queer Abby" was created by a joint effort between Zeamba and the Counseling Center's Staff Psychologist Don Capone, in order to reach out to students on important topics. One can E-mail "Queer Abby" questions, which she will answer via E-mail. All responses are posted on the center's Web site.

As previously mentioned, the Wellness Center does offer professional chair and table massages for students, staff, and faculty, by Jean-Claude Gigot, a certified massage therapist, for $1 per minute. According to the Wellness Center's pamphlet, Gigot is certified in shiatsu, acupressure, deep tissue massage reflexology, and sports massage. Massages are available by appointment only and can be scheduled by calling (408) 306-8277. Gigot is available on Tuesdays and Fridays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

When asked to describe the most prominent health issue on the Santa Clara campus, Zeamba said, "The most prominent would be alcohol abuse- Of course we are never having the idea that we are going to stop underage drinking- (but we are) wanting to reduce the high risk drinking and trying to address and educate students to do it in responsible ways. We don't want any tragedies here on campus."

Located in Malley Fitness Center, the Wellness Center office hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center can be reached by calling (408) 554-4409 or by going online to www.scu.edu/wellness.

Contact Allegra Eslick at (408) 551-1918 or aeslick@scu.edu.