Weston Hospicecare therapists held a meditation session for staff and patients in the hospice’s Wellbeing Centre to mark the nationally-recognised relaxation day on 15 August.

The centre offers complementary treatments to patients to provide relief from symptoms causing discomfort.  

Complementary therapy coordinator Alison Bailey says relaxation is vital for everyone to function properly.

She said: “We thought being at the Wellbeing Centre we would try something to relax the patients and the staff to recognise National Relaxation Day.

“It is a huge benefit for people to be able to relax because if people can’t relax they are not letting their mind or body relax. We always say we have to work with the mind and the body and we have patients coming to me with so much going on. Sometimes patients can’t sleep, they don’t know what direction to take or where to go for help, so just switching off from wondering what is happening with their conditions can provide much-needed respite.

“For staff, they have to continually listen to people and take on board people’s issues and conditions, it is nice for them to be able to just switch off for an hour or so.

“Relaxing is hugely beneficial for our patients. A lot of what happens here is emotional. People sometimes think it is always about the physical side of things that happen here but actually it isn’t.

“We quite often say it is healing the soul, we offer time and space for patients to vent their feelings and sometimes if you are physically touching someone it can evoke emotions that need to come out. We always say in these sessions they have time to have a good laugh if they want to or a good cry if the patient would prefer.

“The complementary therapy offered here is far more tailored to the actual patient’s needs rather than going to a conventional salon. We have to adapt to their specific comfort needs and we tend to offer gentler therapies which aids relaxation a lot more. It aids sleep, we use different aromatherapies that will also aid relaxation. Our therapies help a lot with nausea and most of the symptoms we treat are nausea-related.

“For cancer patients, we find our therapies help with sensitive skin issues. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can make skin very dry and sensitive. I hope people will be able to have a chance to relax and switch off.”