Program offers wellness with a beat
Marching to the beat of a different drummer, Barry Bernstein, MT-BC, offers corporate employees a unique wellness alternative through his Kansas City, KS-based company, Healthy Sounds. His program, "Unity with a Beat," uses the music-making process as a team-building tool.
"In the typical corporate program, we meet by phone or in person before the program to go over the company’s goals," Bernstein explains. "We can address problem-solving, team-building, or dealing with tension between groups of employees. A lot of companies use us for diversity training. We frame the program to help meet the client’s goals."
The first 10 minutes of the two- to three-hour program are used to break down walls. Percussion instruments are set out on chairs — shakers, bells, tambourines, hand drums, castanets, scrapers, and so forth. "The underlying metaphor is we can focus on the difference of each person’s voice," Bernstein says.
Bernstein is playing drums as the employees enter, and he studies their body language.
"It’s a great assessment tool for managers — are they creative? Flexible?" he says.
"Then, we show the participants how to play their names rhythmically, and everyone gets to play their own rhythm." This can be done with groups of 50 people or 400 people. "Then we separate into smaller groups, which are more process related and goal oriented, and related to their personal lives." This provides employees with a new perspective. "They’ll say something like, I really felt how my rhythm fit in,’" Bernstein notes.
Next is the group juggle. Employees pass fruit shakers around in a circle. "Using their peripheral vision, they can see the whole circle. Then, they speed up and slow down without a leader," says Bernstein. "They learn how they depend on their neighbor."
In the final section, participants create their own piece of music. If the program has multiple themes, each group comes up with a short slogan, and Bernstein puts it to rhythm. Each individual says the slogan, then plays four different musical instruments to make the sounds that accompany the slogan.
"At the very end, we’re all jamming," says Bernstein. This technique is derived from the accelerated learning theory, which says that if you are moving while you learn, the information is more successfully internalized. "It helps the employees focus in on what they gathered together for."
Bernstein has used his program successfully at such corporations as Hoechst Marion Roussel, and Bayer’s agricultural division. The program’s costs generally run from $1,500-$3,000, plus expenses.
"My goal is to get people out of their boxes so they can relax and be with others in a different way. It’s a definite stress reliever and a bond builder, which contributes to the emotional well-being of the office culture," he says.
[For more information, contact: Barry Bernstein, Healthy Sounds, P.O. Box 40304, Overland Park, KS 66204. Telephone: (913) 888-5517. Fax: (913) 888-8204. Web site: www.healthysounds.com.]
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