WELLNESS: URBAN ZEN FOUNDATION
“I ’ve seen many massage therapists burn out in 10 years or less because they haven’t set out with a strategy of self-care”
The foundation has an outreach programme in Haiti and Karan’s vision is to create a holistic community there focused on mind, body and spirit
take care of myself – otherwise how will I ever be able to take care of others?’ “Compassion fatigue is a real danger.
UZIT practitioners especially will be going into very challenging settings where they may be required to spend long periods of time with patients who are very ill. They need to be able to deal with all situations as they show up, how to be with the living and the dying and not impose their teachings on a patient or relative.” Currently the UZIT programme, which
is funded mostly by donations and board participation, is only available at selected USA centres. Cilibrasi says the past five years have been spent consolidating the training and refining it, while the next five to 10 years will focus more on growth. “We’re in talks with organisations in
Europe, Japan and India about how we can expand the UZIT programme. Several pilot projects that could be scaleable and exportable are in the early stages here in the USA. We’ve also been taking outreach work to places like Port-au-Prince in Haiti to further develop our programme.”
UZIT EXPANSION In addition, Cilibrasi says there’s now a very popular public programme available at partner wellness facilities around the USA at various yoga studios where anyone can experience the UZIT modalities in public Urban Zen classes. “We’ve actually been quite overwhelmed by how popular these programmes have
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been, often becoming the most attended classes at a facility – we’re talking about 40 people turning up to a class on a Saturday night in New York’s Soho! So many people are looking for balance
and healing in their lives. The guy next to you at work – you may have no idea what he’s going through or what kind of healing journey he may be on,” she says. While it’s not likely to happen in the
immediate future, Cilibrasi nevertheless foresees a time when there will be standalone UZIT centres that run alongside hospitals as well as in wellness settings such as spas. “Our programme is a natural fit in both acute and preventative wellness settings
and our future growth will be fuelled by attracting more spa and wellness professionals to come and take our training and send this work further out into the world,” says Cilibrasi. “As Donna always says, ‘everyone will be
a patient one day’, but I truly believe that using UZIT in both sickness and wellness care can make the journey better.” ●
Julie Cramer is a health, hospitality and travel journalist and a former BBC online news editor. Email: juliecramer@
me.com
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