A well-being and stress management expert in Wilton hopes to expand her reach nationally with a stress relief program geared specifically for health care workers.
“I”™d had the idea for a long time,” Christina Dufour, founder of the Carnelian Connection, told the Business Journal. “I come from a family of caregivers, all women who worked in health care as nurses or nurse”™s aides. And I’ve watched them struggle ”“ it takes a lot of out of them emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.”
Specializing in corporate clients ”“ she also conducts one-on-one sessions as well as outreach to schools and athletes ”“ Dufour said she began planning how to adapt her program for hospitals, something that became more urgent with the arrival of Covid-19.
“With the pandemic, everything became virtual, which gave me the free time I needed to build out this program as well as some others,” she said.
A previous mindfulness class Dufour conducted in the Maldives had attracted Kristin Gajewski, then a student in the doctor of nursing program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gajewski contacted Dufour again this year to discuss how meditation could be used to relieve stress in the health care field.
The timing was fortuitous, Dufour said. “Instead of just getting stuff on YouTube, where you don”™t now where the information is coming from, we started to collaborate” on what became a six-week virtual course at a dialysis clinic in Wisconsin, where Gajewski now works.
The program ”“ involving an audio file of the guided meditation and an email offering additional details — drew 17 participants in June, with regular surveys about how successful those taking the course felt it was.
The results were mainly positive, Dufour said ”“ one participant dropped out after contracting the coronavirus ”“ with the class drawn from not just dialysis workers but also nurses, managers and administrative staff.
Dufour said she is now hopeful that she can coordinate with various health care organizations for additional support to roll out the program nationwide, with a focus on stress management, energy rejuvenation, and finding inner balance. Already she”™s had conversations with the Yale New Haven Health Care System, and has had some preliminary contact with other similar concerns, she said.
“So far it”™s been mostly a word-of-mouth thing,” she said, “but since we got such great results, I”™m making connections with more and more people. And I plan to start doing more active marketing soon.”
Her central business has also been doing well, even in these virtual times, Dufour noted. “The majority of the work I do is with organizations ”“ workshops, coaching and programs that all work well on Zoom. There”™s only one client I”™ve seen in person (since the pandemic began).”
At the core of all her work, she said, is the concept of “people taking care of one another. I really feel that this is a perfect opportunity to offer my services to health care providers and bring support to them.”
