After nearly a year of pandemic isolation, some want to pick up a hammer and break something into the Smithereens.
“It felt good,” said sweat insurance executive Josh Elohim after reducing computer printers and other stuff to a pile of rubble. It reminded me of the training he used to chop wood when he lived in northern New York.
Since last winter, Elohim and his wife Michelle have been quarantined at home with four children aged 4 to 17. They needed an outlet, so they headed to the office of the marriage and family therapist Yashica Budde, who equipped them. Includes protective gloves, a full-body suit, and a face cover similar to a fencing mask.
Then she lets them choose their “destructive device” and two “inspiring signs” proclaiming “why you feel stressed when you can shatter” and “never give up”. Loosen them in one of the “Rooms of Anger”.
“Because we are believers, we obviously use God as our main foundation,” Elohim later said. “But I’m not against breaking something to relieve tension,” he added with a heartfelt laugh.
Before the coronavirus, the angry room where patrons pay to get rid of things was a lark, a place to go with friends, or a place to steam after parting. However, 13-year-licensed therapist Budde sees her room as a valuable remedy during a pandemic.
“As a therapist, I know I’ve introduced alternative therapies such as yoga, mist therapy, and meditation to many people. I thought it was great to see the Anger Room,” she said.
She hopes that this concept will eventually be accepted throughout the therapeutic community, and some fellow therapists have already introduced patients to their room called Smash RX, and she introduces herself. I add that it is. What started in late 2019 as a stress reliever on everyday problems in life really blossomed after virtually everything started shutting down in March last year.
However, not all therapists see smash therapy as a future remedy.
“I don’t know the therapist who actually prescribes going to the anger room as a form of therapy. Going to the anger room seems counterproductive, especially if you tend to be aggressive from the beginning. It seems, “said Kevin Bennett, a psychologist, and professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. He compared it to treating gambling addiction by encouraging people to gamble.
“I understand the therapeutic approach,” he continued. “The philosophy behind it dates back to Freud’s psychotherapy almost 100 years ago. This cathartic mindset relieves aggression and anger and makes you feel better. Vent.”
The problem is that a recent study that began in the 1960s revealed that some people were later conditioned to react violently because they were told that it was a valid release. Therefore, while some of Freud’s supporters may still support it, he and most others think it’s best to leave it as a form of entertainment. I will.
Tom Daley, who runs one of the country’s oldest angry rooms, is often cathartic at his break bar, which opened in mid-Manhattan in New York City in 2015, although people say He emphasized that the purpose is really just entertainment.
“We are designed purely for fun,” he said. Daily said that during the pandemic, the steady flow of visitors was booking angry rooms, but one of the great attractions over the years was the bar he runs next door. The grill was mostly closed during that time.
“I think everyone is stressed all over the country,” he said.
Budde’s business sits quietly in a glittering business park in Westlake Village, an upscale town on the edge of Los Angeles. For about $ 50 to $ 100 (a little more if you want to destroy something expensive like a computer), customers can pick up a hammer, golf club, crow bar, or baseball bat and smash it.
Among the destroyers of the last night were Asia Mape and her three teenage daughters. They were anxious to break things after being trapped in the house for months.
“When I was a teenager, they were absent from school all the time until they thought,’I don’t even know if I’ll really be back,’” she said as a 17-year-old daughter. “I lost my senior year,” Piper added.
Loosen in one of the rooms, Piper and his sisters Jade and Berkeley laughed and cheered as “Covid-19” wiped out objects such as stenciled plates.
Budde gets supplies from a variety of sources, including her local Goodwill facility, which she says sells fragile items at affordable prices, and restaurants that serve empty beer and bottles.
“I’ve never run out of empty liqueur bottles,” she joked.
She watches them through closed-circuit television and is ready to intervene if something goes wrong, while people shatter to their heart’s content. But one of the biggest problems, she said, is to guarantee people that it’s okay to destroy everything you see in the Anger Room. Clean up that and subsequent confusion and disinfect the room for the next visitor.
For everyone who stops by, she later gets them chilled (breaking the 30-minute stuff can be pretty tiring), and they give them advice on how to settle down in today’s world. I will send it to you.
“I remember that no one wants to plan for next month. I just worry about this month or today,” she advises. “When we go through today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter.”
