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IN HER OWN WORDS: A PSYCHOLOGIST EXPLAINS HOW BARRE3 CREATES A SAFE SPACE FOR EVERYONE—AND WHY THAT MATTERS
Have you ever noticed how safe you feel when you take a barre3 class? Turns out, there’s a term for this phenomenon: psychological safety. Dr. Eboni Winford, a licensed psychologist at a community health center in Knoxville, Tennessee, and an instructor at barre3 Knoxville Bearden Hill, shared an essay with us about how she sees psychological safety play out every day in the barre3 studio, and how it helped her during a particularly trying time. We loved her piece so much that we knew we had to share it with the rest of the barre3 community.
“I feel so safe here.”
“It’s like I can just let everything go and leave it here.”
“I always feel so much lighter leaving than when I arrived.”
My heart smiles when I hear clients exclaim, sometimes with tears and other times with smiles, the phrases above. There is something about the barre3 community that invites a sense of safety. Permission to be vulnerable. The right to just be.
In my field, we talk about something called “psychological safety.” Although this term is typically applied to work environments, I see it in action every day in our barre3 community.
There are three key tenets of psychological safety:
- Team members feel safe taking risks.
- Team members are able to be their authentic selves without fear of negative consequences.
- Team members feel accepted and respected.
Sound familiar?
I never thought much about this notion until I experienced it firsthand. My oldest sister died unexpectedly on September 5, 2017. I immediately went into planning mode, arranging services, helping my grieving family members, picking out music and pictures—the typical final goodbye planning. Don’t get me wrong, I was devastated. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t eat much of anything (except red velvet cake), and I was what is called “tired but wired.” I returned to work a little over a week after everything settled, and I kept going—still “tired but wired.”
I returned to the barre3 studio less than two weeks after my sister died, taking a class on September 17th at 10:15 a.m. As I held the first Plank of the class, I fell apart. Completely. Thoroughly. Relentlessly. Not just a cute tear that you can swipe away and no one notices, but the full out, snotty-mess type of crying. Unplanned. Unexpected. Uninvited. I cried. And cried. And I cried a bit more still.
Why do I remember the exact date and posture when this happened? Psychological safety. I felt so safe in the studio surrounded by the other instructors and clients who were also taking class. I did not fear vulnerability. I did not worry or even think about the prospect of being rejected or ridiculed. I simply was. And that was enough. Even though I had been taking barre3 classes for nearly three years and teaching for nearly two years, I had never had an experience like this before. Sure, I’d heard other clients mention it, but this was a first for me.
In addition to creating a space that allows us to honor our most authentic feelings, thoughts, and experiences, the safety that barre3 creates allows us to practice saying “no” without guilt. “No, I don’t think I want to go turbo today. Instead, I will modify and honor what my body has requested.” Or “No, I don’t want to use the band today, and I will gladly accept the offer to ditch it.”
At barre3, we strive to create balanced classes that incorporate functional movement that seamlessly translates into real-world activity. But it doesn’t stop when the workout is over. We want the safety that we embody in class to translate into your day-to-day lives as well. We hope you’ll take the strength and empowerment you’ve developed in your body and mind outside beyond the studio walls, applying it to day-to-day life as well. What better place to practice than in a place that reinforces your sense of safety, a place where failure is not only allowed but is celebrated and encouraged?
I invite you to embrace the psychological safety that barre3 creates. How can you let go? How can you make space for vulnerability? For fear? For empowerment? For balance?
I leave you with this brief mindfulness exercise that you can do wherever you are (except when you’re driving because you’ll need your eyes open for that). I call it the triangle breath. The triangle is barre3’s symbol for balance. Consider that as you practice:
- Close your eyes.
- Bring one hand to your belly and one hand to your heart.
- Notice your breath entering your body. Notice it leaving your body. Notice that it is slightly warmer as it leaves your body than it is when it arrives.
- Pay attention to your heartbeat, the steady thump of rhythm under your hand.
- Now draw your attention to the image of a triangle in your mind.
- Inhale to the count of three, and pretend you are tracing your finger up the first side of the triangle. Think: relax.
- Hold that breath for three counts as you imagine your finger tracing down the second side of the triangle. Think: peace.
- Release your breath to the count of three while pretending to trace the third and final side of the triangle. Think: safe.
With love and safety to you all,
Eboni
Have you ever noticed how safe you feel when you take a barre3 class? Turns out, there’s a term for this phenomenon: psychological safety. Dr. Eboni Winford, a licensed psychologist at a community health center in Knoxville, Tennessee, and an instructor at barre3 Knoxville Bearden Hill, shared an essay with us about how she sees psychological safety play out every day in the barre3 studio, and how it helped her during a particularly trying time. We loved her piece so much that we knew we had to share it with the rest of the barre3 community.
“I feel so safe here.”
“It’s like I can just let everything go and leave it here.”
“I always feel so much lighter leaving than when I arrived.”
My heart smiles when I hear clients exclaim, sometimes with tears and other times with smiles, the phrases above. There is something about the barre3 community that invites a sense of safety. Permission to be vulnerable. The right to just be.
In my field, we talk about something called “psychological safety.” Although this term is typically applied to work environments, I see it in action every day in our barre3 community.
There are three key tenets of psychological safety:
- Team members feel safe taking risks.
- Team members are able to be their authentic selves without fear of negative consequences.
- Team members feel accepted and respected.
Sound familiar?
I never thought much about this notion until I experienced it firsthand. My oldest sister died unexpectedly on September 5, 2017. I immediately went into planning mode, arranging services, helping my grieving family members, picking out music and pictures—the typical final goodbye planning. Don’t get me wrong, I was devastated. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t eat much of anything (except red velvet cake), and I was what is called “tired but wired.” I returned to work a little over a week after everything settled, and I kept going—still “tired but wired.”
I returned to the barre3 studio less than two weeks after my sister died, taking a class on September 17th at 10:15 a.m. As I held the first Plank of the class, I fell apart. Completely. Thoroughly. Relentlessly. Not just a cute tear that you can swipe away and no one notices, but the full out, snotty-mess type of crying. Unplanned. Unexpected. Uninvited. I cried. And cried. And I cried a bit more still.
Why do I remember the exact date and posture when this happened? Psychological safety. I felt so safe in the studio surrounded by the other instructors and clients who were also taking class. I did not fear vulnerability. I did not worry or even think about the prospect of being rejected or ridiculed. I simply was. And that was enough. Even though I had been taking barre3 classes for nearly three years and teaching for nearly two years, I had never had an experience like this before. Sure, I’d heard other clients mention it, but this was a first for me.
In addition to creating a space that allows us to honor our most authentic feelings, thoughts, and experiences, the safety that barre3 creates allows us to practice saying “no” without guilt. “No, I don’t think I want to go turbo today. Instead, I will modify and honor what my body has requested.” Or “No, I don’t want to use the band today, and I will gladly accept the offer to ditch it.”
At barre3, we strive to create balanced classes that incorporate functional movement that seamlessly translates into real-world activity. But it doesn’t stop when the workout is over. We want the safety that we embody in class to translate into your day-to-day lives as well. We hope you’ll take the strength and empowerment you’ve developed in your body and mind outside beyond the studio walls, applying it to day-to-day life as well. What better place to practice than in a place that reinforces your sense of safety, a place where failure is not only allowed but is celebrated and encouraged?
I invite you to embrace the psychological safety that barre3 creates. How can you let go? How can you make space for vulnerability? For fear? For empowerment? For balance?
I leave you with this brief mindfulness exercise that you can do wherever you are (except when you’re driving because you’ll need your eyes open for that). I call it the triangle breath. The triangle is barre3’s symbol for balance. Consider that as you practice:
- Close your eyes.
- Bring one hand to your belly and one hand to your heart.
- Notice your breath entering your body. Notice it leaving your body. Notice that it is slightly warmer as it leaves your body than it is when it arrives.
- Pay attention to your heartbeat, the steady thump of rhythm under your hand.
- Now draw your attention to the image of a triangle in your mind.
- Inhale to the count of three, and pretend you are tracing your finger up the first side of the triangle. Think: relax.
- Hold that breath for three counts as you imagine your finger tracing down the second side of the triangle. Think: peace.
- Release your breath to the count of three while pretending to trace the third and final side of the triangle. Think: safe.
With love and safety to you all,
Eboni
