In healthcare contexts, relational well-being is an important resource for both caregivers and those they accompany.
Connected We Play sessions can be proposed in hospitals and care contexts as moments dedicated to promoting emotional lightening, presence and quality of the relationship.
They are aimed not only at healthcare personnel — doctors, nurses and operators often exposed to high levels of stress — but also at people who live in situations of fragility or accompany family members in complex treatment pathways.
A space to lighten the emotional load
In contexts characterized by strong emotional intensity, creating moments of pause and sharing can help to temporarily interrupt mental overload and rediscover a different quality of presence.
The proposed activities promote:
- Alleviation of emotional tension• Improvement of the relational climate• Possibility of confrontation and mutual support• Greater willingness to listen
Benefits for healthcare workers
For those who work in high-intensity environments daily, these sessions can offer a real opportunity to:
- reduce accumulated tension• regain mental energy• promote team spirit• prevent relational fatigue
Benefits for patients and family members
In treatment pathways, experiencing moments of positive participation can help create a space for emotional relief and human connection.
The group experience helps to:
- temporarily lighten the burden of worries• encourage a more serene presence• share emotions in a welcoming atmosphere
An experience already tried
In different contexts, activities of this type have shown how small moments of lightness and relationship can have a positive impact on the quality of the experience lived by those who care and those who are treated.
One of the first observable results is a very noticeable reduction in stress.
I find it particularly interesting to work with professional categories strongly oriented towards intellectual activity and control, such as medical and health personnel, accustomed to sustaining high levels of concentration, responsibility and rigor on a daily basis.
Through mental gymnastics exercises, attention activities and playful dynamics also inspired by educational experiences experienced since adolescence, a space is progressively created in which the initial tension tends to loosen.
I have observed how people accustomed, by professional role, to constantly maintaining a certain aplomb gradually manage to get involved, overcoming the initial rigidity and opening up to a more spontaneous and participatory dimension.
This process contributes significantly to reducing initial skepticism towards the practice and dissipating much of the stress with which we often present ourselves at the beginning of the session.
From the patient’s perspective, meeting a doctor with a more relaxed presence and a relaxed face immediately conveys greater confidence and security, regardless of the content of clinical communication.
In Italy, the San Giovanni di Dio Hospital has promoted training courses for its staff, aimed at strengthening tools useful for stress management and professional resilience.
Scientific literature also confirms the effectiveness of practices oriented towards positive activation and emotional regulation in health care contexts. Studies of psychiatric nurses exposed to burnout have shown significant physiological and psychological changes, including:
- reduction of stress, anxiety and tension;
- improved mood;
- increased self-esteem, energy and vitality;
- enhancement of memory and creative thinking;
- greater problem solving skills;
- improvement of interpersonal relationships;
- increased friendliness and helpfulness;
- general feeling of relaxation;
- positive effects on the perception of pain;
- promotion of overall psychological well-being.
These elements confirm how structured playfulness can represent, even in the hospital environment, a concrete tool to support individual and relational well-being.
