You may remember reading about Capital Region–based mobile stress relief room Stress Fracture in the September/October 2020 issue of Capital Region Living. Back then, Stress Fracture, which was founded by Jacky Vimislik the previous year, was mostly about smashing glass to relieve stress and pent-up frustration. “It was more along the lines of a mobile rage room,” Vimislik says about her business’ early days. “I quickly noticed after only a few events that the process of breaking glass had a more meaningful impact on my clients than I ever imagined.” That breakthrough (pun intended) led her straight into a partnership with Neuro-linguistics Programming (NLP) practitioner Christina Beauchemin.
At its core, NLP is a body of ideas derived from studying the habits of successful people and applying those habits using tools that can change your life. Beauchemin had found that her own work was bringing up stressful issues for her clients, and she wanted a way to help them release their emotions in a fun yet meaningful way. When a mutual friend introduced her to Vimislik, the rest was history.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair has developed five different personal-growth programs, which focus on topics such as happiness, financial freedom and communication, to name a few. With these new programs, Stress Fracture has now broken into the corporate training world. “We’ve found people are hungry not only to release their stress, but also to learn a new, better way of looking at their current situation,” Vimislik says. “Just yesterday we had a meeting with a human resources manager for a large corporation who admitted that she’s dealing with employee meltdowns nearly every day—something she says hasn’t happened in her 30-plus years of working in the field.”
Now, all this doesn’t mean that Stress Fracture’s regular smash events have gone away, by any means. (Nearly 100 guests had the opportunity to let out their post-COVID anger at Saratoga Living‘s Summer Kickoff event last month.) In fact, the company has even pivoted to offer an indoor version of its service with a custom smash wall and floor, which can accommodate events with up to 250 people. But Vimislik and Beauchemin are looking forward to where this corporate training avenue will take Stress Fracture. “Our concept is to deal with serious topics in a more light-hearted manner, which is proving to be a game-changer,” Vimislik says. “Feedback has been incredible so far, and we believe it’s because our approach is a much-needed twist on training and something that this world needs more of right now.”
