Frances Borshell is determined to make Southwest Floridians feel better. Founder of The Grounding Spot at Coconut Point, she’s taking some of its wellness therapies on the road.
Borshell has equipped a 27-foot “wellness bus” with seven private pods where people can experience meditation sessions lasting up to 15 minutes. She cites a Harvard report about a study finding meditation may be as effective as antidepressants for reducing symptoms of an anxiety disorder. And anxiety is rampant, she said.
“There is such a huge need for mental fitness with anxiety and depression at an all-time high. The World Health Organization and the CDC announced sometime after COVID that we are in a mental health crisis.”
Much of the problem lies in the way we are thinking, Borshell said, and meditation and mental health coaching can help correct that.
“We have roughly 8,000 to 10,000 thoughts a day. Studies show 80% are negative and 85% are repetitive. … Imagine transforming 80% from negative to positive and how that can impact one’s relationship with themselves and their lives.”
Borshell holds degrees in biology, psychology and business. From The Grounding Spot’s work with clients, she has found that the majority of those thoughts are about the past or the future.
“Very rarely do our thoughts reflect the present,” Borshell said. “Hmm, When does life happen? It happens in the present. So that’s what we help people do, we help get them out of their heads and back in the present moment.”
In addition to meditation, the bus offers IV vitamin therapy, designed to boost hydration, immunity, and energy. Plus stem cell and other therapies that are thought to reduce stress and inflammation and promote healing, hair growth and skin rejuvenation. IVs are administered by a nurse practitioner.
“Bringing mobile meditation and IV therapy to the community is important for overall health, both mental and physical. In addition, we will be volunteering the mobile wellness unit for firefighters. We’ll also be working with schools, hospital systems and bringing wellness to organizations.”
Florida is ranked 49th out of 50 states in terms of mental health resources and access, according to many studies. “We are at the bottom barrel. We have very few resources,” Borshell said. “People are on waiting lists for one to two years to see a therapist.”
What The Grounding Spot and the wellness bus offer is “different from talk therapy. I mean, we don’t relive all this trauma. Instead, we reframe, we break through, we redefine, we change minds. We shift thinking. We break patterns of thought that keep us stuck,” she said.
Costs range from $20 for a guided meditation and $33 for a vitamin injection to as much as $20,000 for some specialized therapies. Groups can contract with the bus for $275 an hour.
