Creating connection a drumbeat at a time: Phoenix nonprofit helps people fight loneliness

When Joy Cloud played the drums for the first time, she knew she never wanted to stop.

That was back in January. Cloud has attended various drum circles around metro Phoenix every week since then.

The drum carries its own kind of power and magic, Cloud said.

“(Drumming) helps me make it through the mundane of life sometimes. Every time I go to a circle, it really helps. I’m getting a divorce right now. This is helping me find myself outside of that relationship.

"Drumming is a spiritual connection to myself, to the drum, to my ancestors and to my community," she said.

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'This is the place to go if you are lost'

That connection is exactly what Grounded32, a nonprofit community center in north Phoenix, is trying to foster.

There has been a small but significant increase in the loneliness people have experienced during the pandemic as lockdowns, physical distancing and remote work have made maintaining robust social networks difficult, according to published research in the American Psychologist journal. 

Grounded32 aims to eradicate loneliness, defined by the American Psychological Association as “the painful feeling of having less or poorer quality social connections than a person wants,” by offering a sense of belonging through activities like drumming, art and creative writing, according to founder Rachel Curry.

“It’s about helping the community get grounded — to grow just like anything that’s planted in the ground. This is the place to go if you are lost and need direction in your life,” Cloud said.

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'We create a safe environment'

An open mind is the only thing facilitator Jeff Thomas asks drummers bring to the circle on Monday nights.

Regulars and newcomers introduce themselves to the beat of the djembe drum in a space illuminated by lamps and candlelight. Two consecutive taps on the drum are used to welcome everyone into the moment.

“I always say how beautiful it is for us to gather like this because I feel like the universe brings us together to connect in this space and it only happens one time in this very moment,” Thomas said.

With a drum in hand and a half-moon tambourine on his right foot, Thomas encourages the group to share one thing they want to let go of and one thing they want to manifest.

The most common feelings people wanted to let go of were fear, anxiety, frustration and loneliness. Confidence, freedom, humility and new connections were among the manifestations.

The session follows a progression of connecting all the drums rhythmically, followed by a free flow and the opportunity for each person to take a turn creating something new.

“There is a therapeutic piece to it because there are a lot of us who have trouble expressing ourselves," Thomas said. “When we are young, we hear the ‘if you want to cry, let me to give you something to cry about’ kind of stuff, so a lot of us will hold our feelings in and learn to shut down."

"The biggest benefit of doing the drum circle is you get to express yourself, so whatever comes up for you is OK because we we create a safe environment that is not critical or judgmental.”

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'As adults, we start to forget how to socialize'

The drum circle has offered Cloud a renewed sense of freedom.

“For people who don’t know how to express a negative emotion like me, the drum circle is the one time I get to go to a safe place and actually express some of my negativity to get it out and still be my positive self,” Cloud said.

While Cloud has attended various drumming schools since her musical journey began, what makes the Grounded32 drum circle special for her is Thomas’s teaching style.

“I love the intentions we set, what we want to let go of and what we want to manifest. It’s a way to connect with our community and helps us socialize a lot better with one another," Cloud said.

"When you watch little kids, they walk up to each other and just start talking. As adults, we start to forget how to socialize. The drum makes it a little bit easier," Cloud said.

'Kindness was for kindness' sake'

Curry opened Grounded32 in 2021. Her motivation came after traumatic childhood flashbacks she experienced about four years ago, but she said she wanted a place like this to exist long before then.

“When I was in my early 20s I found a recovery program that really helped me — a community sort of like this," Curry said. "There was no agenda and no one was making any money so kindness was for kindness' sake, not for profit motive. That made me feel really safe."

"And there came a time when I needed more than recovery meetings. I wanted to learn how to make friends outside of that community and how to integrate into normal life. But there wasn't a next place,” Curry said.

So, she decided to created her own. It offers a variety of programming, including open mic nights, tai chi, social mixers and more.

“I just remember thinking what I really needed was a safe place to feel grounded. We're Grounded32 because we are on 32nd Street and Grounded was already taken online,” Curry said.

The location was intentional.

Grounded32 is in a plaza that serves people with a variety of needs. Studio164 holds recovery meetings all day long, Genesis Church has a teen center and Shoebox Ministry gives toiletries to people experiencing financial difficulty.

Community as a key to mental health

To have the three P’s that are most important for long-term mental health — a concept coined by neurologist Thomas Insel — people need a place to go, people who are kind to connect to and a purpose.

Curry said Grounded32 has offered almost 500 wellness gatherings hosted by  volunteers and patrons since it opened last August.

Because welcoming everyone is part of the business model, classes are donation based. Even if someone can’t pay anything, they are still welcome to participate. Donations help subsidize the cost for those who can’t pay, Curry said.

“A lot of times we attract patrons who lead joyous lives but want to share their talents and make friends. We also attract a lot of Arizona transplants and people who were delayed in re-emerging because of either social anxiety habits or medical concerns during the pandemic,” Curry said.

Anyone can offer an activity at Grounded32 as long as the activity is altruistic in nature, nonpolitical and nonreligious, Curry said.

"So if you called us up and said, ‘Hey, I've really been looking for a grief group but I can't find one anywhere that isn't very expensive or that my insurance does cover,’ I would say, ‘Do you know anyone else who is experiencing that? Because if you do, then I will find someone to lead a grief group for you,’” Curry said.

Why community connection is vital

There is no doubt that high-quality social relationships are associated with improved psychological well being, less emotional distress and greater life satisfaction, according to David Sbarra, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Arizona.

But the pandemic caused massive upheaval to social relationships, Sbarra said.

“We’re not out and about seeing our strong connected networks and loose affiliative networks — college kids have come home, children stop attending school, everyone's working from home. There was an immediate physical cost that needed to be mitigated, which had a variety of downstream consequences at least socially,” Sbarra said.

Another way to look at loneliness is as an emotional experience of social isolation, or a social alarm system. The adaptive response is akin to removing your hand from a hot stovetop, but in this case it motivates people to regain connection, Sbarra said.

“The power of loneliness is that it can serve as an emotional cue for us to take action, the way one might treat an injury,” Sbarra said.

“The action could be going to places like Grounded32 or reconnecting with people you love. The problem is, though, we have all kinds of maladaptive pandemic-related thoughts and feelings.

"We might be worried that we are going to get the virus, we're worried that our kids will get sick or we're worried that we will get long COVID-19. For any given person, it's a constant risk-benefit calculation,” Sbarra said

But the payoff for that calculation can be worthwhile, Sbarra said.

“Our social relationships provide important emotional sustenance. I think a lot of our mental health depends on feeling like we are embedded in communities,” Sbarra said.

Reminding people of their value to the world

Sometimes Curry forgets how far Grounded32 has come in one year.

“COVID-19 was an extreme example of the opposite of mental wellness — untreated grief. We wanted to be the antidote to that, a medicine for that wound,” Curry said.

“I really hope that it inspires others to create more of these places because we need them. We need one on every corner and I can’t open more than one. So, if anyone wants to open another type of community center like this, I will help them do it and give them all of the intellectual resources that I have to make it happen."

One thing Curry hopes people take away from Grounded32 is “that they belong in this world and they have value just because they breathe. If they need to come here to be reminded of that, then we're excited to see them.”

Details: Grounded32, 13651 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. 602-361-7028, https://grounded32.org

Reach features reporter Amaris Encinas at amaris.encinas@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @amarisencinas.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix wellness studio fights loneliness, builds confidence