Spas Are Mixing Hyper-Local Wellness Philosophies Into Treatments. Is That a Good Thing?
For anyone who takes the spa seriously, jet-setting presents a dilemma: How should you vet your treatments now that wellness has gone local?
Not only are hotel spas dipping their toes into increasingly medical procedures, they’re more focused than ever on providing their guests with “a sense of place,” mixing local customs, botanicals, and light spirituality into their traditional spa services. That’s lovely for someone trying to breathe in a new destination, but for anyone with spa goals, it’s more complicated.
More from Robb Report
Americans Are Rushing to Spain Before Its Golden Visa Program Ends
How Luxe Spas Are Becoming the Center of Life on Cruise Ships
How will that tropical plant infused into the massage oil interact with your skin, or with that other plant infused into that other oil you smeared in at that other destination? Will the technique here counteract the treatment you got there? Should you really have an Ayurvedic panchakarma cleanse after a Taoist abdominal massage followed by a session in the Human Regenerator machine? Don’t some of these philosophies and practices fundamentally contradict one another? Is it a dangerous cocktail?
“Alternative options aren’t risk-free and do have the potential to cause harm, just as they have the great potential to cause good,” warns Heather Hinshelwood, M.D., a board-certified emergency medical physician who runs the integrative medicine practice at the Fraum Center for Restorative Health in Hilton Head, S.C.
Given the difficulty of researching the patchwork of alternative wellness credentials and certifications in other parts of the world, Hinshelwood recommends seeking out personalized services, and asking pointed questions: “Who is the medical director or overseeing physician?” “What are his or her qualifications?” “What is your sourcing for herbal medicine, IV fluids, etc.?” “How long has your staff been working here?”
But the emerging awareness around the problem of philosophy soup at the spa is something operators are already responding to.
Nestled in the foothills of Mount Taygetus in southern Greece, Euphoria Retreat is a 45-room destination spa with its own one-off approach—a heady holistic mix of healing treatments based on both ancient Greek and Chinese spa philosophies.
A five-to-seven-day stay here runs from $3,000 to $10,000 and it includes woo-woo catnip: balancing treatments based around the five elements, acupuncture to relieve blockages in the body’s meridians, and Watsu massages done in a warm pool. The goal? Creating balance in the body, mind, and soul of each guest.
That sounds like spa-speak salad until you get to the pre-arrival blood, urine, and saliva tests. Weeks before arrival, Euphoria screens its guests with the help of a supervising doctor, who designs your itinerary, treatments, and menu.
“For the Greeks, life is not about suffering,” said founder Marina Efraimoglou, a cancer survivor who founded Euphoria in 2018 after traveling the world studying different wellness practices. “It’s about understanding yourself and finding your own path to wellness.”
They’re not alone, a growing number of destination spas, built around ancient regional health rituals, are now complementing their services with modern lab testing and the oh-so-Western regenerative treatments to assuage those committed to achieving specific wellness outcomes.
The celeb-beloved We Care Spa in California’s Desert Hot Springs, for instance, is focused on a philosophy of detoxification, and they too use a pre-stay diet and personalized consulting to prepare guests for its program of juice cleansing, light movement, colonics, and spiritual offerings that promise guests will emerge feeling lighter and more energetic.
“Good health is pure water, pure air, and pure food and today we don’t have any of those,” says Susan Belen, the 83-year-old, founder of We Care. “We have to do a lot of work to get rid of the undesired elements that disturb the function of the body. The program might look very physical with the massages, colonics, etc., but emotionally our guests detoxify, too, and become clearer in their own mind.”
Even Ayurvedic outposts—which focus on eating the right foods for your body type (or dosha), as well as lifestyle recommendations, herbs, oil cleanses, and balancing treatments, such as abhyanga lymphatic massage and shirodhara—are now getting personal with required consultations with experienced certified practitioners before you arrive.
“You don’t want to just go in to [an Ayurvedic spa] and do things,” says Martha Soffer, founder of Santa Monica’s Surya Spa, and a master Ayurvedic Pulse diagnostician. “It’s important to know what body type you are, so you can be correctly balanced.”
It goes without saying that—even with immaculate credentials and pre-screening—the marrying of the panoply of world religions with New Age wellness woo and modern medicine is hardly an exact science. Kimberlee Blyden Taylor, a naturopathic doctor (ND) and chief medical officer at Sonoran University, warns that practitioners at many spas will not be delivering an intervention specific to your individual condition, but simply ensuring that the wellness-boosting treatments they offer are not contraindicated for you.
Infrared saunas, for instance, would not be a good treatment for someone on blood pressure medication, because the extended time in heat will raise their pressure. Similarly, certain herbal teas or medicines might conflict with a person’s prescribed medication, making it less effective.
So consult your physician, ask lots of questions, and don’t get carried away.
“There’s no point in trying everything offered,” Efraimoglou says.
Best of Robb Report
The Ultimate Miami Spa Guide: 15 Luxurious Places to Treat Yourself
The 7 Most Insanely Luxurious Spas in the World, From Tokyo to Iceland
17 Reasons the Caribbean Should Be at the Top of Your Travel Itinerary
Sign up for RobbReports's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
