Susie Ellis from Spa Finer e-mailed me today that The Wall Street Journal ran an article by Andrea Petersen yesterday titled, Don’t Call It Pampering:  Massage Wants to Be Medicine, that described quite a few research studies about the benefits of massage.  It is a very good example of making progress in the very direction the Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) http://www.globalspaandwellnesssummit.org were hoping that www.spaevidence.com would be taking us.  GSWS worked with Andrea Petersen on her article (and provided most of the examples).  It is a step in the right direction having a reporter recognize the value of connecting research studies with spa services (especially massage) for consumers.

At this year’s Summit we will be showing a few upgrades to the Spaevidence.com website that will include the addition of more modalities as well as some cosmetic changes and social media integration. Myself, Anna, is one of the founding board members of GSWS and please read more about it and also the fantastic resource of both science and research!

And just a reminder and friendly nudge, if you haven’t already done so, please link to SpaEvidence (here is the link with the instructions on how to do that)  http://www.spaevidence.com/spaevidence/contact and encourage others to do so as well.  It is a fantastic resource for anyone working in the spa industry.

//Anna

We have just gone live with our updated web page! The web-address is the same www.raisondetrespas.com but it has a completely new look. For a very long time Raison d’Etre have been working silently in the background not really marketing our existence or telling the world what we do or who we work with; even some hoteliers did not know exactly what we did. The new web page is therefore more open and available when it comes to who we are, what we do and whom we worked with…plus plenty of more information about our achievements and what we have created over the past years – things that we are actually very proud of.

We have chosen to go live, although we have some work left to do. Actually we will probably never be ready – that is they beauty of it – so you will continue to see changes and updates the coming weeks and probably months.

Surf around and have fun! If you have any feedback please tell us. We would LOVE to hear from you!

/Raison d’Etre Team

Yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing the Nordic Deep Relaxation massage, and the feeling of complete balance has stayed with me until now. It is a strange vibration that continued, slept like a baby and am just content in a good way.

Marcos, the therapist, is one of those therapists that simply have it, he speaks with his hands with my body and holds when he should, and massages when he should, he is simply in tuned with the dance of balancing.

It starts with Marcos putting my feet in a Chi machine, this is a machine that my body by rocking the feet (I actually used this when I was pregnant as it is really good for aching backs, and it was fantastic), and just like rocking a baby is relaxing, so is this. To give that extra, he then conducted BARS (an energy massage to the head that helps me to relax and stop having a racing mind (I sometimes have great difficulty to relax and finally start relaxing 3/4 into the treatment and then it is just about over! and BARS is a great solution to this, it shortcuts the thoughts). So when he took away the Chi machine, I was in a state of relaxation after 10 minutes which normally happens after 45 min.

Now, this 2 hour treatment then continues with rocking soothing massage strokes and it is now way you can escape from surrendering to complete relaxation. Isabella dos Santos created this treatment intuitively during 3-4 years, and when she then spoke with Osteopaths and other alternative practitioners, she realized that the treatment is actually very scientific in its rocking and vibration. In addition Michael Simonato has created a special sound track, using the science of healing through music such as hemi sync http://www.hemi-sync.com/ through the generation of complex, multilayered audio signals, which act together to create a resonance that is reflected in unique brainwave forms characteristic of specific states of consciousness.

Simply put the music is choreographed with the treatment, and is not just background music, but part of the treatment, and the power of sound is profound.

The treatment was great, but what was the most amazing is the state that I was afterwards, it was almost dreamlike yet at the same time completely awake and present. Extremely cool and I want to do this again. Strangely enough (or not!) I was motivated to take lots of good decisions that my body wanted more than my mind (such as skip the wine to dinner and do a TRX session instead of watching TV after my 6 years old birthday party) – and after all that, I still feel different in a good way.

I truly think that 2 hour treatments not only gives double the time and benefit of a traditional 1 hour massage, but beyond measurable benefits and hats of to Isabella who has developed this truly bespoke and result oriented treatment.

//Anna

Working for Raison d’Etre takes you to amazing places around the world and we have been blessed with spa projects in the most incredible destinations. But still the hospitality industry never stops us from being totally amazed by the creativity that is to be found out there, year after year. New dream destinations are continuously launched and we have listed two new and exciting hotels where we would like to check in, this year;

Naked Stables – China

Located in the mountains and the lush forest, just 2 hours outside Shanghai, this eco-construction is a chic retreat, composed of some individual rooms and 2 to 4 bedroom villas. The resort is nested in the bamboo mountains of Moganshan and is Asia’s first LEED-platinum certified resort. It is the result of 31 million USD and 2 years of green constructing, built from the ground, yet with minimal impact on the natural environment . It is an accessible rural escape from the city, a hideaway created in the most environmentally friendly and sustainable way. And don’t worry about the name; it is named for its “naturel” eco – approach. There is of course a spa, hidden in the forest, lots of wellness activities, horseback riding, fishing, fine dining and serenity, as no motor vehicles are allowed in the valley.

We are just amazed by the design, ambiance and the location, a true hideaway in the Chinese countryside, with views over the mountains reminding us of a fairytale world…

www.nakedretreats.cn

Dar Hi – Tunisia

The French industrial designer Matali Crasset, also known for innovative and creative hotel designs, has created a new, extremely sleek and stylish hideaway in Nefta, Tunisia. The hotel has a panoramic view over the Tunisian desert and the town of Nefta. The architecture of the houses in the resort is contemporary with walls made of whole bricks that have a distinctive ochre color. Roofs and house doors are made of palm wood. The architecture is very inspiring and the shape of the houses gives you a feeling of being on another planet…It is not surprising that this particular location has inspired a large number of movie directors, for example: Star Wars and the English Patient were filmed in the Nefta desert. The Dar Hi hotel follows a strong ecological and environmental approach, in all matters; food is organic and only locally produced, the construction is made of only local materials and the water is provided by a hot natural source that comes from the desert and supplies the hammam as well as the swimming pool with hot water using geothermal energy.  The spa offers Arabic massages, traditional hammam treatments and some local therapies with warm sand and clay.

www.dar-hi.net

We have also some exciting spa projects coming up in exciting destinations and hotels, which will tell more about soon…

/Maria