Vancouver Spa Holiday Season: The Gift Of Quality of Life
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
The Holiday Season is upon us. It’s that time of year that seems to foster a build up of tension and stress. What to buy people? What to wear to all the Holiday parties? Can I fit it all in?- and family dynamics… Yay!
Something that came to mind for me when I was thinking about the Holidays is how nice it is to receive a gift certificate for a spa treatment. In fact, that is how I got started in the industry. When I was in my teens, my Dad started the tradition of buying everyone in my family gift certificates for a massage and facial every year at Christmas, and the rest is history. It was like nothing I had experienced before. I felt so taken care of- not just on the surface. What was I experiencing? The benefits of touch.
This year, the staff here at Spruce Body Lab, have had the pleasure of treating an elderly couple who have exemplified the benefits of the spa experience to me. The woman, who is in her mid seventies, started coming in to see one of our Registered Massage Therapists who was referred to her by her physical therapist. She had been injured in a car accident, and her therapist had plateaued in the results they could give her, so they recommended proceeding with massage therapy. While she was at it, she decided to try a facial.
This lady has since become a regular client, coming in bi-weekly for massage and monthly for skin treatments. She has raved about how her treatments have restored much of her vitality and health. She has significantly reduced her pain and improved her mobility. People have commented that she’s looking more youthful. I believe that the therapeutic benefits of touch and the feeling of being cared for, are due as much credit for how good she looks and feels, as the science behind the treatments she has received.
As a special treat, she gave her husband a gift on his eightieth birthday, of a massage and facial. He just came in again for his second massage this week.
It is one of the gifts to us as a therapists to see people getting so much out of the work that we’re doing. And it’s a good reminder to me that sometimes people need to be given these gifts, as they are not always likely to “treat” themselves to a spa experience.
I think in part, it’s about shifting how we view going to the spa; it needn’t be a rare treat. I think that culturally we could stand to start thinking of the spa as a resource for enriching our health and our lives- much like European cultures.
Do you think of spa treatments as a luxury, or have they become part of your lifestyle and self-care?
Be sure to join us at our Holiday Party- gift certificates are 10% off!
