Akiela Hope

Hap­py Moth­er's Day to all our beau­ti­ful Trin­bag­on­ian women!If you're con­sid­er­ing a trip to the Spa for Moth­er's Day, Wom­an­Wise spoke with Cheryl Bowles, Bio­chemist and Chief Cre­ative Of­fi­cer, The Herbar­i­um Ltd and Cher Mere Spas. Here are some an­swers to the many ques­tions that you may have about what goes on in the spa and the many treat­ments and ser­vices you can ex­pe­ri­ence.

Wom­an­Wise: What are the ben­e­fits of Spa Treat­ments?

Cheryl Bowles: Spa Treat­ments ben­e­fit the mind, body and spir­it. Tired, anx­ious or hav­ing a bad day? A spa treat­ment may lift your spir­it.

WW: What can a per­son ex­pect at the Spa?

CB: At a spa one is con­sid­ered a most trea­sured guest. One can ex­pect a wel­com­ing at­mos­phere, pro­fes­sion­al staff, a hy­gien­ic en­vi­ron­ment, great am­biance, ap­pro­pri­ate equip­ment and in­stru­ments to per­form treat­ments. Prod­uct knowl­edge in­for­ma­tion and shar­ing of in­for­ma­tion on ser­vices and prod­ucts will al­so be ben­e­fi­cial to the client.

WW: What types of Mas­sages are there?

CB: There are sev­er­al types of mas­sages de­rived from var­i­ous tech­niques, name­ly Swedish, Thai, hot stone, deep tis­sue, etc.

WW: What are the ben­e­fi­cial el­e­ments of these mas­sages?

CB: Mas­sages detox­i­fy and de-stress due to the phys­i­o­log­i­cal im­pact on the body. Tight mus­cles are re­laxed al­low­ing the re­lease of tox­ins which re­lax and de-stress the client, cre­at­ing a new sense of well be­ing. The use of Aro­mather­a­py oils al­so con­tributes to an im­proved sense of well-be­ing.

For in­stance, with men, stress ap­pears to be con­cen­trat­ed in their low­er back re­gion; in women the stress ap­pears to be con­cen­trat­ed in the neck and shoul­der re­gion. So the ther­a­pist will fo­cus his/her en­er­gies where the knots are. All types of mas­sages im­prove blood cir­cu­la­tion and so ben­e­fit the whole body, leav­ing the cus­tomer feel­ing re-en­er­gized and re­ju­ve­nat­ed.

WW: What are fa­cials and what are they good for?

CB: A fa­cial has a beau­ti­fy­ing im­pact as the skin looks clean and glow­ing as there is a vi­su­al im­prove­ment in the tone of the skin. Fa­cials in­volve cleans­ing, skin analy­sis, va­por­iza­tion, ex­trac­tions, mas­sage, use of ma­chines to im­prove cir­cu­la­tion and stim­u­late heal­ing and mask ap­pli­ca­tion. There are dif­fer­ent types of fa­cials to suit the skin type and spe­cial con­cerns. These treat­ments are usu­al­ly gen­der neu­tral.

There is al­so a well be­ing com­po­nent (mind-spir­it) to fa­cial treat­ments as the ma­nip­u­la­tions in the treat­ments in­volve mas­sage ther­a­py which re­lax the cus­tomers. Con­se­quent­ly, cus­tomers al­so leave feel­ing re­freshed and re­newed.

WW: Can you please ex­plain the dif­fer­ences be­tween man­i­cure pedi­cure and the im­por­tance of each?

CB: Man­i­cures are for the hands and pedi­cures are for the feet. They both in­volve the im­mer­sion of hands and feet in warm wa­ter. There is a beau­ti­fi­ca­tion, hy­gien­ic and re­lax­ation com­po­nent of the treat­ments as hands and feet are cleansed, treat­ed, mas­saged and nail pol­ish ap­plied. The ap­pear­ance of the hands and feet look more en­hanced and are vi­su­al­ly pleas­ing: the mas­sage and wa­ter im­mer­sion calm and un­wind the client.

There is al­so a well be­ing com­po­nent (mind- spir­it) to these treat­ments as the ma­nip­u­la­tions in the treat­ments in­volve mas­sage which re­lax­es the client. Con­se­quent­ly, the client feels in­vig­o­rat­ed.

WW: What hap­pens with a Sauna treat­ment? Is it nec­es­sary?

CB: There is sauna (dry heat) and then there is steam ther­a­py (moist heat). The ben­e­fits of steam in a mas­sage ther­a­py may warm up the body and prep the body, mak­ing it more pli­ant (sup­ple) for mas­sag­ing. It is our ex­pe­ri­ence that when steam ther­a­py is in­clud­ed in the mas­sage ther­a­py, it in­creas­es the well be­ing sen­sa­tion im­mense­ly. It is rec­om­mend­ed for clients who ex­pe­ri­ence high stress lev­els.

How­ev­er, there may be some con­tra-in­di­ca­tions for clients who have med­ical chal­lenges. It is rec­om­mend­ed that they con­sult their med­ical prac­ti­tion­er first.