Today up to 82% treatments in spas are massages.
Clients now have an increasing awareness and knowledge of the benefit and importance of massage and expect spa’s to respond to those demands by high quality treatments.
Unfortunately there is an increasing gap in what colleges can offer and what the industry wants.
This gap is the result of holding on to the old way of thinking about the spa, as a place of pampering, with emphasis on the package rather than the content.
Today however, men and women alike, are entering a new level of wellbeing with the concept of mindfulness and self awareness. We want to know who we are, what we are doing here, what is the purpose of our life.
These are no more questions raised by philosophers and prophets. We, ordinary beings want to find out the deeper meaning of our existence. We want to know that we have a positive influence over our life by making the right choices on such fundamental areas like health, career or relationships.
We are looking for experts who can lead us in the right direction, helping us to get present to our own potential and uniqueness.
This new realm requires a totally different way of approaching the client in a spa.
It requires a transformation of the therapists, from passive provider of an average quality massage, to a highly skilled professional who understand their role as a health provider.
This transformation can only happen through a training that will go beyond teaching techniques, teaching protocols and memorizing phrases that supposed to give the client an impression that the therapist cares.
This means investing in massage training, which seems very difficult to accept by so many spas for the simple reason that massage training has always been part of a general, free of charge training, offered by the spa product companies.
Andrew Graham, the CEO of Dormy House Hotel, shared with me that in the early stages of creating the House Spa, he was advised by Howard Spa Consultancy on engaging an expert in the field of massage, if he really wanted to have exceptional treatments. He was visionary enough to make this unusual decision and 6 months later his spa become one of the best in UK according to Good Spa guide.
I had the privilege to provide this training and I experienced such an eagerness of the therapists to learn more and develop their skills beyond what was offered to them before. They were also committed to break the general opinion that beauty therapists cannot provide great massage. They shared with me that massage become their favorite treatment.
There is an urgent need to change the standard in the spa industry and offer quality massages where it is needed the most. To build a team of therapists who are proud of their profession and who are dedicated to make difference in their clients life. Passionate therapists who have a deep understanding of their work and loyalty towards their working place.
As David Tang said: “There is no point having the perfect massage room without a good masseuse”
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