CE INSTITUTE LLC BLOG

The following opinion is from a medical and scientific observation.  Anyone seeking spiritual or religious guidance should seek answers from their own religious establishments.

The world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC has stated that prayer was often used in medieval times for medical purposes. Others suggest prayer was commonly used as a method for healing. Some thought that pain or disease was a test of faith or a result from committing a sin, and prayer could improve their new medical issues through divine intervention. 

At the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris France, there are painting depicting stories of Jesus comforting and healing crowds of people.  Saint-Sulpice has a sign further explaining their paintings with quotes from religious sources that said as depicted below: If you know the disease, here you can entrust your state of health, lay down your burden. Be comforted... Jesus always paying great attention to the sick that He met in Israel. He suffered intensely during his Passion: He is beside you in sickness and suffering."  

Prayer is multifaceted process because there’s two distinct elements to it:

1. Calling from higher above.

2. Being physically restful, peaceful and meditative.

From a scientific and medical standpoint, prayer was probably very helpful in medieval population centuries for pain, disease and other medical purposes. That's because of its restful, meditative element, which has health benefits on its own. Rest is good for your health, period. Without rest, we succumb to fatigue, exhaustion and other compounding medical deterioration. Here are few recent medical studies which demonstrate the benefits of rest:

• A brief morning rest period benefits cardiac repair in pressure overload hypertrophy and postmyocardial infarction.

• Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) in anxiety and depression.

• Investigating the concept of rest for research and practice.

Notre Dame Church of Paris' rose window is pictured below. Please imagine what it might have felt like to spend some time under these windows in restful silence or prayer at church.

When examining medieval lower and middle class populations, which ironically made up the majority of populations up to today and remains unchanged, we came to these conclusions:

Prior to advanced machinery development with industrialization, people usually worked from dawn until dusk, seven days per week. Transportation included walking, bicycling, horseback riding and other physical activities, sometimes for prolonged periods of time. Cooking required transporting wood, splitting, then creating and maintaining fire. You might have to pluck your own chicken. Fish for your own supper. Plant and harvest your own vegetables. Daily survival was a much larger process, and that’s before we get to the workplace to pay for everything hundreds of years ago. Work could involve swinging a tool to cut a field of hay, all day long. Think about that repetitive strain that would happen if someone did that, day after day, for up to 12 hours per day.

Below, St. Paul's National Cathedral of London is pictured.  Can you imagine what it was like to leave your dirt floor home with a straw roof and open windows to enter this religious establishment:

In prayer, we are often sitting, kneeling or standing with stillness. It can be extremely restful, especially when compared to one’s daily activities in medieval times.  Prayer allowed an individual to take a break from their daily physical exertion. And it's more than likely that constant daily exertion either caused or exacerbated certain medical issues. 

Today, in modern times, we have an entire industry called occupational therapy, which evaluates an individual’s situation to help prevent injury or correct poor personal mechanics to avoid greater harm.  Once injured, occupational therapy will help treat it with thermal therapies, exercises, massage therapy, improved routines and other measures. Occupational therapy can also provide appropriate adjustments for daily life or work if an individual is physically handicapped or unable to perform specific tasks due to physical disabilities. And while we did not have occupational therapy in the medieval centuries, there was prayer.

The gates and entries alone to religious houses or churches could leave someone awestruck by that alone. What would you think someone's focus would be when walking up to an establishment or entering through doors like these ones pictured below? The first picture is of a door that was preserved from the Church of the Virgin in St. Germain Paris from the 12th century.  This was the side entrance, where plants were intricately carved in stone material. Prior to modern day medicine, the use of plant material through aromatherapy practices was commonly used for healing.  We believe using depictions of plant material carved in stone or marble left subtle hints or suggestions of their healing properties being found inside. This door was preserved through history and is now on display at the Musee de Cluny in Paris France.

The next picture is the Hereford Screen made for the Hereford Church in England. It is adorned with passion flowers and currently sits in the Victoria & Albert Museum, aka known as the V & A in South Kensington, London, England. Passion flowers are another natural herbal botanical inscribed by the church. They are thought to be used to relieve pain and insomnia. 

This screen is now considered to be a fairly priceless work of art, so it was removed from the Hereford Church in 2000 to be preserved and was permanently installed at the V & A Museum where you can view it today. While most museums are free in London, most museums charge a fee to show their collection.  So, in retrospect, today we pay to view such incredible visual pieces; however, in medieval times, tenants of their lords would marvel at these amazing works of art with great hope for something beyond their grasp, and in many cases it was for wishful healing for themselves and loved ones.

The following are additional gates, entrances and facades of various religious houses which show great opulence if not power: 

Prayer in a religious establishment might have included physical contact with a staff member. They might have shaken hands, placed a hand on one’s shoulder or back or even hugged. We now scientific studies that show the power of touch:

1. Self-soothing touch and being hugged reduce cortisol responses to stress: A randomized controlled trial on stress, physical touch, and social identity

2. Touch: An irreplaceable component of caring

3. Meta-Analysis: Touch Tied to Improved Mental, Physical Health

In terms of pain relief, spending time with a cognitive distraction such as prayer could help disrupt a pain cycle.  While pain might be felt in the back, leg or other place in the human body, pain is perceived in the brain. Pain is a cerebral reaction to issues such as soft tissue strain, overuse problems, physical misalignment, injury and other ailments. So when someone is thinking of something other than their pain, especially if they can find a place of positive feelings with rest, this could help minimize, diminish, reset and refocus an individual away from their pain and into a better mindful place.

Many places of worship for prayer have tremendous art installations for an individual to view or focus upon. While some religious artistic scenes portray demons and violence, the majority depict paths to peace. Viewing beautiful artwork can allow time for the human mind and body to experience meaningful rest. It’s a time to get out of your own head and think about something else. Those restful moments for an individual who's mentally taxed or physically overworked could prove beneficial, regardless of the religious component.

According to the American Psychological Association today, "chronic stress is linked to six leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide."

A common trend of art in churches is to show suffering with hope through grand paintings.  Below are two paintings hanging at the Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet Church in Paris, France. Both paintings depict suffering while one is receiving medical care on their death bed, while the other tells a story of how a woman was completely healed in a religious setting. 

Please take a moment to look at these images here with this article.  What do you feel, think or see when viewing them? Consider that some of these depict physical items that could stand 30+ feet tall.  Can you imagine what type of jaw dropping experience that might have brought a working individual who stares at the same stove or field every day?

So when considering the medieval and post-medieval population having disease, disabilities, or needing adjustments in their daily life to continue, think about the benefits of what some restful peace and touch might have provided to their hectic lives  Or the amount of restoration or rejuvenation a little bit of rest might provide. It’s no wonder that people returned to their daily activities with better ease after some restful peace at prayer. This is not to suggest spiritual intervention from a higher source did not occur during prayer or create benefit. This is a simple medical evaluation of how some time at prayer could contribute to better health from a scientific standpoint.

The pictures of church examples we provided in this article are some of the most well known in the world, including Westminster Abbey of London.  So while local churches amongst working folk would definitely be less grand, most churches do try and would love to emulate their grander counterparts.  In Paris, just across the very narrow Seine river is another church in Notre Dame's shadow. When looking at this for yourself in the pic below, you can see that the smaller, lesser known church is still quite grand when compared to Notre Dame Church of Paris in the background.

Now we do not recommend using religious items to bring about prayer or peace in your spa, massage therapy treatment rooms, health establishments or waiting areas. We are merely providing this opinion as a matter of observation, and to show some roots to our therapies today. Experiencing rest in your workspace, and then beyond your workplace can be achieved through other objects such as nature, plants, peaceful animal depictions and other artistic displays of non devotion. Please review our series of using plants and nature to build a spa or massage therapy establishment’s visuals for revitalizing a practice. It might be the key you need to tap into some additional therapy for both yourself and your clients.

It was noted in the press on July 17, 2025 that the US sitting president, Donald Trump was diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency which is generally referred to as CVI. Chronic venous insufficiency is one type of disease that could cause swelling over a period of time, usually in the lower extremities. When left untreated, severe cases could result in skin infections, ulcers, infection, sepsis and even death; however, this is regularly averted in countries with modern medical practices such as the US.

While CVI is most often seen in the legs, it can also be diagnosed in the upper extremities or arms.  While the pictures in this article do not depict Trump, they are a fairly good example of what CVI could look like in a younger male subject. Affected individuals during the initial onset of CVI define symptoms as unknown bilateral extremity swelling, the feeling of heaviness in the affected extremities and fatigue. 

The venous stasis which occurs during CVI can also cause the discoloration effect seen in the pictures above and below.  The affected areas can appear darker in color, which is a result of the blood pooling in the veins for prolonged periods of time, which causes swelling, discoloration and other symptoms.

Manual lymphatic drainage has been shown to be an effective treatment for chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). Studies of successful manual lymphatic drainage applied to chronic venous insufficiency date back as far as nearly 50 years ago! One randomized control study concluded: Short-term MLD treatment ameliorates CVI severity and related edema, symptoms, and pain HRQOL in patients with CVI. 

One of the things that's most important of all is manual lymphatic drainage has not shown to produce any negative side effects to treat CVI, unlike other possible interventions or pharmaceuticals to treat or ameliorate this common disease.

We teach evidence-based MLD practice here at our school, where manual lymphatic drainage can be provided for a variety of medical disorders and diseases, including CVI. Manual lymphatic drainage utilizes specialized hands-on skills to lightly manipulate the underlying soft tissue to promote drainage wherever acute or chronic edema exists.  The goal in MLD practice is to create a volume reduction to reduce the swelling.  Clients usually feel better plus have greater physical function and range of motion (ROM) with swelling relief.  There is no cure for CVI; however, MLD practice can provide temporary benefits to affected individuals.

To register for our manual lymphatic drainage courses, please visit: https://ceinstitute.com/collections/lymphatics

Would you like to add another dimension of healing to your spa, medical or massage therapy practice?  Chances are, you’re already playing enjoyable music which helps set the tone or mood within your business.  Providing music can soothe the mind and tension, especially when service providers are running behind or there’s a period of wait time between appointments and for all other reasons that physically host a customer within your establishment.

Our customers are usually pretty busy, and sometimes they’re even in pain while waiting, which is not a great way to start at your medical or massage practice.  They do not have extra time to sit around and wait for others.  Have you thought about how you can ease a client’s stress or wait time with acoustic pleasures?  

Below is a video of an extremely large sculptured waterfall in front of The Church of Saint-Sulpice in the heart of Paris, France.  It’s bustling with tourists, children, traffic, dogs, trains and the general noise of a major European city.  But what do you hear next to this water feature?  Do you hear the city racket or noise?  Or is that water fountain something that would provide acoustic pleasure or peace? 

Many people are attracted to, sit and stand around this water feature in front of Saint Sulpice's church here in Paris.  And while it’s visually spectacular, the sound itself is also soothing and comforting.  Ask yourself, what image would you like to project with your business or practice?  Would you like to provide something that feels comforting or peaceful to all senses for your client?

On the downside, some may say the sound of running water may make them feel like they have to go to the bathroom, and that is true.  So if you have limited bathroom facilities within your practice, then this might not be the right investment for you.  However, if that’s not a concern, then set up a water bubble where clients can replenish themselves, then let the amazing soundful natural enjoyment begin.

Many of us play music within our own establishments.  However, hopefully now you can consider a waterfall, fountain or some other device that allows for the sound of the flowing of water, that’s if you don’t already have one!  There are many different sizes, price points and types of commercial waterfalls and fountains. Some are very small and can sit on a massage reception area desk or coffee table.  Some are very thin and can hang on the walls in a treatment room, hallway or office.  Some are larger and are made for centerpieces.  The choices are fairly endless.

Sometimes at trade shows, you’ll find a booth by a wholesaler who exclusively sells these to your market.  Why?  Because it’s a great investment to treat your clients to something that’s easily enjoyable with minimal effort.

by Selena Belisle, CE Institute LLC Founder/Instructor 

Massage therapists, bodyworkers, occupational therapists, nurses and even my veterinarian are using essential oils for therapeutic benefits.  Aromatherapy is our first medicine, which is a skilled and balanced practice that’s somewhere between an art and a science. Aromatherapy uses plant extracts which usually create various essential oils for different restorative values or purposes. Adding aromatherapy to your medical practice can provide some of the following therapeutic effects:

• Stimulant
• Relaxant
• Decongestant
• Antimicrobial
• Diuretic
• Analgesic
• Astringent and more

So why isn’t aromatherapy practice more popular? Or why isn’t aromatherapy treatment available in all medical practices?  Wouldn’t everyone want to consume natural plant extracts instead of modern-day pharmaceuticals?

The answer to all of these questions is largely factored by unreliable essential oil harvesting and production.  Plants can be exposed to drought, disease, spoilage and other uncontrollable elements of nature. So, while most medical pharmaceuticals have been developed in a controlled lab environment with reliable precision, using plant extracts that are born from nature is another matter.

Aromatherapy essentially works through a harvested plant’s chemical constituents.  Different plants are made up of different natural elements which aid in their own protection, survival and reproduction in the wild. Chemical constituents are known as the different elements from the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements that makes up a plant’s properties to survive and reproduce.

Today we have well documented formulas of elements for almost every known plant species that still exists. Plants that are harvested for aromatherapy use can be effectively identified through their elemental composition, and combining different plant elements can share a variety of different therapeutics uses. Those benefits are multiplied when different combinations of these specific elements are blended together in different quantities. The most common example of using elements to make a variety of substances on the Periodic Table would be the creation of water. O represents the element for oxygen and H represents the element for hydrogen on the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.  Combining 2 elements of hydrogen with 1 element of oxygen is known as H2O or water.  Hydrogen or oxygen by themselves are not water, but when combined with a specific formula you have water.  The  same types of formulas can be developed with plants in aromatherapy practice. 

Today, we might have over 400 different species of the geranium plant alone.  While we can visibly tell the difference between some of the geranium plant’s different species, it’s their nonvisible chemical constituents that sets them apart. And remember it’s those different combinations of chemical constituents that create the various therapeutic uses of every plant.

Have you ever wondered why some flowers can smell so pretty?  That aroma may repel some, but it’s designed by nature to help attract fauna or bees to visit and spread their pollen to aid in the plant’s reproduction.  It's a plant’s unique combination of chemical constituents that creates a plant’s signature aroma that can be used for human therapeutics, beyond its initial natural design.

The same applies to a plant’s survival or protection.  There are various insects, fungus and other potential natural harms that could infect or kill a plant.  And just like some plants have different aromas to aid in their reproduction, they can have other aromas to deter harmful insects or other naturally occurring threats.  Those aromas would be a different combination of chemical constituents to aid in a plant’s protection or survival. An aromatherapy example of using a natural plant’s protective chemical constituent combination would be citronella essential oil, which is used to produce candles and bug spray as an insect deterrent.

Over time, whether through accidental surprise or academic study, we have learned which natural chemical constituent combinations can provide different therapeutic benefits.  Many of these human aromatherapy uses were founded thousands of years ago, such as using mint leaves as a digestive aid. Humans were even tattooed with plants materials instead of inks for health benefits.  So why hasn’t our oldest medical practice continued with better prevalence?

Why don’t we have essential oils with anti-inflammatory chemical constituent properties in the same drug store aisle next to the other NSAID’s such as ibuprofen or Advil? While some aromatherapy practices still continue to this day, many do not. 

One of the main reasons natural aromatherapy is not more prevalent is due to harvesting and production practices which include manmade chemical pesticide use.  In today’s world, manufacturing processes seek the fastest and cheapest methods to produce salable products, regardless of what’s being produced. This includes GMOs used for food production and chemical pesticides used with essential oil production.

Some pesticides are considered carcinogens and are generally considered harmful to human health.  And unlike food production/distribution which is widely regulated by governments to protect public health, essential oils do not enjoy the same monitoring.  In addition to less monitoring or laws applying to essential oil production, there are some essential oil manufacturers that make claims that are simply not true. This leads to unreliability and breaks public trust with aromatherapy practice.

The truth is, some essential oil manufacturers would go out of business if they lost an entire year’s crops. And many crops are lost to natural pests or disease.  Please ask yourself, how would you fare if you lost an entire year’s income while still having to pay your bills to exist?  Are you willing to take the chance to learn or see this?  Because that’s the choice a crop manufacturer faces on a regular basis when applying pesticides. It is our belief that most essential oil manufacturers are not going to risk a year’s harvest when they can easily use pesticides to protect their crops and income.  It’s just good business to protect your product, and pesticides are some of the quickest and cheapest methods to produce a reliable crop from nature, that is until there are better health regulation laws with crops used to produce and manufacture essential oils.

So that leads us to this painting included at the top of this article.  Do you know what that relaxing scene depicts?  That is a painting from 1890 by the artist Anna Boch which depicts a young woman picking various plants and flowers.  Please take notice that there are a variety of plants shown in the painting, unlike what would be grown today. 

Today we have monoculture fields of lavender, rosemary and other plant materials that can be used for their chemical constituents or essential oils, where the crop can be easily harvested and produced as one.  But before today’s fairly reliably manmade pesticides, harvesters would sow various plant species amongst one another for increased plant protection.  Various plants have different aromas with their various unique combinations of chemical constituents, so while some plants might be more susceptible to some harmful insects or natural disease, other plants might have aromas or chemical constituents that could provide better protection from those specific pathogens.  This painting from 1890 perfectly depicts organic plant protection, where various plants have been grown together to protect the harvest of all of them. It's the various plant's chemical constituents that not only protect themselves, but also organically assist in protecting the other surrounding plants through their various compositions of chemical constituents.

Why don’t we continue to grow different plants amongst one another for better natural protection instead of using harmful chemical pesticides?  The reason is harvesting.  Organically picking various parts of individual plants grown amongst others is difficult; and in most cases, would require human labor which is expensive.  It’s cheaper to use a tractor or machine to mow down a field as one, rather than pay for a human to pick clary sage from a mixed field. The amount a tractor can harvest in a single monoculture field versus what a human can manually pick in a mixed field is incomparable.

So, if you’re interested in adding organic aromatherapy to your medical practice, please try to find quality manufacturers with responsible harvesting and production practices.  Obviously, the situation depicted in this painting would be best, where natural resources are skillfully used to protect various plants instead of manmade chemicals.

There are many other considerations with organic aromatherapy practice which we teach here at the school, however, this important point was made example of by Musee d' Orsay’s 100 Works That Tell the Climate Tour in Paris, where they used 100 paintings to provide examples of how climate change and other factors are affecting our existence.

We want to thank the Musee d' Orsay for pointing out this important point of plant harvesting that can be used to improve aromtherapy's essential oil production and quality in this incredible fine arts picture below.  This is an incredible story that will hopefully be memorable through the example and use of fine art.

We’ve been wanting to introduce Thai massage education at the school for a while now; however, it’s usually quite inexpensive to fly to Thailand to study this modality over there, at one of several Thai massage schools that welcomes Americans to their studies.

Thai massage is usually performed on a floor mat, fully clothed, with a balance of passive stretching exercises and compressions where some clients might describe it as being twisted into a pretzel in the best imaginable way possible.  Thai massage gently and passive moves human joints through normal ranges of motion to increase function, relieve stress and other health benefits.

In this Thai Spa that I got to visit as a walk-in client on the streets of Paris, I found a well decorated and clean establishment with welcoming staff.  We looked through their menu of services and while I had originally wanted a Thai massage, I thought it would be a better learning experience to see what or how a Thai practitioner would provide an oil massage, so I booked the oil massage instead. Oil massage is the more typical practice of what we teach at CE Institute LLC, so I have been consuming as many different massage appointments as possible to see if I can learn or experience anything different to continually share in updated education at our training facility.

After I had established which type of appointment I would experience at this Thai Spa, the service provider immediately had me remove my footwear in place of theirs.  This is a Thailandese traditional and cultural norm that promotes sanitation and conveys mutual respect and care. I asked to use the bathroom first which every practitioner should offer prior to massage, so that the appointment is not disrupted with a need to use it!

For this Thai oil massage experience, the massage therapist brought me into a small treatment room and asked me where I wanted the massage focused. I told her my legs were sorest of all from walking the city of Paris, and then she told me to disrobe and to lay pronated on the massage table.

The table was covered with a narrow sheet of paper over what looked like a cotton printed sheet from Thailand which was beautiful.  Towels were folded on the corner of the table to cover myself with and the therapist split a hole in the paper where my face was to be placed to breathe.  I opted to put my sweater over the hole and leave my head turned to the side for sanitation reasons.  The room was dimly lit and beautifully decorated with wallpaper; however the lighting in the ceiling was neon in color which gave off the wrong vibe for me.  I would have enjoyed lightning to be in a soft warm yellowish tone which would have felt more comforting than being in a neon lit room. I believe soft yellowish lighting would significantly improve the spa’s existing beautiful assets.

When the therapist re-entered the room, she started her service with hot towels to my feet, then strong compressions on the soles of my feet.  She worked superiorly moving into compressions with her palms over my heels and upwards through my calves and hamstrings.  At some point during the posterior lower extremity compressions, she jumped onto the table between my legs and continued her compressions through my hips and low back without missing a beat. Most clients would probably not know the practitioner was now on top of the table instead of beside it; however, it was clear the direction and pressure she was provided could only be achieved from being directly over the top of me. A while ago, some massage organizations required that a massage therapist maintain one foot on the ground at all times during a massage appointment.  I’m not sure if that requirement still exists, but it would be hard to follow in Thai practice where therapists usually hop onto the table for better leverage.

The massage began with warm oil with a bottle she kept in an oil warmed in the corner of the room.  For sanitation reasons, we would recommend to elevate this oil warmer onto a higher shelf area, and to wash both the oil warmer itself and the oil bottle between clients to avoid cross contamination.

The massage itself was slightly disappointing, as the therapist repeated the same strokes over and over again.  I was surprised when the initial oil application started from the hips and was applied towards my feet inferiorly which is against venous return and ill-advised.  Once the oil was applied, the massage therapist changed direction and started strokes superiorly from the feet to the hips, to promote venous return.  Unfortunately the same stroke was applied over and over again, repeatedly, in a manner that simply felt boring and uninteresting.  It’s almost like she was going through the motions of providing the massage without any clear intention or care for its purpose.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt such a detached massage as this one.  The speed and contact of the massage were decent, but it felt like the massage therapist was not mentally present, in the moment, and that feeling was overly emphasized when she left our treatment room in the middle of the massage without explanation, to speak to other incoming customers and staff at least three times within a 30-minute period.

We did have a language barrier where I speak enough French to get by; however, no attempt to discuss contraindications or goals were made other than asking where I wanted the oil massage applied on my body.  In the end, I regretted not scheduling a Thai massage in this Thai spa, wondering if that would have been a better service than what I had received.

When I dismounted the massage table, my legs did feel better so I was glad to experience some therapeutic effect from the appointment because when I was on the table, it felt like there would be little to none.  I did notice that the paper sheet that had been used to cover the table was no longer intact, which concerns me from a sanitation standpoint, especially if they are not changing that beautiful cotton sheet directly underneath it.

When I re-entered the reception area to pay, I encountered another client who was putting on the spa’s footwear so I asked her what she had scheduled. She responded she did not know but was a regular client who lived on the same street.  I was pleasantly surprised to find this regular client going to this establishment for her own benefit despite not knowing what she was receiving.  I asked her if she was disrobing for oil massage or being stretched through her clothes, and she described a Thai massage that was finished with some brief oil massage application which she said she thoroughly enjoyed and has come back many times to receive.

In the end, what I received at this Thai spa would not be the same experience for all Thai establishments.  The phrase “when in Rome” kept coming to mind during my massage here, which said to me that while I’m in a Thai spa, I might have benefited most from a Thai service such as Thai massage.

Have you ever wondered where spa’s come from?  Who thought of this concept?  When? How? Why?  Modern day spas today are most closely related to ancient Greek practices with an eventual Roman evolution of bath houses from thousands of years ago.  Our earliest known spa use is tainted by muddled history stories, with whatever evidence feels strongest for one to follow or believe. 

In ancient Greek and Roman times, bath houses were frequented amongst multiple classes of society. While the wealthiest may have had a private bath within their own home, they would still frequent the public bath houses as a way of life. They were places for recreational, health and social activities, in addition to the most obvious use of bathing for personal hygiene and sanitation.  

Detoxifying and Vasoconstriction with a Cold Plunge and Contrast Baths at the Spa

Did you know that Roman bath houses had different baths, usually at different levels and with different temperatures? Public bath houses could be heated with fire under the floors, and cold baths or cold plunges would usually be the lowest level of the bath house, where they are dug deep into the ground to preserve a chilly temperature.  

So, while today, cold plunges are all the rage as it can vasoconstrict soft tissues which helps eliminate waste products held within the body in an ultimate detoxification, it’s likely this cold plunge process started in Roman public bath houses, with its multi-temperature baths which would also known as contrast baths. An ancient Roman bath house is where these multi-temperature baths were collected and housed or used together in one establishment.

Muscular Soft Tissue Healing, Recouperation and Vasodilation at the Spa

Today’s modern day spas will offer a variety of bodywork and massage services that will manually increase circulation whether it’s pressing the soft tissue to create an ischemic effect, then releasing the soft tissue which will in turn produce a resurgence of blood and nutrients to the affected area.  This increases circulation and all the riches of newly oxygenated blood to an area for increased cellular metabolism and healing.  By contrast in ancient Roman bath houses, participants would exercise in a yard or dedicated area to sport to increase their circulation.  

We have gone one step further today by creating machinery and electrical devices to increase circulation within the spa business.  This is anything between pressotherapy garments that even hospitals use, with air pressurized balloons gently squeezing the soft tissue then releasing it, which will help increase cardiovascular circulation as well as help prevent blood clots if an individual is sedentary.  We also have massage chairs that we can sit in to help increase circulation with pressing and releasing soft tissues, as well as hand held devices and much more.

Do Any Ancient Spa Establishments Still Exist?

Yes, many old bath houses which might also be known as the world’s first spas still exist, although most fell into a period of disrepair until being rehabilitated or repaired for mostly tourism attractions today. For example, it’s the Musee de Cluny at 28 rue Du Sommerard, 75005 Paris, France which is the ancient Roman spa that is mostly pictured throughout this article. 

Today’s modern Paris Museum which is called the Mussee de Cluny was built on an approximate 2,000 year old ancient Roman bath house which was actively used for approximately 200 years. The museum’s curators suggest that any Roman city conquered was fairly worthless without a set of Roman baths, and in this particular area, there were three of them.  The bath house we have pictured throughout this article at the Musee de Cluny was the center of the area’s social activity, where people came to relax, exercise, have their hair cut and read.  Some ancient Roman baths had a public library. That’s fairly similar to what is practiced today, where magazines and travel books are shared common fare in a modern day’s spa reception area.

The Musee de Cluny’s ancient Roman bath or spa was split into three different levels.  This included an area deep underground, where hydraulics and drainage were routed.  

The ground floor entrance was an open exercise area.  This ground level area consists of both indoor and outdoor rooms with more rooms above.  

The museum curators suggest that bathers would start at the bath house with a hot bath, which was also called the caldarium. Then bathers would move onto the warm baths with tepid water in a tepidarium.  The last place the bathers would go in their spa ritual would be the frigidarium which is also known as the cold room.  

The Archaeological Crypt from the Ile de la Cité, just in front of Notre Dame Church, has another ancient Roman Bath in ruins available for public display with the purchase of a ticket, similar to how one would view the Musee de Cluny.  The crypt's Roman bath was believed to have been in use until the 4th century. Below shows a map of how this 2nd Roman Bath was configured. 

The following video without narration shows the Roman bath ruins that were buried for centuries and recently unearthed between 1965 and 1970 at the Archaeological Crypt from the Ile de la Cité.  The map showing above is flipped or in reverse to what will be shown on the video below, so the video starts at the left of the unearthed baths and starts with the entrance, then leads to the frigidarium, them moves on to the tepidarium and ultimately ends in caldarium.  

There are many other spas or bathing houses throughout the world that still remain, some in better conditions than others with one of the most popular being “Bath” in Somerset England, where many have gone throughout time to “take the waters.” And pictured below is a peasant spa in Yugoslavia where public bathing and cupping was practiced for health around the 1900s.

The oldest spa in the world may be in Pakistan which is dated back to 2500 BC, approximately 4,500 years ago.  But the truth is, we may never know where the oldest spa originated given volcanic eruption, time and dust has covered most of the earth’s surface as well as the loss of areas due to sea erosion and more.  What we do believe is that the ritual of spa is a centuries old practice that has evolved into a wonderful modern day marvel that continues to restore health through the ages.

Did you know that lifting one leg while seated can help relieve low back pressure or pain (for most)?

In this salon in Paris, they have foot rests in front of their chairs to help clients feel more comfortable while seated for hair styling services. These comfortable foot rests are almost non existent in American salons. 

While this salon is not the nicest in Paris, nor in the best area, they have provided this wonderful and useful foot rest/asset to provide their customers some comfort.

When setting up your treatment stations and work areas, think about how you can make your clients more comfortable. It's the little things like this that can improve a customer's experience without much effort. 

Seeking services from others can help expose practitioners to new products and items that may be used to improve your own business. Industry trade shows also offer a wonderful education of new products available on the market, and they usually provide show prices with massive discounts to purchase at the event as well. 

It's important to learn and use what's accessible or available in the marketplace for your business or practice, so that you can provide the best service to your customers of all.

By: Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC. The images included in this article are stock photos and not from the spa itself because they prohibited photos to protect client privacy.

The following information is a professional evaluation conducted of an add-on facial service provided in London's hotel spa luxury market.  It is our hope in sharing this one-time experience that both practitioners and business owners can learn how to maximize operations with add-on services, such as this mini facial appointment example: 

From a business perspective, providing add-on services should not just be about scheduling extra services for extra income. That would be an extremely narrow view of such a wonderful business opportunity.  Add-on services also diversify a practitioner’s work, sometimes exposing practitioners to new clients. Other times you might expose clients to new products that are used during the add-on.  Clients may be exposed to a mini-service with the add-on, and then upgrade or rebook for the full service as well.  So, there is a LOT  potential to be had with an add-on service, but it’s up to each individual spa or massage establishment business to offer or maximize it.

Most establishments enjoy an approximate 100% mark-up on spa products.  They might pay $20 for a product and then retail it to customers for $40.  Retailing products is a wonderful method to increase income without much effort.  Providing add-on facial services to massage and bodywork appointments is a wonderful way to increase income both through added service, potential service upgrades and rebooks, and with retail potential income as well.   Of courses massage therapists and bodyworks should not provide esthetic or facial services without proper training and licensure.

What we have found is there are some who provide add-ons like the service I had at this establishment, the YĀTRĀ Urban Spa at Montcalm Royal London House. But the potential of this extra business is minimized when extended services or retail are not offered with it.  Service providers should be compensated approximately 10% of the sale price on average with retail sales, so it is in their financial interest as well to provide retail sales suggestions with their services.  Plus, massage therapists, estheticians and other personnel are usually paid a commission of each service, so it’s in the practitioner's best interest to suggest to upgrade to longer and greater services when they have the time to do so, to continue to maximize their income while at work.

Regardless of all of this added business potential, this was my personal experience at this London spa with my Radiance Lift add-on. 

The Radiance Lift add-on was advertised as a "kombucha-infushed sheet mask" and showed a picture of a face and facial sheet next to the service description. Applying these facial sheets only takes a minute or two at most to apply. I was curious what the spa would do for the remaining 14-minutes of this appointment so I booked it! The service provider will usually just pull a sheet from an enclosed source and place it over the client’s face, to their comfort level.  Almost anyone can place a facial sheet over their own face, but regardless of applies it, allergies or other contraindications such as skin burn, rash, etc. must be considered first.  This is why the practitioner must be properly trained to provide this service.

To my pleasant surprise, no facial sheet was offered, but a mini facial was provided instead.  I didn’t ask why they didn’t provide the facial sheet as advertised and prepaid for.  The entire spa service provided was not a great experience, and I did not want to add to the negativity by asking or pointing out that what they were providing was different than what I had scheduled.  In reality, I was thrilled to receive the mini facial instead of the facial sheet application that I had already paid for. 

If the massage therapist who provided the mini facial performed a skin analysis, she did so silently, without questions, so her analysis was incomplete at best. The reason why you want to ask questions if I do have some red tones in my skin, and if I had exfoliated that morning, then a service provider would not want to provide a double cleanse or exfoliation within a few hours a later.  That could result in a medical error with skin burn or other soft tissue damage. Her mini facial was provided in the following order:

She started with a facial cleanse which was wonderful and then ended with wiping the cleanser away with a cold towel while standing on the side of the table which was awful.  The spa establishment was unaware and not prepared for the facial add-on which I had scheduled and prepaid the day before this appointment, so I’m not sure if their hot towel cabi or hot water was broken; however, cleanser should be removed with a  warm to hot towel to open the skin’s pore for a greater cleansing effect when wiping the skin.

She repeated a second cleanse followed by another awful wipe with a cold towel.

This was followed by a wonderful facial massage, when she later told me was a facial oil when I had asked her what it was after the service had concluded. A third cold towel wipe of this facial oil was used with poorest skill level of all.  After wiping my entire face, the towel was not adjusted so the dirty area of the towel that had just wiped my face was now applied to wipe over my eyes. As a trained and licensed esthetics instructor myself, this disgusted me and made my eye area feel dirtier than when the facial service started.

In professional spa services, a new towel should be used after every step as well.  In this service, I’m not sure if she used a new towel with every wipe, but it did not feel like it.

Toner was applied next with what felt like some form of cotton, in a manner that could have been improved.  At least I think it was toner.  I would have to guess because she did not tell me what she was using nor doing, and I did not ask her so that I could evaluate her service as she provides it, instead of possibly making her nervous with questions or giving suggestions on how to improve the service through questions, etc.  The contact between the cotton and skin was firmer than necessary, and the order to which the cotton was applied to the skin was erratic.  She moved between my cheeks to the forehead to the chin and other areas in a nonsensical order that I have never felt before and simply felt like a misapplication. A more standard application of cotton to the face would be working upwards, downwards or laterally, with working upwards the regularly preferred method with facial services.

I believe the therapist finished with dabbing moisturizer on my face.  The beautiful massage strokes she used with the cleanses and facial oil were gone, and a rougher quick spread of product across my face was applied instead which was an extremely unpleasant finish after the cold towels and inappropriate use of cotton.

This practitioner provides incredible massage strokes and has beautiful hands. She would likely benefit from another practitioner emulating what it feels like to have a cold towel, too much pressure with cotton and a rough moisturizer application on her own face, so that she could learn from this and know from feeling it that those steps can be seriously improved.  However, in the end, human services are usually a personal preference, and what I enjoy, another may dislike and vice versa.  However, after decades of education, personal practice, employment, employing others and teaching these types of services, I believe I have a reasonable opinion of what the general population likes or expects with this type of service, and these are my opinions.

I do not know if this spa establishment offers retail skin care products.  I did not see any publicly available in a very small and sparce reception area of one of the nicer hotels in London.  If the spa does not provide retail, then they are missing added potential business income in addition to not providing the best service of all to a client.  With facial services in particular, we would want a client to be able to continue with appropriate facial cleansers, exfoliators, moisturizers and other specialized requirements for ongoing skin improvement and glow. If a client purchases a retail product that is only available at your establishment, and if they like the product because its providing results, then the client may have to return to your establishment for more product when they run out, which could result in additional scheduled services upon their return with other greater business opportunities.

We do not recommend substituting services without a client’s knowledge or consent, like what happened with this service at this establishment.  Every business, as some point, will usually run out of supplies.  Sometimes manufacturers discontinue products and there also can be supply shortages, shipping issues and other problems.  The reason why it’s important to gain the clients’ consent prior to altering their service regardless of the reason is a provider may complete an altered service, and then the client has the right to request the service they paid for, which means you could provide an alternative service without payment if consent was not acquired beforehand.  It is our opinion that clients do not have to pay for services that were provided but not scheduled.  We believe substituting services without a client’s consent, whether it’s prepaid or charged after the fact, could be seen as a fraud upon the client, which is usually illegal, or criminal is US based practices.  So, I believe the massage therapist ran the risk of providing this mini facial service for free, if I had requested the paid Radiance life appointment I had scheduled afterwards.

I do not enjoy writing critical reviews that point out poor skill level and execution; however, it is written for our students and other practitioners to learn from, because we often do not see constructive criticisms like this in writing.  We wrote this analysis here solely for our school’s teaching purposes where our students can hopefully learn from this experience and use it to improve their own services.