Integrating Spa and Wellness
So, Traditional Chinese Medicine expert, Jok-Keng Lee, asked, “How can we integrate Wellness into the Spa industry, rather that just feel well?” Spa operators, conceptualizers and designers such as Richard Williams, Farida & Hans Brouwer, Jens O.Reichert, Andrew Gibson, Lai-Ping Chik touched on this area and shared their experiences.

One challenge lies in re-awakening senses that many humans are no longer used to using. Ingo Schweder’s research for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group showed that today people employ their visual sense the most, while the senses of taste, sound, smell and touch are less developed. Spas are the ideal setting to teach people to ‘feel’, filling the void of instinctual emotional connectedness not being fulfilled by the purchase of consumer ‘gadgets’.

Helping to get this message translated and across to consumers were Christine Champness and Lee Sutton who spoke respectively on the practicalities of maintaining standards and using the media to an advantage. Bruce Hancock, on the other hand, shed light on the new concept of “corporate wellness”.

The differences between the current approaches bridging the narrowing gap linking the ‘holistic’ East and the ‘scientific’ West were further detailed by experts such as Dr. Martha Tilaar, Datin Sharifah Anisah, Dr. Suchai Yongarnukul, Dr Philip Parry, Dr.Pakpilai Thavisin, Ian Baker and Dr. Leonid Soboleff, while Jorg Hidding and Christiane Walter gave us the view from the West.

Life coach and Wellness consultant, Ruth Ostrow, recognizes that the symbols of Western success so highly pursued at the end of the twentieth century are slowly being cast aside. She stresses that the leaders of this planet need to learn how to function as human beings. And that people are no longer being defined by what they do, but by who they are. This is where the wellness industry can help. Spa is changing from a ‘beauty’ industry to a purveyor of holistic healing. She emphatically underlines the importance of balance and the message of healing and love that she will bring back to the corporate world.

Overview | Wholeness | Integration | Conclusion

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