The spa and wellness industry has been evolving in recent years in quantum leaps. We are seeing the reimagining of spa and wellness services moving from just verticalized treatment, room-based to hybrid experiences that include both service-providers and mind/body technologies, all within an area that is now beginning to be known as "touchless wellness."
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The spa and wellness industry has been evolving in recent years in quantum leaps. We are seeing the reimagining of spa and wellness services moving from just verticalized treatment, room-based to hybrid experiences that include both service-providers and mind/body technologies, all within an area that is now beginning to be known as "touchless wellness."
This is a move towards the integration of traditionally delivered services with all forms of other technologies including diagnostics, wearables, apps etc. – all in the context of the digitization of post-modern life. Wellness can now leverage the power of technology with traditional touch services including body and facial therapies like massage, body scrubs, and facials, enriching the range of services and elevating the overall experience.
When we think of mind/body technologies, there are a multiplicity of options and they include infrared, far-infrared, haptics, binaural vibroacoustics, body shaping and rejuvenation, advanced water therapies delivery systems, and many more. These technologies work to deliver benefits for mind and body while integrating key elements such as music, enhanced touch therapies using targeted heat, vibration, and alpha quartz and more.
The treatment experiences provide the consumer with technologies that are backed by science while supporting sustained positive behavioral change, especially when treatments are repeated with frequency over time. Think combining a traditional reflexology therapy with a vibroacoustics lounger in the same time window that one would traditionally have a massage. Mind/body technologies work to enhance and complement touch therapies to create unparalleled guest experiences and outcomes - placing mind/body technologies at the forefront of our rapidly evolving industry.
Technology, Knowledge Artfully Applied
The true definition of technology simply means the “artful application of knowledge.” In its origin, the Greek, tekhnologia meant “systematic treatment of an art, craft or technique” (Etymonline). While wellness, according to the Oxford dictionary, is “a condition obtained when a person achieves a level of health that minimizes the chances of becoming ill. Wellness is achieved by a combination of emotional, environmental, mental, physical, social and spiritual health.”1
When married, wellness and technology become a term to mean the synthesis and evolution of a wider range of applied science, the knowledge from the ancient healing traditions, engineering and practical application to benefit human health and well-being to achieve a specific outcome. The mind/body technologies are loungers, treatment beds, and a host of emerging products that are delivering evidence-based wellness benefits in the wellness space, while shaping new consumer behaviors, demands and preferences for delivery – all with high value precision and efficacy.
Related: 7 Trends Changing the Scope of Wellness Amenities
Benefits for Consumers
In a world where wellness is often seen as a luxury reserved for the few, mind/body technologies are transforming the landscape by making well-being accessible to a much wider audience. A major intrinsic value of these technologies lies in its greater inclusivity, breaking down barriers that have traditionally prevented many from pursuing a healthier lifestyle—most notably, cost and availability. These innovative solutions lower the need for additional labor, often making wellness more affordable for a wider audience.
On a more transactional level, these technologies provide a way to increase yield and ROI because they also lower the operational risks involved with service provider only led services. It also increases built-in flexibility for both programming options and greater operational ease. Mind/body technologies offer new treatment options, and guests appreciate the nouvelle and unique experiences they are exposed to introducing delight and wonder into the overall journey.
The Amplification and Acceleration of Wellness Results
Delivering big, evidence-based wellness benefits is no longer optional, it’s a requirement in the spa and wellness space. And, with mind/body technologies, the delivery of outcomes for the consumer is amplified and accelerated.
While a traditional massage is typically delivered in 50 to 90 minutes ensuring relaxation and a wellness payoff, mind/body technologies offer the same payoff, but bigger and faster. This is because advances in technologies are harnessing the principles of traditional therapies and treatments, and shortening their delivery times while increasing their potency.
Accelerated Results
The technological advancements engineered into mind/body technologies mean that benefits such as anti-inflammatory, mental fitness, detox, lymph drainage, improved sleep, recovery and so much more can be experienced in shorter time windows. This is a big payback for time-starved individuals and allows for much for flexibility, and accessibility, in both treatments and programming, serving a wide range of business models from day spas, wellness and fitness clubs, all the way to resort destinations.
Amplified Wellness
The tech can be used both for standalone treatments – with limited person-to-person contact – and also be combined with a spa’s existing treatment menu adding amplified wellness offerings, and experiences that create a great value proposition to the consumer and bigger ROI to the owner/operator. An added bonus for the wellness seeker is a treatment experience that is always uniform, and for the service provider, a means to alleviate the fatigue associated with the load of long hours of treatment schedules, or standing in for unexpected staffing absences.
Mind/body technologies are paving the way for the acceleration and amplification of wellness through the innovation of wellness services and experiences, a big value proposition up and down the wellness delivery pipeline.
References
Alina Hernandez is an award-winning Wellness program designer, Mayo Clinic certified Health & Wellness coach, author and industry innovator. She is an Advisory Board member of the Gharieni Group, and the Touchless Wellness Association, and Co-Chair of the newly formed Touchless Wellness Initiative of the Global Wellness Institute.
