Sensational spa services

RAEANNE MARSH
Special to Jewish News

On the spa menu at CopperWynd Spa in Fountain Hills are three treatments that take the pampering spa experience to a new dimension. All three involve the hot stone massage that has become so popular over the last five years. Providing almost an overload of sensory input, these treatments involve two therapists working in unison.

The one-hour Stone Quarry treatment starts with a single massage therapist performing the hot stone massage. The wonderfully smooth, gliding sensation of heated stones seemingly being rolled over your oiled skin masks the deep pressure that, with the heat, allows the massage to get deep into the muscles. Face down and lying comfortably on a flat, towel-wrapped heated stone, you receive the first part of the massage on shoulders, back and legs.

For the last half-hour of the Stone Quarry massage, lying on your back, you receive ministrations from the massage therapist and facial aesthetician simultaneously. Differently shaped stones are used for different parts of the body, with flat ones to lie on, fat ones to curl your hands over, and an elongated one slipped into the recess behind your neck. The gentle, cleansing facial includes the application of small, heated stones as well. With sensory input from too many directions for your mind to isolate individually, you zone out as your body is enveloped in a sensation of relaxation.

The Stone Symposium is a two-hour treatment similar to the Stone Quarry, but with a hot stone pedicure following the massage and facial.

CopperWynd Spa's Stone Symphony offers the fullest measure of sensory input. In this version of the hot stone massage, two therapists work together to create one treatment. For a full two hours, you succumb to the sensation of smooth, heated stones being massaged into two different parts of your body at the same time.

Color therapy, a growing craze in Europe, is one of the newest services at the Golden Door Spa at the Boulders Resort in Carefree. The color therapy consultation is based on the power of color to relate to what's going on in your life. Vials of colored and scented oils present color as a liquid essence. Offered a panorama of jewel colors in the full spectrum of the rainbow - plus additional colors of mauve, lavender and pale green - you choose four which resonate the most with you.

"Reading" the meaning of your color selection also involves the order in which you selected your colors. The consultation is followed by application of one of the selected oils in a gentle massage, letting the transforming power of color, plant and crystal energy reach a deep level of your mind and body. You may choose a 50- or 80-minute session.

Another innovative array of treatments at the Golden Door Spa combines acupuncture with any of a variety of massages for an 80-minute session. Presented as a medical aid for body areas that are experiencing pain, the acupuncture procedure is performed by a nationally certified and Arizona-licensed acupuncturist. First, the needles are inserted at the acupuncture points, then you are given whichever style massage you've chosen. Since acupuncture and massage are performed on different parts of the body to reach the targeted pain, they can be performed at the same time.

Teeth whitening, though not a new procedure, has a new setting now that the Golden Door Spa has added it to the spa menu of services. You meet first with a board-certified, licensed dentist for pre-screening to make sure the procedure is appropriate. The one-hour treatment is performed in two 20-minute sittings, and the procedure itself involves reclining in a chair to let the laser pulse its light at your gel-coated teeth. The spa also offers a Weekender Program, which involves a five-minute procedure to form a mold and then self-application of the gel at the time and place of your own choosing for one hour per day for three days.

The Sanctuary Spa, at the Paradise Valley Resort Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, customized a hot stone massage for its menu. Called the Sanctuary Stone Massage, this 90-minute treatment employs little rocks placed on your body's pressure points and chakras. Particularly relaxing and therapeutic, warm stones are also placed between the toes of your feet. The smooth river rocks become an extension of the therapist's hands in this tension-releasing massage technique.

The Thai Table Massage is another new treatment at Sanctuary Spa, a 90-minute treatment that is energizing rather than relaxing. Rhythmic and gentle rocking, passive yoga stretching and rhythmic compression are the elements of this massage. Wearing comfortable clothing, you lie on the massage table and move your body into various stretching positions as the therapist directs. The therapist helps you stretch to the utmost limit, sometimes getting up on the table with you to most effectively exert pressure. In essence, the therapist does the stretching for you.

Direct from Chiang Mai, Thailand, is Sanctuary's signature Thai Foot Massage. This treatment blends reflexology with traditional Thai massage. First, a peppermint tea tree foot balm, heated to a soothing warmth, is applied to your feet. Massaged into one foot and then the other, its peppermint essence has a cooling, minty feel. A wooden dowel is used to apply pressure to points of your feet targeting problem areas in your body. You may choose a 30- or 60-minute treatment.

The feeling of the Southwest is incorporated into the Phantom Horse Spa's signature treatments at Pointe South Mountain Resort in Phoenix. Its Desert Botanical Aroma Wrap uses Ayate cloth, made from fibers of the Century Plant, to exfoliate your skin. From the hydrotherapy treatment, your whole body derives complete relaxation and deep cleansing. A light massage, applying aromatherapy oils, completes this 50-minute treatment.

The Phantom Horse Spa's Sedona Mud Purification Treatment is another 50-minute treatment that uses Ayate cloth. It also uses, as the name indicates, Sedona clay - rich red in color and rich in mineral properties that draw impurities out of your body. After an exfoliating treatment with the Ayate cloth, mud made of Sedona clay is spread all over your body, and you are then cocoon-wrapped in warmed blankets. Heat lamps are used to keep you warm. While wrapped, you are given a face and foot massage.

An oxygen facial and a seaweed facial are among the treatments offered at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park. Before any facial treatment is recommended, however, a therapist will consult with you to determine the most appropriate treatment. First-time clients, especially, are cautioned about the danger of exposing the skin to the Arizona sun immediately following a facial as well as the need to drink a lot of water after any detoxifying massage or facial. All facials are one-hour treatments, but can be reduced to a half-hour "mini."

The variety of services available reflects the reality that spa services, while undeniably pampering, have become almost necessities in dealing with the stress of everyday life and, especially here in Arizona, the environmental damage to the skin.