It’s time to embrace an approach and design that’s more organic to the surroundings and culture of each spa, says Nigel Franklyn, aka The Spa Whisperer.

In an exclusive Thought Leader column for Spa Opportunities, Franklyn talks about how rituals can be a great way to define the individual character of each spa.

Creating your own authentic spa ritual, by Nigel Franklyn

In our industry, it’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between what is a ritual and what is a fad. Rituals are often just fads that have stuck around too long, and they really aren’t always necessary components to the greater spa experience.

Foot rituals are a great example of this. In my (long) career as a spa consultant, I have often found foot rituals to be of little meaning to the spa’s menu and ethos, so they feel completely out of place and awkward. It’s like someone, at the onset of the spa revolution, went to Southeast Asia and had a spa treatment with a foot ritual and decided that must be the modus operandi for the global spa industry. They were wrong!

Now I think a foot ritual – appropriate, relevant and carefully managed at the beginning of an extended spa journey – can be a great asset to the general experience. But to put your therapists on their knees at the onset of a 60- or 90- minute treatment seems more like an act of nonsense or subservience, and is completely unnecessary. In fact, it takes away the very necessary eye-level face time required to connect emotionally with the guest – and the guest to connect emotionally with the therapist – at the beginning of a shorter treatment.

I work to create an environment of surrender with the spas I visit, and I am always very wary of inauthentic fads and homogenised experiences. We are not slaves to the old ways. As the spa industry continues to explode, new therapies from all sorts of cultures are being explored and created and introduced to spa menus, so we need to be more fluid in our approach to rituals.

While we should never forget the very Asian roots of our industry, it’s time to embrace an approach and design that is more organic to the surroundings and culture of each spa – even, God forbid, dressing therapists in outfits that have no Asian influence at all.

We need to get a bit more indigenous – use our imaginations and create different ways to achieve the same goals. A ritual, by definition, is something that is prescribed by the traditions of the community. I think that is something to think about when trying to create a ritual for your spa that is your own.