Sweet Surrender

My recent visit to Spa Montage at the Montage Laguna Beach lasted only a couple of hours, but it felt like a lifetime.

I was scrubbed, rinsed, wrapped, moisturized, massaged and oh so much more. I left feeling clean, soft and ridiculously relaxed -- in a wonderful fog of bliss.

The source of my bliss was the Spa Montage's Surrender (starting at two hours for $450), a completely customized spa program based on a consultation with your spa therapist before the treatments begin. It's so customizable that you can make it last all day, or throughout your stay at the resort, if you wish.

Spa therapist Diane Okamura turned out to be my personal guide into the stress-relieving world of Surrender. In a treatment room the size of a studio apartment, she spoke with me for about 15 minutes about the Surrender questionnaire I filled out so she could get a sense of what treatments I needed and wanted. The questionnaire asked for comments on anything from "typical daily food intake" to "recurring dreams." And my spa therapist posed additional questions, like: Have you had any lymph nodes removed? And, what do you do on weekends? It was nice to have someone show such special interest in me ... even if it was just to find out about my lymph nodes.

I informed Diane I was looking for tension relief in the back and general relaxation through treatments I hadn't tried previously. I mentioned reflexology as an example, but also expressed my love of the good old-fashioned massage. She said I'd get both and more, including use of the Vichy shower combined with a Sea Salt/Seaweed Body Gommage Scrub, an algae wrap and Manual Lymphatic Drainage.

Diane answered my questions about the treatments in a very educated and knowledgeable way. I could tell she knew her stuff. Not only was she a wealth of information, but she seemed extremely enthusiastic about her work.

The Wet Room

I began my Surrender program in a smaller room equipped with a table and showerheads -- the Vichy shower I presumed. Diane had me put on a disposable bra and underwear set before I took my place on the table.

She started off with a Sea Salt/Seaweed Body Gommage Scrub over my entire body. This portion of the program seemed more therapeutic than relaxing since the scrub was a bit on the rough side. I knew my skin would benefit from it though. Diane used the warm flow of water from the Vichy showerheads to rinse off the scrub. The sensation was akin to what I imagine it would feel like to be showered in bed. It was odd at first, but then quite relaxing.

Next came the algae. After the algae was smoothed onto my skin, I was wrapped with a Mylar foil and other blankets so that I looked like what Diane called "a space burrito." The idea was for the algae to better absorb into my skin. While wrapped, Diane went into the lymphatic drainage treatment. I had been curious about this treatment for some time, but hadn't gotten around to trying it. It sounds a lot more invasive than it turned out to be. In fact, when she first began working on my face with extremely light strokes, I wondered if anything would come of this. The pressure was so light, that I wondered how effective it could be. Diane said the technique was supposed to induce a relaxed state and calm the mind. It didn't take long for that to happen. In between questioning this treatment's effectiveness and feeling semi-claustrophobic about the wrap, I would randomly fall asleep. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I'd wake up, be a bit anxious, then instantly doze off again. Very strange.

Once unwrapped, Diane washed me off again and then placed lotion on my body in quick long strokes. For a moment I worried this would be the extent of my massage (I prefer deep tissue), but it wasn't. There was still more to come.

My Personal Requests

We returned to the original larger room for my massage. Diane said she would focus on my back to hips and gluts, since I had mentioned those as problem stress areas. I received shiatsu (shi=finger, atsu=pressure), a Japanese technique Diane used to loosen the tension in my muscles. I hadn't had shiatsu before and was quite amazed at the tension relief I felt without the therapist even touching my skin directly -- the entire treatment was performed with a sheet between myself and Diane's hands. She used deep pressure along the meridians in my back area, she explained. It was fabulous.

My marathon spa session ended with reflexology. Diane informed me that the idea behind reflexology is that every part of the human body is represented in the feet. If certain points on the feet hurt or are crackly when the therapist presses down on them, it means that the body area represented is out of balance. She noted that my bladder, digestive system, ears and eyes seemed out of balance. I have had some issues in those areas.

At the end of the custom program, I was 150 percent relaxed, very content and soft to the touch. If you're looking to get a serious pampering, Surrender.

For more information, visit www.montagelagunabeach.com.

Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2008 in Permalink