Marylise Sauliere

Music is integral to the spa experience—it’s what differentiates spas from beauty institutes or gym clubs. At a spa, your clients expect an effective therapeutic treatment and a certain je ne sais quoi. Like aromatherapy, music directly addresses emotions and influences our mood in two ways: through memory association and through vibrations on the body. Because spa music is often linked to nature, it encourages relaxation and helps clients unwind so they can focus on the benefits if their treatments.

To understand the power of music on our minds and emotions, we need to recall sacred music that has been created and played over the centuries, across all civilizations. Music is as precise as mathematics–there are special kinds of vibrations that will always produce the same results, such as joy or tranquility. In some monasteries in Central Asia, as explained by the philosopher George Gurdjieff, a special kind of music was played as an initiation to make people experience new sensations and emotions that would help them increase their level of consciousness.

Our busy routines produce stress because of the high number of daily goals we must achieve. Dispersion among multiple tasks and our continuous projection of the self onto external actions result in lack of attention, lack of concentration, anxiety, and headaches. Clients go to the spa for relief of these problems, and successful therapy is in part due to the power of music. Together with aromatherapy, soothing ambience, and the therapist’s gentle touch, music completes the sensorial journey and the holistic experience.