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steam

Good & Well: A Local Investigation of Wellness

November 21, 2018 By Erika Veurink Filed Under: Reader Wellness Tagged With: CBD, Chinese Medicine, craniosacral therapy, facials, massage, meditation, sauna, spa, steam, wellness, yoga

It’s nearly impossible to walk a block in Park Slope without spotting wellness in one of its many embodiments. Alternative medical offices and juice shops abound. Conversations often slip into the familiar cadence of words once foreign-words like chakra, ketogenic, or ashwagandha. Gone are the days of living intentionally being reserved for the hyper-health conscious. Wellness has made its way to the masses.     

 

What was once a niche market is now a near 4 trillion dollar movement towards living “well.” And what does that mean exactly? I took to the streets of Park Slope, a historically progressive and health centered neighborhood, to find out. 

My journey began at D’mai urban spa where the scents of serenity that slipped out the sleek exterior created an impromptu oasis on 5th Avenue. I was transported from the muggy street to the back corner of the spa, plush robe knotted, to a sweltering sauna. Wellness, I thought prematurely and perhaps influenced by the cucumber water I was sipping, was actually pretty simple. As my body unwound and the temperature rose, I considered the last time I intentionally did something for my physical self. Did my recent acquisition of a swingy workout skort count? My thoughts were interrupted as I was shuffled to my massage table. When Daniella Stromberg, the owner of D’Ami, proposed a CBD Pain Relief Massage as a experiment in wellness, I was intrigued. 

CBD oil, primarily made from canabitdoid, has been popular in the world of wellness for years. Known to relieve stress, relax tension in the body, and perhaps even lighten the weight of anxiety, this hemp derived miracle worker is shifting into the mainstream. 

As the massage therapist pulled the tension from my wrist she whispered, “There, different story,” and I nearly jumped off the table in light of this revelation. She was right. Wellness is altering, for good, the parts of our stories we can change. Narrative traces through every point in our lives-why should our health be any different? In moving towards what is good, we move inadvertently towards what is true. As Danielle put simply, “Wellness is the state of being your authentic self.” 

 

And these aren’t new stories we’re uncovering. Many ancient practices of wellness have been reinterpreted for life in the 21st century. Take bath houses for example. In 2500 BC, the “Great Bath” functioned as both a community gathering place and a temple. In 2018, between the low-lying warehouses of Gowanus, cityWell brooklyn re-imagines the art of “taking the waters” for modern city dwellers. The space is unassuming from the outside, but after slipping off your shoes and venturing past the entrance, a sanctum awaits. Liz Tortolani, owner and visionary of the space, has crafted an island in a desert. That island being a collection of small shifts that speak to her passion for beauty, restoration, and the timeless pursuit of better living. 

For Liz, empowering wellness seekers to take an active role in the honoring of their bodies is the ultimate form of giving back. And her hope is that this becomes a lifestyle shift, not a once-a-year birthday treat. Wellness being a constant priority makes it preemptive, I learned. Stepping into cityWell feels like a collective exhale. Candles quietly wave, the sound of the warm baths blur out the traffic nearby, and the no shoe rule works to ground attendees in the moment at hand. And that moment is tranquil, safe, and shared. 

The five elements of Chinese medicine (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) are all deftly woven into the space. Upon my second visit, Liz visited me in the sauna clutching a binder overflowing with magazine clippings, color palettes, and early business proposals. The evolution of cityWell took shape before my eyes as she explained how each piece manifested-the cork floors that cover the space, the candles from a local apothecary, the vines climbing above the whirlpool, the personal lockers for New Yorkers on the go, and the rain showers above head. The shared feeling of presentness that humid Tuesday morning, a collection of woman with all sorts of stories gathered in one place, was proof of her success. 

 

Community wove its way into every wellness related practice I visited. At Slope Wellness, a few avenues closer to the park, so did the no shoe rule. White noise machines and a clean, organized office space help instantly create an air of calm upon descent. A host of services, such as Jade Gua Sha Facials and yoga practices fill the multipurpose rooms every day. Here, acupuncture is offered in a group setting, as a nod to its ancient origins, but also as an attempt to provide a more affordable alternative. The practice was founded over five years ago in response to a space in the market for a wellness experience that extended beyond the occasional massage. CSA drops off produce here, rooms can be rented by the community, and health related products are curated for sale. Dawn Phillips, a devoted staff member, spoke again of the importance of empowering patients beyond the appointment, to pursue health at home. In our conversation, she explained how she defined wellness as “the mind, body, and spirit connection.” She spoke to the ancient understanding that these compenents can’t be divorced; that they are most powerful in tandem. When the client understand this, the work done at Slope Wellness has the potential to extend into empowered self care; the ability to pursue wellness at home. 

Her speciality, craniosacral therapy, is the work of talk and touch in releasing tension in the body, in some cases working to dislodge trauma. It seems the more aptly we embrace wellness, the more we open ourselves to conversations of the stories our bodies tell. Dawn noted that talking about trauma has become notably less taboo than it was historically. “We can start to change our reality,” she explained. That change, that shift in narrative, is at the root of all wellness. 

At the end of the day, wellness is as much a robust spa treatment as it is taking the long way through Prospect Park home from work. It’s about modifying, even in the slightest sense, our relationship towards our bodies. And it turns out wellness is often a practice best served in the company of others. It’s a state of mind, an intention. And the occasional green juice.

Filed Under: Reader Wellness Tagged With: CBD, Chinese Medicine, craniosacral therapy, facials, massage, meditation, sauna, spa, steam, wellness, yoga

Come On In, The Water’s Fine – at cityWell

January 17, 2018 By Emily Gawlak Filed Under: Park Slope Life Tagged With: bathhouse, Gowanus, massage, sauna, steam, yoga

Of all the apartment compromises we make in this city, our poor excuses for bathrooms may be the most egregious. I mean, honestly, where are all of the claw foot tubs? Thankfully, a needed respite from the too-cramped bathroom blues lies off the R train in Gowanus, where Liz Tortolani welcomes you into her boutique bathhouse, cityWell, with open arms and extra fluffy towels. 

 

There was still snow on the ground on the Sunday afternoon scheduled for my hydrotherapy session, two hours set aside for full use of the townhouse-turned-bathhouse’s wet and dry saunas, hot tub, and showers. I turned down a quiet block of President Street past Third Avenue towards the canal as a nearby church bells tolled three, and lo! a eucalyptus branch signaled the way. Soon I was standing in a small entryway, enveloped in a blend of ginger, peppermint, and tobacco, a signature cityWell scent.

“I bet you weren’t quite sure where you were going!” Tortolani’s boomed as I stepped inside. The creator and sole owner of the spa is a vigorous, constant presence in the space, greeting guests, fiddling with steam valves, spritzing aromatherapy here and there, toweling off a slippery spot on the cork floor. She escorted me in, and, after a quick tour of the space, I swapped my parka and sweatpants for a swimsuit and was soaking in an outdoor hot tub, observed only by (no doubt jealous) empty balconies of the surrounding townhouses.

Liz in the backyard, photograph by Jessica Miller.

Tortolani opened cityWell in late 2015, but her quest for alternative healing began long ago, stemming from a Chron’s Disease diagnosis at age 13. While abroad in Sydney, Australia during college, she had a formative first experience at a Korean bathhouse. Years later, while studying massage therapy in Seattle, she began visiting Hothouse Spa, a women-only space that helped cement her belief in the benefits of regular hydrotherapy and proved an important influence on cityWell. “It really saved me,” says Tortolani. “I found that place incredibly healing to my body.”

When Tortolani moved to New York City in 2005, she wanted to find a Hothouse equivalent, but was nonplussed by what she saw as crowded, remote, or male-centric options. “I had just moved to one of the best cities in the world, and yet it didn’t have any facility like I was lucky enough to have in Seattle. A place I could walk to, that was in my neighborhood, that was accessible, that was affordable,” she shares. So she set out to build it herself.

Tortolani credits the Business Outreach Center Network as integral in her path to entrepreneurship because of their wealth of free resources and guidance for aspiring business owners. ““They keep asking you,” she recalls, “What are your next steps?” Her mentors there also introduced her to the Brooklyn Public Library’s Annual PowerUP! Business Plan Competition, which served as “a catalyst for propelling me forward.” The competition also motivated her to put together an extensive plan, which in turn helped Tortolani connect with architect Deborah Mariotti of MariottiStudio, who would remain by her side for the next five years as they dealt with both the excitement of planning and disappointment of setbacks and spaces falling through.

 

 

But eventually, Tortolani tapped the vein of two trends. First, she kept her eye on Gowanus, a neighborhood she’d lived in since moving to the city and loved for its grit and industrial feel. “As an entrepreneur you want to go into a place before it blows up. I was able to sense that this place was going to change.”

Working as a holistic health coach, a massage therapist, and a yoga instructor, Tortolani also saw the way wellness practices — on both an individual and organizational level — were the first to go when the recession hit, but watched as there was a refocusing on self-care in recent years. With cityWell, she hopes to encourage wellness as routine. “That was part of my concept,” she shares, “making self-care and wellness a part of everyday life, not just a luxury.

 

 

CityWell is not without luxury, though, catering to any number of boutique experiences. A la carte massages and body scrubs are offered, as well as elaborate packages such as the Mini Retreat, which includes private use of the space, a yoga session, a full body massage, a clay mask, and more.

But during open hours, which are currently offered four days a week, with two community hour time slots priced at only $20 for a two hour session, those with a limited budget are also free to escape from, as Liz puts it, “the fire of the city.”

Most open hours are all-gender, but on Sunday’s women-only hours, I and about a dozen other women roamed the space, pausing from our ablutions to sip tea or flip through books on yoga and meditation. Tortolani has picked each and every element of the simple, curvaceous space with care, from the deep blue of the rain showers, to the custom-built cement sink, to natural bath products (and the aforementioned entryway candle) from Brooklyn-based Apotheke. “This place came from my brain,” says Tortolani with pride. “I was a part of every single part of that place being built. Down to the fact that we picked out every single material on our own, my architect and I.”

As the clock ticked past 5 and I reluctantly prepared to leave my newfound sanctuary and venture back out into the cold, Liz was animatedly discussing massage with another open hour attendee who had inquired about sports massage. No, Tortolani wasn’t a sports therapist… but could she just offer the woman five minutes of deep-tissue massage, free of charge?

Tortolani has a staff of four, including two massage therapists, and spends four days of the week tending to the wellness of grateful urbanites. “As a massage therapist, you work on one person at a time,” she says. “You can’t tend to as many people as you’d like. I felt like if I built cityWell, I could create a space where one can come and take care of their body. I don’t have to actually physically be there.” That certainly won’t stop her from trying, though. Tortolani hopes to hold open hours on every day of the week and she has her sights set on cityWell Paris in 2020.

New Yorkers, bathtime just got a whole lot better.

 

 

 

Visit cityWell brooklyn online: http://citywellbrooklyn.com

Filed Under: Park Slope Life Tagged With: bathhouse, Gowanus, massage, sauna, steam, yoga

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