June Newsletter
Happy June PSA Members,
We have seen the spa landscape evolve over the past years from a solitary guest experience centered around individual treatments, to an important social setting where guests come to spas with an expectation of connection and shared experiences.
From social sauna sessions, to sound healing experiences, bathhouses, sober socializing, wellness memberships, and educational workshops, at the heart of this shift is a craving for community and social gathering where wellbeing is experienced together. This growing desire for community is fueled in part by the intensity of our digital life and the need to unwind, let go, and disconnect.
As leaders in this industry, we can fall short of nourishing ourselves while giving so abundantly to our guests and staff. Spa leaders work hard to create programming for this wellbeing shift, and at the same time, there is tremendous value in leaning towards, and into, our own spa community for connection and shared experiences. Connection is the heart of Pacific Spa Alliance, and this is exactly what we intend to do at our trade show on Monday, June 22nd at Archer Hotel in Napa.
We prioritize meaningful interaction in everything we do, and we look forward to an abundant day of great connection, discovery, fun, laughter, wonderful food, a sparkling wine toast, and an amazing raffle! If you're not yet registered, don't miss out, email PSA.
Lastly, don't miss our Vendor Spotlights below: Treve, an exciting new brand launching at our trade show, and invaluable advice for therapists from expert massage trainer Tonia Lach.
Sending our very best,
Karen and Kimberly
World Wellness Weekend, 9/18 - 9/20
World Wellness Weekend is a global non-profit association and activation taking place in 190 countries with 15,000 venues. WOW! Pacific Spa Alliance is excited to be part of it!
Interested in volunteering on our world wellness planning committee? Email us PSA, and read more about World Wellness Weekend here.
Auberge Du Soleil Wellbeing Collective Series
Cecily Braden, founder of The Lymphatic Brush, is offering a two day professional training at Auberge du Soleil on 6/24 and 6/25 from 9-6 each day. It’s rare Cecily is in our area, so we encourage you to send someone from your team. Sign up is directly through Cecily’s website Cecily's Training.
For questions, contact Helen Brown at helen.brown@auberge.com
Samantha Huemer, Founder Treve
What led you to create Trêve?
Hi PSA Members, I'm Samantha, a master’s-trained functional nutritionist, professional certified coach, and founder of Trêve. After nearly two decades in clinical, spa, and wellness settings including One Medical, COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali, and Miraval in Tucson, I saw a clear pattern: as women enter midlife, their skin changes, often becoming drier, more sensitive, and less resilient, while the products they have relied on stop working.
I experienced this myself, which led me to coin the term The Skin Shift and create Trêve. The Trêve Method is a simple three-step routine designed to support skin through this transition with thoughtfully selected ingredients that prioritize skin health, resilience, and well-aging.
How is your approach to skin care unique?
Trêve is built on the belief that healthy skin is a reflection of overall health, especially during The Skin Shift, the hormonally driven changes of perimenopause and midlife. Created specifically for women navigating this transition, The Trêve Method is a streamlined three-step routine featuring the Vital Cleanser, Vital Peptide Essence, and Vital Facial Serum, each designed to support hydration, barrier function, collagen, and skin resilience. Together, these essentials help support evolving skin with fewer ingredients, higher standards, and no unnecessary complexity.
What drives your passion and keeps you motivated?
What motivates me most is helping women understand what’s happening to their skin during midlife and creating solutions that meet them where they are. These changes are real and biologically driven, and I believe skincare should evolve alongside the skin to properly support its needs at each stage.
I’m also passionate about advancing greater transparency and safety in the beauty industry through both formulation and advocacy for stronger cosmetic safety standards. Ultimately, I’m motivated by helping women embrace a well-aging approach to skin health that supports and strengthens the skin’s natural biology rather than trying to fix, fight, or correct it.
Tonia Lach, Founder The Body Journey
Tell us about The Body Journey and how you got started in massage therapy training.
The Body Journey Massage Experience® grew out of repeatedly noticing that massage can be much more than muscle release. A great massage can feel like a concert that leaves a person floating, a meditation, or even a spiritual experience, and I wanted a way to intentionally create that kind of journey for clients.
I began practicing massage in 1992, when massage was still considered an art form, and over the years blended advanced training in multiple modalities, including sound healing, with my own creative techniques to develop a massage experience.
What is your approach to training massage therapists in a spa setting?
Central to my teaching is the understanding that when a guest's mind can let go, the body will surrender and the chi will flow. There are many ways to help the mind relax, beginning with educating guests about what to expect during the session, maintaining a consistent rhythm, incorporating intentional pauses, using over-and under-enveloping strokes that gently confuse the mind into letting go, and applying sound healing, to name a few.
My classes are highly experiential, allowing therapists to feel the effects of these techniques in their own bodies and minds first, so they can confidently and authentically recreate them with their guests.
What is your advice for spa directors and owners on maintaining therapist's longevity?
My biggest advice is to encourage your therapists to regularly receive similar bodywork that they give. If they seem burnt out, get them on the table for a trade, keep feeding them new techniques so they have an ever-expanding toolbox to draw from, and encourage them to trust their intuition and creativity. When therapists are supported in bringing their unique gifts into each session, the work becomes so deeply rewarding and fun that it remains sustainable for decades and hardly feels like work at all.
