Lifehouse receives “cancer aware” accreditation

Lifehouse Spa in Essex has become the first UK spa to be certified as “cancer aware” by standardising body Wellness for Cancer. The body has teamed up with Spafinder Wellness 365 to create an accreditation, which will recognise spas around the world that provide safe and therapeutic services.

Lifehouse has been recognised for its Recovery Treatment, which features a technique called HEARTS to tailor the treatment to the client’s needs, and its specialist therapists that have been trained by the NHS Christie Trust.

Sue Davis, Lifehouse’s resident naturopath, said, “To ensure we deliver treatments that make our guests feel safe and nurtured we have invested in specific training to develop our spa team’s expertise and give them the confidence to tailor therapies to match guests’ varying symptoms and degrees of cancer.”

There has been a growing interest among the spa and wellness community in treating clients with cancer, or offering recuperation retreats and packages for cancer patients in spas. UK Spa Association vice chair John Holman discussed how to massage clients with cancer at Professional Beauty 2015 at Excel last month, and the topic was a key issue at Spa Life.

Researchers in the US are studying the effects of massage on breast cancer patients, to see if it can help reduce fatigue. The study of 72 breast cancer patients of various ages is being carried out by scientists at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, headed up by Dr Mark Hyman Rapaport, chair of Emory’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science.

He said, “We decided to look at massage therapy for cancer fatigue because cancer-related fatigue is one of the most prevalent and debilitating symptoms experienced by people with cancer.”

Dr Mylin Torres, also part of the research team and associate professor at Emory’s Department of Radiation Oncology, said, “We believe that there are many positive effects to be gained by therapeutic massage and we hope to prove that, among other biological advantages, massage may diminish the incapacitation that cancer-related fatigue can cause for our patients.”

Lifehouse Spa in Essex has become the first UK spa to be certified as “cancer aware” by standardising body Wellness for Cancer. The body has teamed up with Spafinder Wellness 365 to create an accreditation, which will recognise spas around the world that provide safe and therapeutic services.

Lifehouse has been recognised for its Recovery Treatment, which features a technique called HEARTS to tailor the treatment to the client’s needs, and its specialist therapists that have been trained by the NHS Christie Trust.

Sue Davis, Lifehouse’s resident naturopath, said, “To ensure we deliver treatments that make our guests feel safe and nurtured we have invested in specific training to develop our spa team’s expertise and give them the confidence to tailor therapies to match guests’ varying symptoms and degrees of cancer.”

There has been a growing interest among the spa and wellness community in treating clients with cancer, or offering recuperation retreats and packages for cancer patients in spas. UK Spa Association vice chair John Holman discussed how to massage clients with cancer at Professional Beauty 2015 at Excel last month, and the topic was a key issue at Spa Life.

Researchers in the US are studying the effects of massage on breast cancer patients, to see if it can help reduce fatigue. The study of 72 breast cancer patients of various ages is being carried out by scientists at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, headed up by Dr Mark Hyman Rapaport, chair of Emory’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science.

He said, “We decided to look at massage therapy for cancer fatigue because cancer-related fatigue is one of the most prevalent and debilitating symptoms experienced by people with cancer.”

Dr Mylin Torres, also part of the research team and associate professor at Emory’s Department of Radiation Oncology, said, “We believe that there are many positive effects to be gained by therapeutic massage and we hope to prove that, among other biological advantages, massage may diminish the incapacitation that cancer-related fatigue can cause for our patients.”