Spa therapies

Weekly tasks

• On Monday, I will send you out Chapter 24 of Salvo, S. (2007). Massage Therapy - principles and practices (3rd ed.). Missouri, USA: Saunders Elsevier. The subject of this chapter is Hydrotherapy and spa applications. Read through this chapter.
• Makes notes on what the therapeutic physiological effects of heat, cold and hydrostatic pressure are, and their uses in spa therapies.
• Which of the massage applications considered could be incorporated within a private massage practice? What would the costs, benefits and disadvantages of each of these be?
  

Week 5 - History and background

This week the spa therapies module begins.

Tasks for the week

1. Read this article on the history of spas.
   As you can see the term spa is somewhat broader than what you previously imagined.
   
   
2. Explore About.com's spa resource.
   
   
3. Use the above resources to answer the following questions (keep these for future reference). I recommend the use of a table for the first two questions.
   
• What is the difference between a traditional spa, a retreat spa, a resort spa and a day spa?
  
• What types of spa treatments and experiences might you expect to be provided in each of the types of spas discussed above?
• What is spa etiquette, and what are the principles of spa etiquette?