MOBILE SPA'S...THE WAY TO GO!

Mobile Spa’s have taken off in the beginning of the 21st century. In 2008, over five hundred Mobile Spas advertise services throughout the United States. In 2006 & 2007, there were approximately 300 registered mobile spas in the US respectively. When I started The Pampered Spirit in 2005, there were roughly 100 mobile spas. Between January and March of 09, I found an additional 35 Mobile Spa’s in the US. Why have mobile spas increased so rapidly?

One attributing factor is the increase in wellness education throughout the media. One result of this outreach leads people to discuss the benefits of massage with their doctors. In July of 2008, thirteen percent of adult Americans reported discussing massage therapy with their doctors or healthcare providers. Sixty percent of those doctors either strongly recommended or encouraged massage therapy (1). Thank’s Doc!

A company offering on-site chair massage breaks instead of a donut break is a well needed… on-going campaign. Meeting quarterly quotas, rewarding hard work, boasting morale and preventing injury are some of the more common reasons companies offer on-site massage. Some companies may even receive a discount on their worker’s comp insurance! Kudos to Corporate America and Small Business’s for supporting a Mobile Spa.

The membership-based massage businesses have attributed to the number of people receiving their first massage. Between 2006 & 2007 1 in 4 American’s had received their first massage (2). Could the Massage Envy’s and Hand & Stone Companies take credit for this? I think so. You know what they say…try everything once and twice if you like it! Maybe you like it better at home!

Many people are realizing they need and require regular massage to keep up the pace, put in the long hours, maintain good mental health and relieve the pain and stress in their bodies. Time is our greatest luxury and many of us feel we do not have the time to go to the spa but feel we will benefit from a massage. A mobile spa therapist that arrives at your home with all the amenities is priceless. Imagine not having to race home from a spa so you could relax; you are all ready home!

There are several reasons people prefer a mobile spa to a location spa. The following is a Top 10 list of why many Go Mobile:

10. You travel a lot and would love a massage at your hotel.
9. You are an Employer looking to reduce absenteeism and boast morale.
8. You like to relax in the privacy of their home.
7. You are disabled or terminally ill and cannot drive.
6. You are a caregiver and feel more comfortable being home.
5. You are a Mom who enjoys massage after the kids are asleep and gets a good night rest herself.
4. You work a ridiculous amount of hours.
3. You are a Man who does not do the spa and robe thing.
2. You are a groups celebrating a special occasion or gathering for a spa party.
1. People with a lot of stress and little free time.

Mobile Spa’s have increased so rapidly because society is better-educated, mass marketing of massage; media coverage and greater support from the medical community. More and more people recognize massage as an important element to their overall health and looking for spa alternatives to suit their busy lifestyles. Mobile Spa’s, will save time, decrease environmental stress and bring you longer lasting peace and health.

1.AMTA Fact Finding Sheet; 2008
2. U.S Department of Labor ;2007



Bridget Turnbach is the owner of The Pampered Spirit Mobile Massage and Spa located in NJ.
To find out more about The Pampered Spirit visit thepamperedspiritnj.com

Experience Therpaists Needed

The Pampered Spirit is expanding it’s services and increasing visibility every day.
This is an exciting company with top notch therapists and technician’s, where experience and talent is recognized and appreciated.

If you would like to join our team, The Pampered Spirit is hiring in all modalities of massage therapy, yoga instruction, nail and skin care.

Providers needed in the following cities and surrounding areas:
LBI
Toms River
Forked River
Piscataway
Paramus
Ridgewood
Bergen County
Please visit the website http://thepamperedspiritnj.com/ and contact us via email at mail@thepamperedspiritnj.com

Online Scheduling Software for Mobile Service Providers

In today’s world, we schedule appointments on line. The Spa industry is no exception. To date scheduling for mobile spa appointments continue to present several challenges:

~multiple phone calls to providers and clients,
~mapping routes
~ missing same day appointments
~ Questionable availability of contractors/employees.

Mobile Spa Company Online Booking offers a solution to these challenges. Now you can schedule multiple appointments outside of a physical location.

Mobile Spa Company Online Booking considers the client’s location for services, set’s spatial parameters, locates providers, therapists and technicians within a set area, and compensates for travel time and distance to location. The software is totally adaptable, user friendly and secure.

With Mobile Booking, your mobile business would effectively expand coverage area while continuing to provide value and service in the comfort and convenience of one’s home, office, hotel suite or venue; alleviating the excessive phone work to schedule appointments, guessing provider’s schedules and turning away new business.

Because Time is our Greatest Luxury!

mail@thepamperedspiritnj.com
http://www.thepamperedspiritnj.com/
Bridget Turnbach is the owner of The Pampered Spirit Mobile Massage & Spa Company and the developer of Mobile Spa Company Software.

You Are A Perfect Gift!

The month of December always brings warm memories and anticipation for things yet to come. My family celebrates Christmas. I think of Christmas as the coming of the light. There is excitement in the air. No matter what is going on personally I turn my thoughts to others and the spirit of giving.
What can I do for others? What do people really need? The answer has never been tangible. I believe the answer is love, time and peace. Love from your family and friends, time to spend with those you love and peace of mind to enjoy the moment.
How do we give the best of ourselves when we may not always feel these emotions we wish for others? Take a deep breath, enjoy a happy memory or visualize a new one, breathe again and enjoy the moment. You have just given yourself Love, time to remember and the peace of mind to do so. Now go out and spread the joy, tell others of your secret and live by example. The rest will take care of itself. Allow yourself to enjoy more time and block schedule smaller increments of time for the rest of those thougts that consume of all too often . Life is to short.

Peace, Health and Love to all this holiday season!

Bridget Turnbach is the owner of The Pampered Spirit Mobile Massage & Spa Co. Time by yourself for yourself. Spa Treatments in the comfort of your home, office or hotel suite. Traveling NJ.
http://thepamperedspiritnj.com

End of Life Massage

In the fall of 08 I was called upon to do a massage on a women suffering from cancer, as a favor to a my client wanting to do something nice for her friend. I accepted the honor not knowing the extent or progression of her cancer. I was soon to find out.
I mentally and physically prepared myself before the appointment. It was the only massage I booked for that day.
Upon arriving I took a long deep clearing breath on the harvest decorated porch. Rang the bell and waited....
My client Nancy answered the door and thanked me for coming. The house was quite and smelled of warm memories. Beautiful green healthy plants adorned the upstairs front window in the living room. I set up my table there. Nancy told me her friend was very weak and frail and has some lesions on her back she is embarrassed of. Nancy covered the lesions with a washcloth and surgical tape. I said I understood and asked Nancy if she would she help me help her on the table.
Noreen walks into the room and introduces herself. She apologies several times for her slow and belabored movements. I let her know right off the bat that I was there for her and I will make this experience a comfortable and enjoyable one. Nancy assures her that I was the best and have worked with cancer patients before. With Noreen on the table Nancy makes her exit.
I asked Noreen what it was I could do for her. She told me that she likes her hands and feet massaged. I asked her if she has ever had a professional massage before. She said no but was very excited to have her first and what would be only massage. Noreen's hearing was not good. I imagine it was the pain medication. This was not going to be easy she was so sick and obviously in terrible pain. I again asked Noreen what I could do for her and more specifically what she would like my intention to be for her for this massage. "Do you want me to help you let go or do you want to remain present?" "Oh no she says I am very much present and want to stay that way" I honored her request.
Noreen breathed in deep gasps the air rattled in her chest and a gurgling sound vibrated her throat. At times there was an odor I could not put my finger on. I dabbed lavender oil under my nose. I continued the massage her skin was so paper thin.
Thoughts started to flood my head like...The will to live is so strong even in the presence of death! Why would you want to stay present here being so sick. I pushed these thoughts away during the massage and have comtemplated them often since.
I helped Noreen turn over to massage her back the washcloth covering the broken skin on her shoulders had shifted. I did my best to cover them back up but the tape that once held the washcloth in place would not adhere. Then I knew the smell of rotting flesh. I could have cried but I stayed grounded. The smell in the room was totally unavoidable now. At one point I thought she was asleep or as close to rest as she could be; then her heart rate increased and I knew she was having a hard time breathing. The words were on my tongue to suggest we should end now when Noreen beat me to it. I helped her up to a sitting position and got her some water. She moved to the couch and Nancy came back into the room.
Noreen thought the massage was wonderful and was genuinely appreciative. I thought Noreen was a graceful person, wise and older then her years. She said she would like another massage one day. Noreen did not want to die. She offered to make tea and asked if I cared for a cup. I could not stay I had to get home. All I wanted to do was go home and see my family and take a good look at what I have. I appreciated the offer but I was spent. I ran out of there although I did not want to seem that way.
Back in my car I took a deep breath and thanked God for the strength and said a pray for Noreen.
Noreen had her massage on a Thursday, she passed away on Saturday the same week.
I was honored to give Noreen a massage.
I hope to meet again someday too Noreen!

My first Mammography!

It’s cold and gray outside, typical February morning. My appointment is not till 2:30. The waiting is making me anxious! In the shower I frantically start doing a self-breast exam and begin to worry if everything is normal; was that lump there last month? I’m dressed; it’s 12:30 p.m. I run a few errands around town and find myself forgetting simple things like; my cell phone and the coffee on the counter at WaWa. I desperately need some more caffeine. I am starting to sweat and I am not wearing any deodorant. I play around on the computer till 2:05. Time to leave, the wind blows the car door against my shoulder; ouch! I arrive at the Brick Imaging Center at 2:20.
The receptionists’ were extremely polite. Everyone at the center appeared warm with sweet dispositions. I filled out paperwork with a pen in the shape of a rose. More sweetness! Next, I am greeted by my technician; the person who in a few short minutes will be lifting, moving and pressing my breasts onto a plate. I am lead through two curtains to a pseudo dressing room where I undress and re-dress in a poncho split up the front and split slightly higher on the sides. I am glad I wore my “big” jeans for the occasion! Now for the wait….there is two other women in the room with me dressed in pastel capes with pocketbook swung over their arms. After only five minutes I complain out loud to my robed comrades, “Boy, how long do we have to wait in hear”? I realized at that moment it had only been a few minutes. I guess I couldn't’t stand the silence. I began to get into a good Ladies Home Journal article on cheating spouses when I hear, “Mrs. Turnbach, come with me”. (Hold on one minute, it dawned on me this is the second time since I’ve arrived I have been called Mrs. Turnbach, Do they HAVE to keep reminding me of how old I am and that I am here for a mammography!)
The Test:
The technician could not have been nicer. We talked about hair. She liked my hair cut. I said, “I did not really do anything with it today” (you know, no reason because I was just being checked for CANCER!) Her hair was thin, shoulder length with bad bangs, she said she always had the bangs and was considering growing them out. She wanted the reverse bob like me but did not think it would look good. (As much as I enjoyed talking to her, I’m thinking is it over yet? Are the pictures being taken as we speak? Is there someone else coming into the room to man handle my breasts like raw meatballs in a busy Italian restaurant?) My eyes begin to dart around and I said to the sweet tech, “O.K.”. She must have known I was then ready. The instruction begins, “Swing the right side of the cape over your shoulder please” Miss nice girl with bad hair said. Boob is exposed! Who cares, I have no problem topless. (For some this may be embarrassing and nervousness may set in) I just did not know, since it was my first time, what to do in this position? Do I stand straight, move my breast to the right, and turn sideways? Then the lady gently lays her soft hands on my breast and kneads the tissue (three times; top bottom and side) forward onto the squishy breast plate. The test was a breeze. Two pictures each breast. The first picture is taken head on; first right breast, then left. The pad your breast laid on was soft and warm. Watch out though for your ribcage that leans up against the metal of the machine, that’s chilly, Burr! The clear plastic plate came down on my breast, squishing it like a sandwich. I glanced down and notice numbers 1, 5, 10, 15 on the “breast plate” Mine filled it all the way to the 15! Not bad I thought (like I even knew what these numbers meant). Hurt? No! Weird? Yes! Especially if you look down at your breast tissue and see it in a way that you HAVE NEVER SEEN A BREAST LOOK BEFORE. Not even Picasso himself could masterfully arrange this form.
Back in the waiting room…
I open a Christmas issue of Redbook and WA-LA! A before and after picture of a lady, with thin Blond hair, with the reverse boob (oops, I meant bob, I will leave that slip) I rip out the picture for what’s her name because of the similarity. I am still in my super hero cape! Wait wait wait…, 20 more minutes. “Mrs. Turnbach”, (I am used to being called by my sur name at this point, “Yess!” “Come with me”. We step into a room and I am barely through the doorway before the nurse says; “Everything is fine, you have healthy breast tissue, we will see you back… (Is she kidding? fine? I went through all of this and I am fine, this is surreal, I was prepared for the worst, hair loss, reconstruction if necessary, buying everything with pink on it, when is the walk?) In 5 years at age 40, 35 is just a base line. Then after the age of 40 it is once a year, O.K.” I respond with a big, “O.K., O.K.”! Yippee, I trot back to the dressing room/waiting room. There was some baby powder I took advantage of since you have to have the test with no deodorant on or perfumes. Dressed, my black Coach bag dusted with powder, I leave the office but not before finding Miss Nice Person to give her the picture of the Redbook Model. She seemed to genuinely appreciate the gesture and said she may just get the nerve to try the new style one day. Then she asked me if I cut hair? “No”, I said.
Off I go…back in my truck I felt dizzy…where am I going? Hey, who cares, I do not have cancer, Thank God! THANK GOD!
Breast Cancer awareness has significantly increased over the past several years. In 2007, 32 million dollars was raised for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Perhaps all this awareness has frightened some women believing; I could have breast cancer. This may or may not be the case. The best detection of this potentially fatal and life changing illness is the Mammogram! So GO! GO every year, DO NOT wait, there is nothing to be worried about; See!


Bridget Turnbach is the owner of The Pampered Spirit Mobile Massage & Spa Co. Bringing the spa experience to you in the comfort and convenience of your home, office or hotel suite.
http://thepamperedspiritnj.com

Massaging The Masters of Metal

I was subcontracted to perform table and chair massage backstage at the Tweeter Center in Camden NJ for The Masters of Metal Tour. What a blast! Besides the fact that I have never been backstage before at a concert let along meeting some old school Rockers. The bands on tour are; Testament, Heaven & Hell, MotorHead & Judas Priest. I was right back in 1987 when these bands were popular for me and we wore black tee-shirts and big hair with tight pants & wigwams. Good Times Good Times.

Back in 2008 with stardust flying around it was just another day at work for most. Backstage people were mellow, some looked soooo tired. Their work is hard setting up the stage, lighting, sound etc. Amazing the coordination and meeting of the minds of the production teams, Live Nation, Band Managers, Band Members.

One of the most important members of the team, in my opinion, I met; the Tour Bus Driver. 18 hours straight from Minnesota to NJ to then help set up for opening night this dude really needed a massage. He was my longest client of the night topping off at 35 minutes for a table massage.

My partner in massage for the evening was Gina. I love Gina she knows whats up. How to work a crowd and similar motivated attitude. We figured since were both here why not double up on the massages. So when Billy from MotorHead got off stage he came for a massage. He complained of neck pain from headbanging and low back pain. This was one of the biggest dudes I had ever worked on. Gina and I both went to town on the Monster of Metal.

Everyone was generous and polite and we did have some great background music to boot.
Tracey from Live Nation was our contact person and she was happy with the services provided! Yes! I hope to continue to massage at the show!