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July '08 | Spas for the Mind and Body - Article by Travel Alberta

Pamper your body with a hay bath prepared with indigenous materials from Alberta's cowboy-country foothills, and then expand your mind with pulsating light at a mind spa. Or you can do it the other way around. Either way, you can unwind and soothe your mind.

How to Be Sublime

One of Calgary's newest spas, Sublime Energy Medical Spa, offers a unique combination of treatment alternatives with a distinctly Alberta flair. Developed by Alberta native and Calgary doctor Kathryn Dundas, Sublime is focused on providing integrated services that combine the best of both modern and traditional therapies.

"We are trying to and create a bridge between the physical and the spiritual," Dr. Dundas says. "The idea is to provide whole body and spirit care."

In developing the unique services at her spa, Dr. Dundas looked to traditional European spas for inspiration. In the birthplace of the spa industry, she found ideas that helped shape a spa that would blend her knowledge of western medicine with the best natural therapies.

East Meets West

As well as traditional spa treatments like massage, Sublime offers medical services including nutritional counseling, testing and support for patients undergoing treatments for diseases like cancer. This is in addition to the energy work, private yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, shamanic counseling, meditation, personal training and healing touch treatments on tap.

Customers can choose spa services based on their own preferences, or get the spa staff to personalize and tailor their treatments.

The Healing Power of Hay

One of Sublime's signature treatments combines principles from some of the finest and most respected European spa traditions with a very Alberta ingredient – hay.

There's a lot of folklore about the rejuvenating properties of hay, some of which stems from stories of weary farmers who spent the night, exhausted, sleeping on the hay they'd harvested, only to awake completely refreshed.

Once Dr. Dundas became convinced of hay's healing properties, she began thinking of ways to use it to help her patients. "Hay itself has many different therapeutic properties," Dr. Dundas says. "When heated, the essential oils in the hay are purifying and detoxifying." It's also known to be good for arthritis.

Try a Roll in Ze Hay

When you go for a Roll in Ze Hay, one of Sublime's signature treatments, you won't actually be touching water, though you'll be immersed in it. A hay pack is used to surround clients, who float, cocoon-like, in the water for 20 minutes. The soft pack system that's used is similar to the effect of being on a waterbed.

"Physically, you are surrounded by the hay and you are floating. Lots of people fall asleep, " Dr. Dundas says.

Special essential oils help relax clients and contribute to the purification and detoxification, and the process gives the metabolism a boost, too.

Pumpkin Peel Pampers

For customers, the process is not only relaxing, but also refreshing. "Twenty minutes in this soft-pack system is equivalent to a two-hour sleep," Dr. Dundas says. "You come out feeling fresh and rejuvenated." The treatment helps with inflammation in the body, and people with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis benefit from having the pressure taken off their joints.

Another unique made-in-Alberta treatment is Sublime's Pumpkin Enzyme Peel. "It's fully organic, and gently exfoliates the skin," Dr. Dundas says. As a natural repair therapy, it provides plenty of antioxidants and beta-carotene that help rejuvenate skin without being as harsh or irritating as chemical peels or glycolic acid.

"It tingles a little bit, but it's not aggressive," Dr. Dundas says. "And you still get good results."