If you’re a regular reader of women’s magazines or you like to keep up with what’s new in the world of health and beauty, chances are you’ve come across the buzz surrounding Hot Stone Massage. Even though this treatment,  designed to promote fantastic wellbeing and therapeutic results, has quite recently caught on and is now being offered in salons and spas across the globe, you’d be wrong to think that today’s beauty experts are its founders. In fact, stone therapy goes back to ancient times where many cultures were practicing it as early as 1,000 years ago – from the Japanese women who wore warmed stones around their stomachs to aid digestion, to the Romans who would bath in hot water before lying on cold stone slabs to stimulate circulation and re-energise their minds.  For a treatment that spans so many years and gains new fans every day, there’s no denying that Hot Stone Massage is HOT!

LaStone Therapy – Hot Stone Massage

There are numerous versions of Hot Stone Massage, but many top salons and spas such as the Buty Salon in Hammersmith and Fulham, offer a more spiritual or metaphysical method with LaStone Therapy. This is a trademarked style of massage developed in 1993 by Mary Nelson, a massage therapist from Tucson who began to get visions and verbal guidance from her Native American Spirit guide. “With each day’s work, I was intuitively led to use more stones, and developed a method of progressively opening up the energy channels (chakras) of the body,” she says.

Why use stones?

The stones used for treatments  are specifically chosen for their therapeutic properties such as basalt (for heating) which has been polished and shaped flat and smooth by rivers and oceans and marble(for cooling)  which stays cold and absorbs body heat.  LaStone therapists believe that the  natural stones that they use contain the earth’s healing energy and due to their varying weight, size and temperature, have the added benefit of enabling easy relaxation of the muscles, allowing the therapist to apply deeper pressure, if desired, with little manual effort.

What can I expect during LaStone Therapy?

The massage therapist often begins by applying oil to the body which allows the hot stones to glide smoothly along the muscles and helps warm them up. While you’re sitting, the therapist places two rows of warm stones on the treatment table in alignment with both sides of your spine before covering them with a soft towel to protect you from the heat. You will then be assisted to lay back down on the stones. The therapist will then place stones of varying weights on your body’s key energy channels, including the seven main chakras. Smaller sized pebbles are then placed between your toes with flat stones in your palms while the therapist then uses both hot and cool stones as an extension of her hand while massaging your body.  The physiological benefits of alternating between hot and cold to the body have long been scientifically and medically proven and while the hot stones help improve circulation and calm the nervous system to aid deep relaxation, the cold stones  increase the lymph flow of waste materials around the body causing a detoxifying effect. This, along with the sedative effect that the LaStone Therapy has on the mind, means the whole body and mind becomes rebalanced, energised and calm.

Who would benefit from LaStone Therapy?

This treatment can be isolated to specific areas of injury or full body to experience the total mind, body and spiritual benefits. It is ideal for people who feel anxious or stressed or those who want to unknot muscles that have tightened through exercise or work and it is a fabulous way to give comfort to those suffering from back pain, poor circulation, osteoarthritis, insomnia and depression.

When should you not have a LaStone therapy?

The therapist will not treat those with infectious skin disease, rash or open wounds, immediately after surgery, radiation or chemotherapy -  unless recommended by your doctor. It is also not advisable for people prone to blood clots as there’s a risk of blood clots being dislodged. If you have heart disease or are pregnant, check with your doctor first. LaStone Therapy should not be carried out directly over bruises, inflamed, unhealed wounds, tumors, abdominal hernia or areas of recent fracture.

How can I book to have a LaStone Therapy treatment and how much is it?

To have a consultation and to book a treatment, call the Buty Salon on 020 7731 4080 (Fulham) and speak to one of our therapists specially trained in LaStone Therapy.

…………………….Price: £79 for 1hr 15.

To book a hot stone treatment click here – Hot stone Massage