Ambience Stone Therapy Centre

An Earth Stones Energy Experience story for the heart

a description of how LaStone "Original Body" Therapy feels

In the therapy room, the lights are dimmed, music drifts into my conciousness, calming my thoughts. I lie, covered by towels, on the couch, on hidden sheep-skins. The Original Body LaStone Therapy begins . . .

a breeze swoops over my whole body, an unusual earthy, herby scent fills the air around me, a swish of air goes here and there all around me, from feet to head. This must be the smudging ceremony . . .

my small concerns are released from me and dispersed. I let go of my mundane reality, my mind steps into a different world, a slower pace . . .

I sit up! looking with slight surprise and interest, at some stones placed between my feet.
I lay back onto a flat river-bed of stones. Heat begins to creep into my back, into my bones. Some cold is precisely penetrating the ache in my back. A gentle touch alights upon my heart centre and stomach, I breathe air in deeply and breathe out my stress, feeling my back relax a little further into the curious comfort of the flat stones. I feel petal-like touches landing, now here, now there, on my body, on my feet; a touch no heavier than feathers settling on my hands, arms, hair. Before I float away, my body becomes connected by a pathway of stones. I feel grounded, nurtured, settled.

A small, smooth warm stone appears on my forehead, my worries dissolve,
I float away to a beautiful, good place.

I begin to feel heated stones slowly glide onto my lower legs and feet. At least I assume they are stones, they feel like liquid warmth, how graceful, how unusual. My body begins to relax some more, I welcome this melting feeling.

My feet are gorgeously massaged, in a way I have never felt before.

Luxurious, heated, generous voluptuous stones!

It feels like I'm swimming with the stones in a slow moving river, their generous, satin surfaces deeply caressing my body with warmth.

Then heat and cold are traveling together, my brain is totally focused upon this new experience; my daily worries banished. The stones seem alive, I am getting to know them and they me. Comforting stone forms settle into my hands and flow up my arms to my shoulders where all my daily burdens and tensions are carried. Points of warmth gently tuck around the contours of my body, supporting me.

I am surrounded by stones, as though in a floating world . . .

But, oh no, the stones are disappearing, and fast! My hands are momentarily bereft, but then reassured with a gentle stroke of pressure, it's ok. I turn over onto my front. My face breathing through a comfy hole. I catch sight briefly of a big lump of softly illuminated rose quartz stone sitting on the floor on a sheepskin.

My eyes close again, I am back in the river of liquid stones. I step into this river-massage,
feet first, then up to my knees, then in further, my back gratefully relaxing into the deepest massage I have felt, yet without heavy pressure, dissolving my tense muscles.
The global music is fabulous; I could be anywhere in the world. I've forgotten my worries.

A spoken word introduces me to cold marble, I feel it work into troubled areas. It's like smooth vanilla ice cream after the hot toffee sauce. I smile, then a wave of seemingly many hands, smoothly draw moving patterns; I no longer know the difference between hand or stone, all is one with my body. I drift almost to sleep.
How on earth can stones feel this good? . . . then the stones fly away again.
I turn over onto my back again, my face upturned refreshingly.

Then what's this; an uplifting breeze of scented blossoms revives my face. Warm lines draw up my shoulders, up my neck to my head, the final kinks are eased out, I sense, rather than feel,
a feather-light, cool stone alight on my forehead, my mind opens up like a fan. Colours appear in my mind's eye. I travel to another place in my imagination; a beautiful space.

Mellow sound waves embrace and expand my awareness, my mind focuses. Finally my hand is held, a spoken word introduces me to beautiful, half-moon shaped, marble stones, they smooth up my inner forearms, then land in my open hands, to hold. Their chilled temperature wakens me. I'm enlivened, refreshed, focused. The therapist is smiling too.

The treatment is over. I want to stay, but it's time to get up. My back is balanced and relaxed, my body feels whole, at peace with itself. Familiar aches are noticable only by their absence.
I drink the water I am given. As I walk to my car, there is still heat, deeply nestling in my muscles.
It feels good to be alive: an unforgettable, amazing experience.

You know until you've tried it . . .
let the stones gracefully re-connect you to nature . . .

Geo-Thermo-Therapy : Factual Temperature information for your mind

You've heard of hot stones and perhaps not of cold stones, but did you realise that this includes gentle warmth and subtle cool as well? Each treatment is as unique as you are. British people can be quite timid about trying a new experience, yet ladies of 30+ 40+ 50+ 60+ return again and again for the original LaStone Therapy, why? . . .

because the treatments are tailored for any age and for any state of health.

The temperatures are selected based upon your age and state of health. An olympic athlete will receive a completely different treatment from that given to an elderly lady, but surprisingly, both can be cared for by the Stones! How?

GEO - THERMO - THERAPY (temperatures via massage stones) can be like sending your body to the gym, whilst you recline on the couch! Temperature works wonders, with no need for heavy pressure massage. Geo-Thermo-Therapy can be tailored towards remedial muscular pain relief ~ or towards a relaxing and uplifting Spa experience. Both are possible, and more.

LaStone Therapy is more than just a relaxing massage: REMEDIAL MASSAGE STROKES
are applied by satin smooth stones and fabulous FUSION STROKES of stones/hands/forearms,
to relieve specific physical conditions; e.g. frozen shoulder.
Improvements are achieved much faster than by non-temperature methods.

What do the four temperatures feel like?

Like Summer and Spring - Winter and Autumn

Heated Stones feel like relaxing on a beach, sunbathing in the hot Summer sun.
Warm Stones which caress and snuggle around you, feel like a warm Spring day.

Cool Stones feel like cooling, flowing water, or a refreshing Autumn breeze.
Cold Stones feel like a summer drink with ice, or a clear Winter's morning.

Neutral room temperature feels supportively cool, like a welcome glass of water.

Heated temperatures feel reassuringly nurturing to the mind, deeply relaxing to the body.

Cold temperature is the most effective way to relieve physical muscular pain.

All the temperatures are at levels tailored to your own particular body and needs. Treatments are proportionately much more heat than cool, alternating temperatures bring the healing touch.

Amber has developed a subtle tailored use of the cold and no two treatments are alike. Amber runs 2 levels of gentle COOL for balance and comfort + 1 COLD temperature to help specific pain issues. One treatment may use some cold, another simply cool to balance the warmth. It depends upon you, your condition, general health, and even upon that day's weather.

Ambience styles of gentle cool stimulation used in Facial or energy treatments are like:
a soft breeze, a breath of fresh air, a gentle wind through the trees, two birds in flight. Abrupt temperature changes are avoided, gentle accommodation of cool is employed, since Amber has yet to treat any scrum hardened Rugby players, and instead treats women who don't need shocks. We live in a temperate Isle, and subtlety is in our nature.
The Stones are gently and smoothly brought into contact with your body.

Stimulating the body, but not overly so, your comfort is important

. . . and what are the temperatures?
an example:
Hot = 54C that's like a hot cup of tea. Cold = 4C like an iced summer drink.
These are some typical temperatures for an average person. Someone of better fitness would be given higher heat and colder cold. Someone with health issues would perhaps just hold two warm stones, and no de-toxifying cold at all. There are very many variations.

HEAT APPLICATION RELAXES with therapeutic benefits, e.g. increasing blood circulation to the muscles, reducing muscle stiffness, decreasing tension.

WARM APPLICATION COMFORTS - supporting you throughout your treatment.

COOL APPLICATION BALANCES the heat, thus preventing over-sedation.

COLD APPLICATION REDUCES PAIN - sudden acute pain welcomes cold temperature, encouraging blood flow away from the muscles, causing a decrease of pain, inflammation, swelling and encouraging detoxification of tissues, drawing toxins away from the muscles via the lymphatic system.

So you see that a wide and subtle range of temperature possibilities can be specifically selected.

This is not just Hot Stones. Hot-Stones-only imitations of this original therapy, are an incomplete thermo-therapy form. Use only heat and you will feel floppy, sedated; like going to a sauna, without the refreshing shower to close your pores afterwards, or like a hot meal without a cool drink.
Hot + warm + cool (+ cold for pain) together, is the most therapeutic, balanced way: Yin + Yang.

THE REASON FOR USING COLD: We are familiar with the comfort of heat, but not so aware of the benefits of Cold, e.g. COOL is delightfully refreshing for swollen ankles, during a Stones Pedicare in the heat of summer. COLD CAN INTERUPT THE PAIN - SPASM - PAIN CYCLE. We are familiar with seeing cold used in sports therapy, i.e. the ice pack around the rugby player's knee after a fall or impact, to reduce swelling. Cold smooth Marble stones are a more pleasant, less alarming way of gently reducing inflammation than ice. Cold is a powerful decongestant, pushing fluid and wastes out of overworked, chronically tense, or inflamed tissues. i.e. sudden, "acute" backache, from lifting with bad posture. Alternating heat and cold, dilates and constricts the blood vessels, causing vascular gymnastics to cleanse, detox and nourish the body. Toning, invigorating and strengthening many body systems, including the immune system.

Over-all, much more heat / warmth is used, than cool or cold.

About the Stones themselves:

Every treatment at the Stone Therapy Centre comes with
TEMPERATURES, VIBRATIONS and TOUCH conveyed by Stones.
By a single, smooth, serene crystal placed upon the brow in a facial, or
by 8 small, slim, warm basalt stones slipped between your toes in a pedi, or
by 80 basalt + marble + crystal stones in a full body treatment. What sort of Stones?

NATURAL BASALT VOLCANIC ROCK has a particularly dense structure + iron content
and so stores heat well. The various pebble stone shapes are tumbled by nature and water over thousands of years. Each unique stone is specially gathered from many volcanic areas of the world and are matched into similar pairs for massage use. The stones are accurately heated in a water heater, with an adjustable digital thermometer.

ORGANIC MARBLE is a fine grained, naturally cool rock at room temperature. 'Organic' due
to being formed from the shells of once living sea-creatures, under pressure, over time. The stone shapes are hand-crafted and polished for therapy use, as marble does not naturally tumble into pebble forms. They are cooled in an insulated water and ice container, like chilling champagne!

+ MANY OTHER CHAKRA and SPIRIT STONES unique to LaStone, in unusual colours, shapes, sizes, some opaque, some transparent, each has a purpose.
The Spirit Stones used for the Chakras represent, and indeed actually are, 'the spaces in between'. In Zen meditation, the focus does not lie in the awareness of the inhalation or the exhalation of breath, but in the gap in between the breaths; in the moments of perfect, effortless balance, stillness, peace. These Stones add meaning and energy balancing to your treatment.

Offering the very best we can: here at Ambience, unlike other Spas, Jojoba massage oil is used. It is simply the best for you; the goodness has not been refined out of the oil. The Stones are applied with professional expertise, as well as with caring approach, because mind without the heart is incomplete.

The result: you emerge from treatment relaxed, yet focused and re-energised. Amazingly, it's right here in Hertford, at a lower price than the big Spas,
you lucky things.

You don't know until you've tried it . . .
let the stones gracefully re-connect you to Nature . . .