Lincolnshire will be the first place in the country to offer a retreat where people can undertake somatic mindfulness and movement while being surrounded by salt.
Blending two forms of therapy to support and improve health and wellbeing, the retreat is based in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, and was launched this April.
Charlotte Swash, a somatic mindfulness therapist and owner of Mindful Awakening Therapies, said: “There is no one in the whole country doing what I do in the salt room, which is the somatic mindfulness, and the movement, and the guided meditation, and everything.”
Somatic therapy is what Swash calls an “umbrella” term for multiple body-based approaches to therapy, including meditation, mindful movement, breathwork and massage.
This holistic approach is combined with halotherapy, also known as salt therapy, which involves breathing in dry salt to increase lung capacity and support a variety of health conditions.
Although a complimentary therapy to other forms of treatment, the salt room improves respiratory conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema, skin conditions like eczema, sleep disorders and athletic recovery.
In one recent case, Swash said, a 13-year-old boy with asthma was treated in the salt room to improve his health.
She said: “Within an hour, I could see his ankles, I could see the backs of his knees, like all the inflammation in his body had just completely gone out of him. It was incredible.”
While there are salt rooms across the UK, this Lincolnshire-based retreat is the only one combining these therapies.
