What

What
does it mean to be truly “well”? Exploring the
all-too-often nebulous concept of holistic health, our monthly
Wellness Edit is an honest deep-dive into the wide world of
wellbeing. From intuitive bodyworkers to skin therapists and
shamanic healers, we’ll meet the health gurus leading the
vanguard.

In the first of our series, we explore Grey Wolfe’s signature
face and body treatment – a mental and physical reboot involving
breathwork, body mapping, energy healing and massage for a
360-degree health overhaul.

The big reset: crystals, breathwork and body mapping with Grey
Wolfe, London

The Treatment

Grey Wolfe Signature Face and Body.

The Concept

Grey Wolfe was dreamed up by friends and wellness experts Sinéad
Johnson and Sarah Jones with the intention of approaching wellbeing
by addressing the body, mind and spirit as a whole.

Built around touch, the brand’s Signature Face and Body
treatment incorporates breathwork, visualisation, crystals, body
mapping and energy work to reset, energise and restore mental and
physical balance.

The Lowdown

As a recent convert to alternative medicine, I feel a bit like a
child in a sweet shop as I scroll through my Grey Wolfe treatment
confirmation email. Phrases like “energy flow”, “chakra balancing”
and “smudging ceremony” sing out to me theatrically from the
screen. “We’ll fix you!” they cry in chorus; a choir of healers
who’ve come to mend me at last. Not long ago I would have scoffed
at these buzzwords, but a chronic pain issue I’ve suffered with
intermittently for years has recently come back with a vengeance,
and I’m ready to try anything.

The weekend before my treatment I’m sent a rigorous
questionnaire to complete, which feels more like a mental health
survey than anything I’ve ever filled out for a spa before.
Questions like “how do you feel emotionally?” make me feel cared
for, if a little taken aback. “Isn’t this meant to be a fancy
massage?” I mutter to myself as I diligently fill in my
answers.

A week passes and I arrive at Grey Wolfe, a haven of polished
concrete on a quiet corner in Barnes. Stepping inside feels a bit
like letting out a gentle sigh; I feel faintly lighter, as though
I’ve shaken off a layer from the outside. My therapist, Carmela,
greets me with warmth and glides me down a corridor to our
treatment room, where I promptly take off my shoes and collapse
onto the bed, ready to be fixed.

“Before you lie down, let’s have a quick chat,” she smiles. I
roll myself back up sheepishly, and we talk through my routine, how
I’m feeling and what I’m looking for. As I open up, I realise it’s
probably the lengthiest conversation I’ve had about my general
wellbeing in months.

Suitably unravelled, I’m invited to lie back down on the bed on
my stomach, face in a hole in the table. “We’ll start with some
breathwork,” Carmela says softly, counting slowly as I breathe in
and out for a minute or two. “Now close your eyes.” I smell a faint
scent waft in and out from below the massage table as I relax into
the bed: Carmela is holding a softly smoking bundle of herbs as she
drifts around the room. “Ah, the smudging ceremony,” I make a
mental note, ticking it off my “wellness checklist” proudly.

Next, she moves her hands gently across me from head to toe,
half hovering, half gliding over my skin as she begins to “map” my
body. “You feel out of balance,” she asserts. I nod my head
furiously from inside my hole. Over the next hour, I float in and
out of sleep as Carmela massages my tired limbs, occasionally
balancing a crystal on my forehead or chest.

When she wakes me, I feel cartoonishly renewed, like a butterfly
emerging from a chrysalis. Physically reset, yes, but also mentally
restored. As I gather myself back together slowly, Carmela hands me
a herbal infusion and looks me dead in the eye: “You need to dance
more,” she laughs. I nod again, and she glides me back out of the
room.

The Verdict

This is a total reset for frazzled minds and bodies, and the
ideal treatment for a 360-degree overhaul.