Spa Detox Treatments Detroit Day Spa
In several ways, De’Spa Elite in downtown Detroit is like any other spa, with offerings that include Swedish massages, facials and manicures.
Then again, it’s not.
Owner Carolyn Hopkins says its alternative therapies make the spa “unique in the way that it focuses with people to detoxify” their bodies. Such treatments include Tong Ren, which seeks to unblock interruptions to what’s believed to be the body’s flow of energy, and Raindrop Therapy, a massage of medicinal oils.
These methods may sound unorthodox, but practitioners say they have desirable effects.
Linda Kent, who does Tong Ren ($75 for 50 minutes) by pounding a magnetic hammer against a rubber doll at specific points while her clients sit or lie down and relax, says “energy medicine is the new medicine for this century.” The tapping supposedly transfers energy to her clients to help alleviate ailments like allergies.
Denise Purdy practices Raindrop Therapy ($75 for 50 minutes), which focuses on the feet and the spine and uses extracts from plants and herbs like cypress, wintergreen and marjoram.
Another therapy, foot detoxification ($45 per half-hour session), allegedly draws toxins out from the body through the feet.
Dr. Michael Seidman, medical director of wellness at the Henry Ford Health System, says the value of these alternative therapies is debatable.
“When you ask me, ‘Does it sound crazy?’ My answer is ‘Yes,’ ” says Seidman. “But my response is also that it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong just because we don’t understand it.”
Seidman adds that there could be a psychosomatic element, that “if you believe that you’re going to feel better and reduce your stress, then you probably will.”
Tracey Stevenson, 42, of Redford Township, recently visited the spa and soaked a foot in a tub of water infused with sea salt.
A flipped switch started an ionic charge that sent prickles through the water and tingles through Stevenson’s foot. As her foot soaked, the water turned from a hazy clear to a dusty orange to an inky, bubbly black.
The program, called Aqua-Chi, supposedly draws out toxins and material from the dermal layer of the skin. Changes in water colors are supposed to indicate the detoxification of different parts of the body, such as orange for the joints and black for the liver.
Stevenson says she wasn’t skeptical about the treatment, “just intrigued. I’ve spent time and money on the outside” of my body. “With this, I spend money on the inside.”
