Utopia Day Spa brings salt cave experience to area

About 1,000 miles separates Medford from the salt breezes and soothing sounds of warm ocean waves.

With the opening of the area’s first salt cave, Utopia Day Spa is bridging that distance and bringing an additional spa therapy opportunity to the Medford community.

Utopia owner Emily Balsis explained there are area spas that utilize the benefits of halotherapy (salt therapy) in salt booths. Halotherapy involves breathing in air with tiny salt particles to improve your breathing. This is done with a device called a halo generator which finely crushes Himalayan salt and disperses the particles into the room.

Utopia is the first true salt cave experience in the area with the nearest similar experiences in Stevens Point and Appleton. In salt caves the walls are plastered with a special salt blend, and the floor is covered in hundreds of pounds of crushed salt in a variety of coarseness that has the texture and feel of walking on a sandy beach. Salt blocks and larger rocks also contribute to the cave atmosphere with subdued lighting and the playing of recordings of ocean waves making for a relaxing time.

A standard session in the salt cave last about 45 minutes. People are invited to sit and relax. Balsis notes that some people even lay down on the sand-like salt on the floor as if they were on a beach.

Unlike other salt caves which are communal in nature with the potential for multiple users at one time, the one at Utopia is a private experience for an individual or a small group who reserves it for a set period of time.

What people do while in the salt cave is up to them, within reason, of course. Balsis notes that at any time the staff may open the door to check on the people inside.

A popular activity in the room has been just laying back and relaxing or even napping.

Balsis explained that over the past few years she has had clients that have gone to spas in other states and have told her about it. “They said if you ever get a salt cave here I’ll be there every day,” she said.

Balsis said at the time that it didn’t seem like a possibility, but the idea has grown over the pst two to three years as she looked at other spa services she could bring to Medford.

She said she decided to go all-in on a full salt cave based in part for aesthetics of the space in addition to the halotherapy aspect. Halotherapy is considered an alternative treatment for lung problems such as asthma, bronchitis, and cough and the therapy also has been shown to have benefits for some skin conditions and allergies.

“I feel like a lot of the relaxation is the feeling of being on the beach. Hearing that and having the salt on your feet and all on the walls. You get the same benefits from both. However, I wanted more of the atmosphere of the salt cave,” she said.

Halotherapy has been around for a long time, dating back hundreds of years to when people would intentionally visit salt mines to breath in the air.

“They discovered that all these people working in these mines were so healthy. So that's how they started designing and making salt caves,” she said.

While assisting with breathing, Balsis said she has found the salt cave has other benefits including helping with improving the quality of sleep. She notes that with five children at home she often does not sleep deeply. However since putting the cave in at Utopia and spending time in it she has found the quality of her sleep has improved.

The salt cave experience is for anyone of any age with clients from six months of age to senior citizens. Younger people in the room must be with a parent and supervised. Balsis said from the youngster they will have buckets and shovels and sand sifters they can play with, just like they are spending a day at the beach.

“My favorite place is the beach,” Balsis said, noting that in addition to the salt in the air, the negative ions in the salt help her feel recharged and refreshed and improves her mood.

Balsis, with the help of her family, did the work of building the salt cave at Utopia. She explained that before she began she did a lot of research into doing it correctly. She said that while there are specialized contractors who install these types of rooms, she felt confident they could get it done.

The most challenging part she said was in getting the slurry mixture correct to adhere to the walls without sliding off. The key, she said, is using the right type of salt for the job. The texture of the wall was created by Balsis taking handfuls of the salt mixture and literally throwing it against the wall where it would stick and dry. She said she spent a total of 32 hours putting the salt on the walls.

She used the salt blocks to build a mantle and provided framing by the door to keep the course ground salt from being tracked into the rest of the spa. She estimated that she used 25 50-pound bags of salt for just the walls. There were another 30 44-pound bags of crushed salt for the floor. Altogether that is 2,570 pounds of salt, not including the salt blocks and rocks. “As far as those bricks, those things are heavy,” she said.

While she asks people not to lick the surfaces, she noted that all the salt used in the cave is food grade and safe.

Balsis said the reception since opening the salt cave has been positive with people booking it for themselves, their families and even a group of women who are planning on having a meeting there.

Balsis said the price for a 45-minute session goes down if it is booked at the same time as a massage. She also noted that the parent or adult is free when a child ages six months to 12 years old is using the room.

She said she wanted to make it as easy as possible for everybody to benefit from it.