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HoneyBamboo

Hot Stone Massage

Feel your stress and tension melt away with a hot stone massage. During the massage, twenty natural stones are heated in a special water basin and then placed on your body's energy centres. The warmth that emanates from these special stones helps loosen up your muscles and relax your body.

The sensual, second half of this massage consists of soft, attentive stroking movements and gentle, tender caresses all over your body – in particular, your erogenous zones – and culminates in a stimulating massage of your genital area. Here, we use our imaginative and varied bodywork technique based on Far Eastern principles to provide you with maximum pleasure.  

Indulgence sessions and prices 

90 MinutesCHF 370.-Euro daily rate
120 MinutesCHF 470.-Euro daily rate

Appointment

Contact us daily from 09:45 - 24:00

+41 44 202 23 40 office@andana.ch

Products and ambiance

The hot stone massage is performed using oil on a massage table.

 

More information

As the name implies, stones are heated and placed as heat sources on the body. The aim is to release muscle tension in the body with the absorbed warmth. There are similarities between hot stone massage and some elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but its origins can also be traced to the Asia-Pacific region and America.

Hot stone massage enjoys great popularity among spa treatments. Humans have always had a positive association with warmth. The touch of warm hands, bathing in warm water, or a massage with hot stones – all this is freeing, induces deep relaxation and brings new vitality into daily life. In some practices of hot stone massage, the stones are placed on the body and remain there, while they may be used for active massage movements in others.

Using warmth to heal

Although hot stone massage is used primarily for relaxation and well-being, it also has a therapeutic function. Applying heat to specific points positively stimulates muscles, tendons, bones and organs. There is a form of acupuncture in Traditional Chinese Medicine known as moxibustion. A moxa cigar (made from dried mugwort) is lit and held over certain points of the patient's meridian system. Depending on the way it is angled, energy flow either in- or decreases. Moxibustion is used to resolve blockages within the body.

Other forms of moxibustion that are very similar to hot stone massage involve the use of moxa cones. These are lit and placed on the patient's body. The cones are moved as soon as the patient experiences a feeling of heat. Moxa patches are also used. These generate heat through sticky medicinal herbs. It is not known if hot stone massage is related to moxibustion because folk medicine goes back to time immemorial, and applying hot objects to the human body is a traditional practice in virtually all cultures.

Hot stone massage in practice

There are several variants of hot stone massage, for which we use the hot and cold stones obsidian and onyx (gemstones) by Germaine de Capuccini. For the most typical one, the client positions him/herself on top of some of the stones while others are placed on his or her body. The massage is then carried out with yet more stones. Stones are especially suitable for friction. This is therefore the predominant movement. Particularly hard knotted muscles are usually treated by light to moderate tapping of the affected area with a stone. The stone positioned on the body is struck by a second one. This strike generates vibrations which penetrate into the body where they produce their releasing effect. Both the heat and the massage movements relax the muscles and stimulate the nervous system. This works best when hot and cold stones are used in equal measure. We therefore prefer to no longer talk about hot stone massage but refer to it as hot & cold stone massage.

The sharp contrast between hot and cold is used in many naturopathic approaches to provoke certain reactions in the body. The most well-known application is probably Kneipp hydrotherapy. Usually, patients immerse their limbs in cold water but there are also some applications where both hot and cold water is used. Massage with hot and cold stones primarily stimulates the autonomic nervous system. This is a special feature of hot stone/hot & cold stone massage because the autonomic nervous system cannot be controlled by the conscious mind, i.e. the will. The massage can achieve this however, and thus also reach the deeper regions of the body. The healing effects include improved circulation, deep relaxation, improved lymph flow and stimulation of the metabolism within the tissues. Massage with hot and cold stones is particularly helpful for stress, insomnia, circulatory disorders, digestive problems and headaches. Colds, lethargy and gynaecological problems are also typical areas of application.