August 25, 2006

 Cygalle Healing Spa, the latest venture of Cygalle Dias, is a mobile healing sanctuary that resided in the Hampton’s for most of the summer.  Called “an elixir for the psyche” this traveling spa combines the best ancient methods with the most modern in the field. Eastern and Western approaches are melded, and master healers offer clarity of mind, revival of spirit, and relief from a hectic schedule. Cygalle Healing Spa recently made an appearance at the Jaguar Cain Estate in South Hampton. Offering a taste of what they will soon bring to a permanent location in Manhattan, at a sanctuary that is under development. In the meantime, Cygalle and her group will move to New York City for Fashion Week, in addition to plans for traveling to other prestigious events around the globe. Ms. Dias calls it a “sanctuary for influential individuals”.

Under the direction of Ms. Dias, who is known for transforming spaces to promote health, wellness and beauty, the healing spa promises not only better health but a sense of well-being with a plethora of soothing treatments and cutting-edge techniques. The palette of luxurious serves includes Massage (Phenomenal Touch Spa Massage, Stimulating Shiatsu, and 3D Hot Stone Massage); Healing Treatments (Mermaid Sea and Hot Herbal Wraps), and Body Scrubs and Exfoliations (Aztec Scrub and the Dead Sea Exfoliation). The Spa also offers natural remedies of the purest and finest ingredients, as well as lifestyle coaching and holistic education classes through its international network of renowned teachers, specialists and practitioners.

Robin Feman and I had the chance to sample some of these services recently. If you have the opportunity to experience a treatment with any of Cygalle s healing hands, here’s why you don’t want to miss it. 

My work was done with Leslie Bruder. Through a ten-year evolution into what she now calls Phenomenal Touch Massage, Leslie has invented a new way of touching that surpasses the ordinary.

So often a massage is a great disappointment—shallow, uninspired, easily forgotten. But my experience of this innovative technique with the Master Toucher herself was more than memorable. Leslie’s method, in which she is training a staff of practitioners at Cygalle Healing Spa, is a revolutionary approach that transcends the arbitrary boundaries of the physical body. Unlike most massage, Phenomenal Touch Massage approaches the body as a three-dimensional entity. Rather than working on compartmentalized sections of the body, Leslie’s method enables the therapist to move the client’s body in space, utilizing fulcrums, shortened muscle techniques and by confusing muscle tension into release. Using hands on all sides of the body, as well as draping dropping parts over her, she enters a dance of reciprocity with her clients.

Leslie at work

Phenomenal Touch Massage relies on gravity rather than strength to gain depth when penetrating a muscle. Instead of pushing the thumb into a client’s neck, for example, the head is lifted and slowly lowered over the anchored thumb, offering a less labor intensive or painful healing process. Immediately, as Leslie began her work, my mind began to wander from the immediate and visceral realm into a humming serenity. Using her hands, her arms, elbows, even her legs, Leslie was able to find an organic rhythm and fluidity of movement. She compares the method to “being the wave.” The effect is mind-boggling. 

As a result of the all-inclusive touch approach, I lost track of all physical boundaries. Rather than feeling her two hands, you feel she is everywhere all at once. As she described it, the body becomes an undulating piece of seaweed in a great ocean. This is true – I actually felt immersed in water.

“I hope you have no plans,” Leslie said before we began.

“Why, will this hurt?” I asked, a bit apprehensive due to a somewhat catastrophic massage experience I had no so long ago.

“No,” she laughed. “You will be so relaxed that you might not be able to move later.”

She was right. For two days after the massage, my body reached a new level of agility. With heightened flexibility, a sense of movement, a person should experiment, finding new positions and an increased range of motion. I even did some impressive late-night dancing.

Robin, at the same time, worked with Nancy, who offered a more traditional approach to healing. Robin had been suffering pain in her shoulder and elbow, most likely due to repetitive motion with her mouse and computer, and some pain in her foot caused by her new jogging habit. Nancy picked up on these sore spots immediately, without being told, but instead listening to the signals that Robin’s body was sending. She gently “snapped” the elbow back into place and it has been free of pain ever since. Nancy also asked if Robin had recently injured or even broken her right foot since it was so aggravated and strained. The tensions there too melted away and have yet to return. Robin commented that the brain has a wonderful way of making humans forget pain – after her massage, she could only remember feeling as fluid and relaxed as she was at that moment and could barely recall the exhaustion and tightness of her pre-Cygalle Spa day.

--Julia Nasser