I was recently interviewed for a blog article by my friends at Spa Developments , a global spa consulting and design firm. Since I’m traveling in Asia and haven’t had time to write an article for this week, I thought I would publish this interview and give TPOW readers a chance to get to know […]
I am proud to welcome Sara Firman, BSc. MPhil. LMT, to The Psychology of Wellbeing. She is an independent spa therapist, consultant and writer who shares a her wonderful perspective on spa culture on her Vision Spa Retreat blog. Her unique perspective comes from working in clinical, spa and private settings as both a therapist and a manager in […]
I am so excited to welcome Marcello Spinella, Ph.D. as a guest blogger on The Psychology of Wellbeing. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. I have come to know, admire and respect him for his incredibly knowledgeable and insightful postings on the “Friends of Positive Psychology” […]
Good news for the spa industry: The science of touch is exploding. Through my own work in the spa world, I’ve always been an advocate of getting more science to support the work of healing through touch. Previously on this blog, I’ve had articles about the effects of massage on health (see “Get Thee to […]
I was recently invited to speak at a symposium on “Redefining the American Spa Experience” for the Washington Spa Alliance, an impressive group of spa and wellness professionals in our nation’s capital. The theme of the day seemed to be exploring the relationship that spas have with science. I tried to contribute to the dialogue […]
It was the first week of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology graduate school program at University of Pennsylvania when I met George Vaillant, who would be one of our guest lecturers. I was excited to meet him because, working in the spa industry, I was a big fan of his book “Aging Well,” a […]
This special Friday edition of The Psychology of Wellbeing features an essay by Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California Berkeley, that originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center– Dacher Keltner is its executive editor. In this article (and the accompanying video,) Keltner elaborates on […]
Recently a group of MAPP alumni gathered at University of Pennsylvania, to hear the latest and greatest updates on Positive Psychology from Martin Seligman, the Director of the University’s Positive Psychology Center. I was particularly excited to hear him talk about the progress in discussions on “Positive Health” being funded by a $2.8 million grant […]
Susie Ellis on Susie’s Spa Blog last week called to my attention a new research study which is to be published this month in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine entitled “A Preliminary Study of the Effects of a Single Session of Swedish Massage on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal and Immune Function in Normal Individuals.” The study […]
My colleagues in the spa industry sometimes ask me why I focus so much on the science of psychology. In fact, people often assume that if I am studying psychology I must be preparing myself to leave the world of spas. The connection between spas and psychology does not seem to be clear at first […]
