Our legendary Spa Operations Manager, Harpreet Ghatora, shapes the wellbeing offering at our PIGs. Here, she chats about her holistic approach with Lucy Pike Bowyer, UK Sales Manager at VOYA.
A family-run business, VOYA harnesses the natural benefits of organic seaweed harvested off the Irish coast to create scrubs, body wraps and spa treatment products that we are proud to offer in our Potting Shed treatment huts and wagons.
LUCY: The partnership between VOYA and the PIGs feels to me like two businesses coming together with a shared vision. Both companies were created by families striving to make something exceptional, and both have the same values – sustainability and local sourcing – but also a belief in the power and beauty of nature and its surroundings.
HARPREET: Our treatment spaces are surrounded by beautiful countryside, medicinal herbs and animals in their natural environments, and in my experience that definitely makes a difference to wellbeing. The PIGs also have the cosiest treatment rooms, made with reclaimed wood – an environment that also supports me as a therapist. To deliver the best treatments, therapists want to feel grounded and balanced. And speaking of treatments, let’s talk about seaweed …
LPB: Always a good idea.
HG: One of the reasons we use VOYA products is the power of seaweed for wellbeing.
LPB: VOYA has grown from the Irish wellness tradition of seaweed bathing, which dates back hundreds of years. The benefits of seaweed are phenomenal. From Laminaria digitata seaweed, we can stimulate the production of type 1 collagen within our skin, for example. Then there’s the phenomenal antioxidant power of seaweed to help fight free-radical damage. Historically, it’s been used to help skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and acne, but also to address physical and mental fatigue, because seaweed can help to stimulate the lymphatic and circulation systems.
HG: I grew up in a household that believed in treating and healing the body, mind and spirit holistically. Massage and bodywork are very much part of Indian culture. When I was younger, people would often come to the house to ask my father or mother to help treat their ailments, whether physical, mental or spiritual. As a child, I remember being fascinated by that.
LPB: It sounds like that was formative for your approach to wellness today. How would you define a holistic approach to health?
HG: Holistic health is nothing more than the concept that the body, mind and spirit should be considered as a complete organism – the health or sickness of each individual part affects the whole. So, instead of using medicine to target specific areas or functions of the body, holistic medicine aims to improve the health of the entire system.
LPB: Since the Covid-19 pandemic, at VOYA we’ve noticed more clients coming to us with the sense of our spa and wellbeing treatments being something they are doing for their mental as well as physical wellbeing. The first product we launched, back in 2006, was our Lazy Days seaweed bath, and that’s one that people can use at home. But in the post pandemic period, we’re seeing a lot of people who want to return to in-person treatments.
HG: When it comes to in-person treatments, the power of touch and connection is the single most important aspect. My approach is to treat your guest and their body with love, respect and care. If, as therapists, we can maintain a sense of curiosity about the body, this helps shape massage technique and ensures every treatment is bespoke to each guest.
LPG: We love that the PIGs take an individual approach to every guest. Our drive at VOYA is to continue to help create those amazing experiences. That’s what we think about when we look forwards, and we do that by building on hundreds of years of proven traditional wellness treatments. So, it’s also about honouring the past.
HG: Absolutely. The power of touch and connection with other human beings can convey comfort, empathy and compassion. At the PIGs we are all about being homegrown, authentic and real.
Try VOYA products whenever you book a treatment at one of our PIGs.
