If you’ve ever had a massage, you’ll know how good it can make you feel. Tension will drain away as muscles relax and you’ll feel refreshed and invigorated.

So which massage should you choose? LaStone with its hot and cold stones is much more than a massage - it’s a total body and mind experience.

Alternating hot basalt and cold marble stones are applied to the body using techniques adapted from traditional Zen philosophies and Native American rituals.

The combined use of heat and cold in one treatment gives a deep penetrating effect that triggers a deep healing mechanism. It’s a proven method that’s been used across the centuries for its profound effects.

The use of alternating temperature produces benefits up to four times faster than a conventional deep tissue massage, but without the discomfort.

The concept is relatively new and was created by US therapist Mary Nelson in 1993.

Stone massage was first practised in the US by the American Indians, but LaStone goes much further. The basalt and marble stones are used to send hot and cold “messages” to the body. This “vascular gymnastics” for the circulatory system greatly assists the body’s self-healing process.

LaStone uses its alternating temperatures to bring about both healing and rejuvenation. It helps balance all levels of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies, and can unlock forgotten emotions and memories so that they can be acknowledged and dealt with.

This is why you experience a range of alternating sedative and energising feelings. There is also a potent charge that’s apparent during the treatment and the end of the treatment you are left in a deep reverie or meditative state.

The therapy can be used to achieve several different goals. All LaStone therapists use hot and cold stones, but the way they are incorporated into treatments will vary.

Energy therapists will focus on using the stones to stimulate the body’s main energy points, while spa therapists will work on pampering the whole body.

The latest LaStone Science techniques now focus on the physical body, and it’s planned to introduce this specific therapy into mainstream physiotherapy.

“We can give an overall balancing relaxing treatment, or work with specific symptoms ranging from stress to multiple sclerosis to sport injuries” says Debbie Thomas, UK’s director of LaStone Therapy.

We tried LaStone at Champneys five or six years ago, and again last month (click here to read the article). Both times the treatment was amazing.

We can also recommend local LaStone practitioners Janis at Al Shunnar Medi Spa in Jumeirah, Dubai, Tel: 04 3953033 or email janis_m_j@hotmail.com, and Isobel at StressAway Life Solutions, Dubai, Tel: 050 4506524 or email isobel_markos@yahoo.co.uk

Stop press: Look out for a new reflexology-based treatment called Stone Sole, just launched in UK.