Over the past few decades people have come to practice many alternative wellness regimens from outside of the realm of standard Western medicine. Instead of medication and surgery, people have turned to regular bodily maintenance and more natural remedies for their pains and ailments. Floatation fits perfectly into this category, offering a wide array of benefits in an all-natural therapy.
In modern society, acupuncture, yoga, massage, and other forms of bodywork have become accepted health regimens with dedicated practitioners and patients. From the recent surge in the industry, it seems as if floatation therapy is on a similar path, but hasn’t reached the widespread familiarity and acceptance of the others.
We get a lot of questions from people interested in adding a float tank to their current alternative wellness practice, as well as questions about the viability of starting an alternative wellness business which offers a variety of health regimens, float tanks included. It appears to be a definite trend in the industry to use float tanks in conjunction with other alternative wellness therapies, and we’d discuss a few potential benefits.
More Health Regimens. More Patients
Creating an alternative wellness community business allows for a wider draw of customers. Not only will these customers be interested in their therapy of choice, but they will likely be open minded, and potentially interested in trying other therapies you offer as well. Having the draw of more established therapies can be very beneficial for getting the word out about others such as float tanks.
Considering floatation therapy, a therapy which is definitely on the rise but still nowhere near as commonplace, an alternative wellness center is a way to increase your initial customer flow. If someone is coming in for physical pain and not having it entirely eliminated by massage or acupuncture, a float tank may help alleviate the pressure. Your suggestion of floatation therapy will be better received and more likely to gain you a new customer and floatation enthusiast.
A Hub for Alternative Wellness
By offering a variety of different health regimens, your alternative wellness center can also become a hub in the local community. If you establish yourself in various communities, you’ll soon make connections with practitioners and other local institutions which can prove beneficial to your business.
Not only will you be able to capitalize on the word-of-mouth marketing power of several different communities, but you’ll be ripe to establish yourself as the go-to spot for alternative therapies. Especially if you’re considering adding a retail element to your center, another opportunity to cultivate new customers (but we’ll discuss that on a later date).
Diversification Secures Customers
By offering combinations of alternative wellness therapies, especially mutually beneficial combinations such as float tanks and bodywork discussed below, your center can be a step-above other alternative wellness practitioners. Become the go-to spot for your customers by offering more and better services.
Returning customers are key. If your center offers more than one reason to come visit, then you will have a more secure relationship with that customer. Rarely do people see other specialists at different facilities when they can receive the same treatment at one location.
Better Bodywork, Happier Patients
We have heard many stories about the successes of combining float tanks with other alternative wellness regimens, but most notably are those from bodywork practitioners such as massage therapists.
If someone floats before a bodyworking session, their body is thoroughly relaxed before they lay on the massage table. This means that the regular “warm-up” period of a massage is unnecessary. Instead of spending time loosening up the body to a point where meaningful work can be done, the bodyworker is able to launch quickly into targeting the specific problem area or muscle group which is leading to the patient’s pain or discomfort.
From patients who float after a bodyworking session, we hear that the bodywork goes further, and discomfort is more thoroughly managed in between sessions. The dedicated healing period of a float tank, with increased circulation, relaxation, and decompression, allows the work to be naturally absorbed and integrated into the body, as opposed to being more immediately re-adjusted by the physical pressures of everyday life.
Existing float centers are beginning to call this strategy, “The Float/Massage Sandwich.”
A complete alternative wellness center is a business model that float tanks fit quite well into. If an alternative wellness center is already established, adding float tanks is a sustainable source of extra income, with the benefit of not requiring the hiring of extra practitioners.
Floatation therapy definitely has its own unique physical and mental benefits which can contribute to the overall success of a center, and that center can help to spread the word of the lesser-known floatation therapy.
Is your center currently (or planning on) offering more than one alternative therapy?
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