Healing Hands brings together wellness services

A mother-daughter duo has created a haven for health and wellness services that coexist under the banner of Healing Hands.

In November 1996, April Wilkie opened Healing Hands Massage Therapy and Skin Care. Two years later, her mother, Sharon Johansson, opened Healing Hands Herbal Body Treatment and Skin Care.

While the two operate under the Healing Hands umbrella and in the same building, they are not, strictly speaking, in business together.

Wilkie and Johansson operate their businesses independently, keeping their finances separate. They each have their own client base - though they often treat one another's clients - and keep separate business phone lines.

In August 2008, they moved to their third location, at 4145-G S. McCann Court. "We've been very blessed, because each time we made a move, it's been because we've just outgrown a space," Johansson said.

The latest move saw the addition of two care providers - massage therapist Amy Wilson and nail specialist Lenka Hales - who also operate their businesses independently.

"We're like four individual owners of our own businesses, but Healing Hands is the umbrella we work under," Johansson said.

Restorative therapy

Healing Hands offers a wide variety of skin and beauty treatments - massages, facials, manicures, herbal body wraps, makeup, a steam cabinet and, Johansson's latest investment, an Elixir Therapy Full-Body Rejuvenator, the LXR.

The LXR, which resembles a cedar steam sauna, employs the use of medical-grade, far-infrared rays to rejuvenate the body, according to Johansson.

The far-infrared rays heat the body in a manner similar to a steam sauna, but without the humidity. The rays also penetrate more deeply into tissue, up to 1.5 inches, according to literature provided by the manufacturer. When the body is heated, the cardiovascular system is stimulated, tissues relax and a host of other physiological responses happen.

"Any kind of skin condition is very positively impacted by this," Johansson said. "If you have an injury, it's going to help your recovery time (and) it's going to address and help any kind of chronic pain" such as fibromyalgia or arthritis.

And there's an added bonus: While in the box, users are burning calories.

While it may sound too good to be true, plenty of research has been done on what happens to the body when it sweats. The more sweat, the more calories burned.

After a 30-minute session, "You say, 'Oh my gosh, I haven't moved like this in forever.' And the kicker is the calories. I mean, who doesn't want that?" said Johansson, who said she's lost 23 pounds since she bought the LXR in April 2008.

She also sells the Elixir systems, with prices ranging from $3,900 to $4,595.

Shellye Stevenson, who has been a client of Johansson's since the late 1990s, was so impressed by the LXR that she bought one for herself.

"When you get in it, the temperature is fairly warm and it just increases," Stevenson said. "You do sweat. I've done some pretty strenuous gym classes ... and I've never sweated like this in any other sauna or anything I've been in."

Even her husband is hooked, she added, noting, "He's not that kind of person. He doesn't do massages. He's a manly man ... (but) in the mornings, he'll say, I'm going to get in the box."

Stopping stress

Despite investing in the LXR, Stevenson still sees Johansson every three weeks for reflexology, massages and facials.

"I don't know what the woman has, but she has some trait where you feel all of your troubles are gone," she said. "It's like the best chocolate."

Other services available at Healing Hands include lash and brow tinting and waxing; whole-body massage; Champissage Indian head massage; poultice therapy and makeup application.

Loyal clients such as Stevenson have kept Healing Hands growing, Johansson said.

And despite recent economic turbulence, Wilkie said business remains strong.

"The same thing happened with 9/11," Wilkie said.

"Everybody just panicked and the stock market crashed and it's like, oh my goodness, I am not a necessity. But I found myself busier than ever because people had to have that stress relief."This story has been corrected. It originally stated that the business opened in November 2006. It also referred to the business as Healing Hands Herbal Body and Skin Care.